Six Nigerian students will represent the country at the Africa Robotics Challenge (ARC) to be held at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, between Aug. 8 to Aug. 9, 2019.

The six students include Toluwanimi Akinola, 15 Dansol High School, Lagos;  Dominion Aromolaran, 14, Supreme Education Foundation; and Tirenioluwa Shobande, 18, a year one student of Systems Engineering at the University of Lagos.

Others are Ifeoluwa Aigbiniode, 15,Yaba College of Technology Secondary School; Jeffrey Nwafor, 15, Cambridge School; and Kolawole Olatunji, 19, Lagos State University, a Year One student studying Computer Science Education at the institution.

“whatis.techtarget.com’’ defines robotics as a branch of engineering that involves the conception, design, manufacture, and operation of robots.

This field overlaps with electronics, computer science, artificial intelligence, mechatronics, nanotechnology and bio-engineering.

A robot is a machine designed to execute one or more tasks automatically with speed and precision.

The National Coordinator, Global Robotics Olympiad (GRO), Mrs Remi Willoughby, told NAN on Wednesday that the students would be working on First Tech Challenge 2019, Rover Rukus.

According to her, Rover Ruckus, officially known as Rover Rukus presented by Qualcomm for sponsorship reasons, is the FIRST Tech Challenge game for the 2018-2019 season.

Willoughby said in the competition, two alliances of two teams each will compete to collect minerals and place them into the cargo holes of the lander.

Also, Faisal Jarmakani, Managing Director, Aramex Nigeria, and Co-sponsor of the First Global Olympiad said: “Our continued sponsorship of the First Global competition is a testimonial of our belief in Nigeria and the Nigerian youths”.

“As a nation with a growing youth population, this platform will further catalyse our potential to solve our own problems and some of the world’s greatest challenges using technology”.

“This is the third consecutive year we are sponsoring Team Nigeria and we have seen remarkable outcomes in the lives of these students and champions”.

“Majority of them have received scholarship opportunities to top universities in Nigeria and abroad and we believe they will use the knowledge acquired to shift the needle on economic technological advancement’’.

Jarmakani said the decision to co-sponsor the project with his brother Omar Jarmakani, was based on the need to encourage Nigerian youths to embrace Technology and Robotics. (NAN)