Akenten Appiah-Menka University inaugurates robotic and innovation lab

The Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (AAMUSTED), has inaugurated a Robotic and Innovation Laboratory (RIL). The $ 20,000.00 laboratory, which was set up through the support of STEMpower Incorporated, an Ethiopian-based engineering and technology company, is part of efforts by the university to position itself as a fertile ground to energize Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in the country. Professor Fredrick Kwaku Sarfo, Vice Chancellor of AAMUSTED, in an address read for him at the ceremony, said with the establishment of the RIL, the university was in the position to train students to acquire robotic and Artificial Intelligence (AI) competencies, that were necessary to investigate and engineer a practical solution to problems facing the country. 'This milestone positions the university as an important next step for all basic and secondary school students pursuing STEM edu cation in Ghana. The RIL will help support all the trainees and graduates from STEM programmes and model schools, once they decide to pursue these programmes at the tertiary level', he said. He said the university had already begun exploring the possibility of collaborating with some of the STEM model senior high schools so they could take advantage of its expertise and facilities to boost the training at the SHS level. Prof Sarfo said the university would soon complete the construction of an entrepreneurial and business incubation centre to energize, empower, direct and support business creation, invention and innovation among students and nurse business ideas towards new startups to boost job creation in the country. He said the university would continue to work hard, explore avenues and pursue interests that would support the government's agenda on TVET and STEM for the desired industrialization and development of the country. Professor Sarfo thanked STEMpower for the assistance and said it would help support the achievement of the mandate of the university. Mr Yohannes Bogale Fentie, an IT Engineer of STEMpower, said for more than a decade, STEMpower had been implementing many successful science, technology, engineering and mathematics projects in Ethiopia and nearby countries. He said hands-on lab-based education emphasized real-world problem-solving, creativity and skills-building, empowering the youth to engineer their homeland away from poverty. Mr Fentie said engineering skills complete a country's production value chain, which leads to more exports, and fewer imports, while reducing dependency, adding that, pre-university STEM enrichment enhances education, competency, innovation and career on a national scale. He said STEMpower had established 124 STEM centres in 20 African countries and the one which had been established at AAMUSTED, was the 125th and the first in Ghana. Source: Ghana News Agency