MIT Students turn Pupi|ls into 'whiz kids'

The 35 secondary school pupils who participated in the Exposure Robotics Challenge competition at the Grange School, Ikeja last Saturday will forever be grateful to their mentors, seven Nigerian students studying at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States for turning them into computer whiz kids.

Five weeks ago, the pupils, drawn from public and private secondary schools across Nigeria and Ghana, did not even know how to use the computer. But last Saturday, they had to use the programs they wrote to control robots they built to carry out specific tasks in four stages of the competition.

The pupils were divided into 12 teams of three for the robotic contest which had the ordinary, amateur, tournament and championship stages. In the first stage, the teams had to use the computer programs to operate the robots to transport stationary balls to a designated location and return to their bases. They were given six minutes to complete the task.

At the end of the first stage, four teams lost out, leaving eight of them to proceed to the amateur stage, which was more challenging than the previous stage. Four teams qualified from that stage for the semi-final challenge (tournament stage).

Team BEM's robot moved three balls to designated location and returned to its initial position within two minutes of the semi-final contest, leaving VIA team's robot moving without direction. At the end of the challenge, BEM and Android qualified for the championship stage which was the final lap. However, Android team, made up of Ben Akuagbonwu, SSS 2 pupil of Okogwu Memorial Grammar School, Nnewi, Jemimah Osunde, SSS 3 pupil of Holy Child College, Lagos and Alex Agadaga, SSS 2 pupil of Belary Schools, Bayelsa State, won the contest. 

They were rewarded with new Compaq laptops, medals and plaques by sponsors, Shell Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Interswitch Limited and First Bank of Nigeria.

A member of the winning team, Jemimah, said the task seemed unachievable when she arrived for the challenge. 

"It was tasking because I felt how could coded computer program move a physical object not to talk of something we built ourselves? When we started, I was convinced that it would work and now, my team wins the challenge," she said, adding that she would improve on the skills she acquired from the programme. 

Speaking at the event, the Operation Readiness and Assurance Manager of SPDC, Mr Okay Onuoha, who represented the Managing Director of the Multinational, commended the MIT students for their foresight, describing them as Nigeria's shining light. He said SPDC sponsored the competition to support technology-driven education in Nigeria. 

"It is instructive to note that all the pupils that participated in the contest could not use computer prior to the programme. But after about five weeks of training, we can all see that they all have written different computer programs to control the robots they built. This is the kind of education we at the Shell want to give Nigerian students and we are glad that we are part of this programme," Onuoha said.

"The skills the pupils learned from operating the robots could be used to solve problems in Nigeria's economy, politics and technology," said Babafemi Ogungbamila, Divisional Head, Techquest, Interswitch, who spoke on behalf of the company's MD, Mitchell Elegbe.

He advised the pupils not to underestimate their potentials, urging them to further develop their newly-acquired skills.

The organisers said the contest could signal a new beginning for Nigeria's education system, "which is seen as cycle of memorisation and regurgitation."

The team leader, Obinna Ukwuani, said the group wants to prove that education is not all about making good results.

He said: "We are group of students who believe education should be more than grades. Exposure Robotic Challenge (XRL) seeks to drive technical and practical education in Nigeria. The progress the pupils made in five weeks of learning programming, mechanics and problem solving would prove our hypothesis in the long run."

He added that Nigeria education system must be reformed to allow students to apply the theory they learn in class to solve practical problem, saying it was the only way Nigerian students could favorably compete with their peers across the world.

Other members of the XRL are: Obinna Ozwodu, Onyinyechi Okeke, Joseph Aboki, Philip Abel, Tobi Amos and Kaosisochukwu Uzokwe.  Mayowa Adegeye and John Itebu, both students of University of Ibadan, acted as teaching assistants. First Bank was represented by Mrs Bernadine Okeke at the event.