Abstract
Science, technology, engineering and mathematics
education for high school learners in developing countries is a
challenge for two significant reasons: equipment for education is
expensive and complex, and economically-marginalized youth must
be integrated in pre-engineering programs to prepare them for
technical programmes at university. The goal of establishing
AfrikaBot is to prepare high school learners to study engineering at
the University of Johannesburg; thus to train teenagers from
disadvantaged communities with no prior experience in STEM to
participate in a challenge to build and program a robot. Also,
AfrikaBot aims to equip teenagers from low-income households with
technology and entrepreneurial skills in a repressed economy.
AfrikaBot achieves the above with a build-it-yourself robot that can
be used after the competition to invent systems with real world
applications. Anticipated long-term outcomes of the AfrikaBot
program will influence the structure of future robotics challenges,
and promote a higher number of technical candidates from
marginalized communities. By transferring enabling technology
skills in a fun and engaging way, participants will rapidly build the
confidence to pursue careers in STEM fields. Participants can also
acquire entrepreneurial skills that may lead to the establishment of
new businesses and the creation of local jobs in both the formal and
informal sectors in Africa. This paper presents the organizational
and physical design of AfrikaBot, a robotics challenge that will be
held in the latter half of 2016.