Riara Springs Girls High School are the winners of the Inspire Robotics Challenge organized by Stemtrix East Africa, Nairobi Edition.
The competition that attracted 19 schools from the region saw ‘Nanobytes’ a group from Riara Springs emerge victorious after their robotics game and project on food and food security collected the most points.
Speaking after collecting their awards, the girls were elated to beat boy-schools who had enrolled in the competition and stressed on how robotics had made it fun for them to learn STEM subjects and consequently emerged winners in the competition.
Angel Ahadi the team leader paid tribute to the role that their teachers had played in preparing them for the competition.
‘’Our teachers were the biggest help. I believe if they hadn’t pushed us forward, we wouldn’t have been able to achieve this,”
she said.
Their project which captivated the judges was on coming up with an app that allowed farmers to easily communicate and interact with each other as well as experts to make it easy to share ideas and call for help whenever faced with challenges.
Yvonne Maina also praised the role that Robotics played in making the learning of STEM subjects exciting while promising to work hard in the next round of the competition so as to represent Kenya on the international Stage.
“We sacrificed a lot as a team to get to this point. Our hope is to go international because all of us have worked hard to get these trophies so our hope is to go International to represent our country.’’
She added with her team members agreeing in unison.
Efesa Ali the main judge for the projects that the students presented commended the participants for the creativity they showcased in the competition. She added that she was elated that the future of food security was a conversation that young people in the country have picked at a time when governments are struggling to feed their populations world over.
“We looked at two spectra, one being the project itself and the other being core values. In terms of the project we looked at the problem statement, the solution, the research, the data and under core values we wanted to see if they were working as a team and if everyone was involved in the project.’’
Efesa added.
Secretary General Internet Society of Kenya Mr. Apudo Hawi stressed on the importance of such competitions in the curriculum which according to him challenged the students to innovate and harness their core values to come up with solutions to current world challenges.
‘’This is everything because students go into deeper thinking, they look at issues of systems and engineering and how they connect with different Sciences which is why we have seen them present answer questions on food nutrition and safety which are complex issues which I believe can be solved in STEM and school that’s why Coding is important and Robotics is what solves this’’
he said.
Stemtrix Director Christine Achieng’ while reveling in the success of the competition reiterated her satisfaction at seeing youth coming up with creative ways to solve food and nutrition challenges within the Nairobi area.
‘’And so with this we were trying to find solutions to why we have issues when it comes to food cost and even when is food so expensive, why are people going hungry? I am happy that we have seen beautiful innovations coming from the students all over coming up with solutions to our food problems.’’
she noted.
Christine while highlighting the importance of the competition indicated how the edition helped the students learn through the various projects that they undertook by exposing them to mentors and people within the industry to come up with solutions on current challenges. She further added that robotics completed the puzzle by presenting ways in which their solutions can be implemented on the ground level.
“I am happy that it is the girls carrying the day. They have shown us real fight and determination in an industry that is heavily male dominated. I am so proud of each member of the Riara Group’’
Christine praised the Girls for emerging winners.
Riara Springs will now advance to the regional stage where they will go head to head with their peers from the region from where they will get a chance to represent Kenya internationally.
