CAMTech-Uganda-Robotics for Kids (R4K)

The CAMTech-Robotics-program provides hands-on, STEM-education to children in classrooms, communities and universities.Students learn-how-to build robots, which radically improves school curriculum knowledge, classroom-performance and promotes early-stage career development in Technology.

In Uganda's academic institutions, the number of students pursuing Science courses is less compared to those pursuing arts courses. The current statics is attributed to a lack of early career development in STEM-related courses right from primary school, through secondary and university education.  The Ugandan Education system focuses on theoretical concepts rather than practical and experiential-based learning of science subjects. This has led to low interest in science subjects among students as they lack a connection between the content they learn at school and its real-world application. Even worse many students who study and graduate from STEM-related courses at university do not have the relevant practical skills and knowledge needed to solve pressing community challenges. Also despite the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution job market, the education system has remained rigid failing to equip students with the on-demand 21st-century skills and technical expertise required to harness these opportunities.   

The CAMTech Robotics program provides hands-on, practical STEM education to children in classrooms and youth both in and out of academia (communities), and universities. Our students learn how to build robots, which radically improves school curriculum knowledge, classroom performance provides hands-on vocational skills and career development and empowers students to be agents of change in their communities. Our learning model is practical, fun, engaging and puts students in a collaborative and exploratory learning environment that inspires them to think beyond simply passing classroom examinations.

We have setup a makerspace at Mbarara University of science and Technology where passionate African Youth can learn grow and experiment with machines, gadgets and technology with no obligations. A place where curiosity is fostered and nourished, where failure is embraced as part of a
learning process, where learning is purely through the science of experimentation and finally, where ideas, however crazy, are listened to and explored without bias or prejudice.

This is how our solution works:

step1.The interested students go through an online application process and then registered in the CAMTech-Co-creation lab for training.

step2:The participants make payments and we now engage them in our two weeks continuous trainings. They start as beginners and they have to attend  the 3 different levels  conducted each holiday. The trainings involve basic and advanced electronics, computer programming, mechanics and mathematics and all these are build on top of the National school curriculum, so as students learn robotics they are directly applying to the real life ,the soft concepts learnt in classroom. 

step3:The students identify problems, proposes solutions and build the solutions using the  obtained skills. This way the students understanding  their curriculum better by applying the concepts to solve community problems.

The CAMTech Robotics program provides hands-on, practical STEM education to children in classrooms and youth both in and out of academia (communities), and universities.

Ninsiima Doreen - Ms. Doreen is pursuing a bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering from Mbarara University of Science and Technology. She is a project team lead for CAMTech Robotics for the kids training program. 

Ilemut Ivan - Mr. Ilemut is a Robotics Instructor a CAMTech. He holds a bachelor's in  Electrical and Electronics Engineering. He has worked with McBots MakerSpace and Fab Lab as CTO and Research and Innovations lead respectively. He is also an IEEE try Engineering volunteer promoting early-stage career development in STEM. 

Tuhirirwe Mackenzie -Mr. Mackenzie holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering. He has a lot of passion for working with Children to understand, design, and build technology to solve community problems. 

Kahuuma Claire -Clare is a CAMTech Uganda Robotics program marketing and communications lead. She has expertise in business analytics design thinking.

We conducted a study to assess the level of awareness and Interest among students in Primary and secondary schools in STEM-related Careers. In this study, 150 students were enrolled and interviewed. 28% of the Students were well informed about careers in STEM while 23% expressed interest in taking on careers in STEM-related fields. When those that were not interested in careers in STEM were interviewed to find out why they were not considering a career in STEM. 40% said that they had no clear picture of what it would take for them to pursue a career in STEM, 33% said that they perceive sciences to be difficult given the method in which they are taught and 27% were not sure of exactly what people who pursue STEM careers do. 

The CAMTech Robotics for kids program promotes and provides practical and experiential-based learning to students. Compared to the other programs which only focus on providing mentorship and career guidance and talks, the CAMTech Robotics program inculcates deep lifelong technical and soft skills in its participants.

  Our training complements the government's education system by keeping students engaged with fun robotics and coding challenges during the school term Holidays. Instead of cramming theoretical concepts to reproduce them on an exam paper, students are trained to use their creative minds to build, test, experiment, and launch STEM-based projects using the power of Robotics in a safe working space. 

