A team of five female students from the Regina Pacis Secondary School Onitsha, in Anambra State, has emerged winners in this year’s global finals of the Technovation Challenge in Silicon Valley, California, USA.
The Technovation program mentors young girls around the globe on how to use technology to solve problems in their communities. The team, which clinched the trophy with its app that detects fake drugs, called the FD Detector, is the only African team to participate in this year’s challenge. It competed with teams from China, Uzbekistan, Spain, Turkey and the US in the finals. The girls are the first Nigerian team to participate in the junior category of the competition since its inception in 2010.
The team emerged global champions after pitching their solution at the event which was held on the 8th o this month. It is ironic that Onitsha can boast of students who advanced tech solution with the potential to transform the drug safety challenge in Nigeria. The city is recognized more as a major commercial trading hub than a technology hub with talented innovators and inventors.
However, considering the notoriety of the fake drugs market in Onitsha, it is most apt that a technological solution to address this challenge comes from there. Although the teenage girls took up a herculean task, the story behind how they decided to compete and how they emerged winners, is full of lessons that those in charge of education in Nigeria can heed.
The team’s mentor, Mrs. Uche Ugwu, said her venture into the STEM Education Program, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, happened by accident. While attending an education summit outside Nigeria, she stumbled on some STEM and Robotic models in an exhibition stand. The fact that she knew nothing about the robotic models forced her to get closer to study them rather than being scared.
