The Sunday Mail
Charmaine Mutongwizo
IN October 2022, Shylene Nhongo, Gillian Mushaninga and I got the opportunity to learn more about robotics from Arduino.
As technology and robotics enthusiasts, we were immediately hooked on.
Resultantly, the school bought us an Arduino kit from Kidz in Tech, which came along with three complementary lessons.
After learning the basics, we utilised online platforms such as YouTube to learn how to assemble and code the robot.
Within a few months, we managed to complete putting together a working prototype of an autonomous vehicle, which we named Tri-Agro.
The project, titled “Automated Agroforestry”, was aimed at solving three distinct challenges, namely, food insecurity, water wastage and carbon dioxide emissions.
It won a gold medal at the Zimbabwe Science Fair 2023.
Having experienced the challenges of learning robotics in Zimbabwe, we decided to become the bridge that covers the gap.
Today, we offer free lessons to all learners interested in automation and recommend the kits for use in specific projects.
We dream of a brighter Zimbabwe, where quality education is accessible to all, and hope the baby steps we are taking will lead to something big in due course.
Our first robotics workshop was held on March 24.
The event was attended by a number of young women. The turnout was astonishing.
This easily proves there is a lot of interest in robotics among young ladies.
Nhongo notes that there will soon be gender balance in the engineering field, which is mainly dominated by men.
“It brings us endless joy to see this dream morph into reality,” she said.
Charmaine Mutongwizo is an Advanced Level learner at Queen Elizabeth School