In the process, the students we train develop critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and an inquisitive mindset, and develop the resilient spirit necessary to succeed in life.  Through the CAMTech Robotics training project-based approach of evaluation, our students have developed effective communication and pitching skills as they are trained to pitch their project ideas and solutions they build during the robotics training to different audiences.

 After assessing some of the students we trained in our program, there was a significant improvement in academic performance in science subjects with many showing interest in STEM-related careers. We have also seen some of our graduates from the program startup electronics repair shops where they live  and are earning from their skills.

Through the CAMTech Robotics program, we aim at creating the following impact in 2023; 

1.We would like to extend our program to schools and have it on-top of the school time tables so that we can directly reach to our target groups easily and also equip teachers who can always supervise the student Teams at the specific schools and an overseer from our Team to check on the Team at least four times a month.

2.We would like to 3D-print our own training kits tailored to specific content so that we have these tools and kits in the schools and the participants we train at an affordable cost.

3.Promote early stage career development in STEM  fields 

4.Recruit and Equip more program participants with Electronics and programming skills

5.Foster Creativity, innovation and problem-solving skills . 

Our project is entirely Technology based and we use the following technologies to deliver our program

-Hardware: We use Arduino Microcontroller technology to  teach the children and the youth electronics and Hardware programming. Arduino is a  hardware with an open source Arduino IDE we use for programming and its important for us during the rapid prototyping  sessions.

-Sensors: All the projects our students build at the end of the training are sensor based. These include both basic and advanced sensors for example. Heart rate sensors,ultrasoinc sensors, water flow sensors, light sensors and lots of other sensors.

-3D-printing Technology-Our students normally have to give their projects shape by designing casings for their circuits designed using CAD(CATIA software)  and some always want to print gears for their Robots. The 3d-printer therefore does core part of our program.

-Internet Technology: The students normally think great and some have done projects in the IoT (Internet of Things) field and we can never achieve much here without the power of internet technology. All they works we do are research based and the internet is very paramount.

Computers/laptops: We can not execute our program without the computer. The computer is one of the Technologies that we strongly rely on. We do teach coding, we do research and  we need a computer to do that.

In 2 years of operation, the CAMTech Robotics program has enrolled and trained 253 participants  in southwestern Uganda ,equipping them with practical electronics and programming skills plus pitching, presentation and public speaking and critical thinking skills.

In 2023, we plan to train over 500 participants in East and South Western Uganda in a period of 10 months and we have already started on the 2023 goal. In the picture above is some of our participants in the current training that is ongoing.

The CAMTech Robotics for kids program was born out of passion and need to solve a pressing challenge affecting Africa. We started small, from savings of our first cohorts and we have been able to reach out to more numbers of children and youth from our Makerspace.

To be able to achieve our goals, we would like to have financial support to:

1-Obtain more Robotics/Prototyping kits and tools

2-facilitate our trainers and volunteers

3-Establish Robotics  clubs in individual schools with a dedicated trainer checking on them at least once a week.

We do not have any legal or cultural barriers that may limit our impact.

Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) :partners with the CAMTech Robotics program by offering workspace to train program participants 

National Information Technology Uganda (NITA-U): offers the CAMTech Robotics program with free and stable internet connectivity for the program participant to access more Robotics training content online. 

1.Services: we provide hands-on skills ( Electronics, computer programming and Robotics) to children and the youth and this is built on top of the National school curriculum to enable the children and youth understand thee school curriculum better and be equipped with the skills necessary for the fourth industrial revolution.(The partipants pay Ugx:200,000=for each cohort) till they complete the three levels of our training offered during their school holiday.

2.Robotics kits:We provide the children and the youth access to the tools needed for them to experiment and bring their ideas to life. These kits are obtained on a hire purchase basis, or rented and some students decide to buy and have these kits at home to explore the more.

-After conducting the pilot study of our program, we reviewed the data obtained and feedback from different stakeholders.

-we are raising money through the selling our services (Currently the participants-children that enroll pay  about $55 for a 3weeks beginners level training and our program is in three levels.(The beginners ,intermediate and advanced level) .our graduates from one level enroll for the next level and pay for each level separately.

-We are also applying for grants that are a best fit for our program and these could gives us a big boost to expand our program.

-We are also selling the Robotics/STEM kits to the parents for their children because the children need to keep working on their project even at home.

Summary of our Revenue sources.

1.Service payment

2.Grants

3.STEM/Robotics kits Sales