The Hillside School Abuja is soliciting the support of Federal Government and private institutions to enable it represent the country in a robotics competition in Texas, U.S., in April.
Enoch Jacob, the Physics Teacher in the school and also the Mentor of Robotics Club in the school, said the competition, `FIRST LEGO League (FLL) World Festival’, would be an opportunity for the school to tell the story of Nigeria at the global platform.
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) is an international youth organisation that organises the FIRST Robotics Competition and other competitions sponsored by the company.
FLL is an international competition organised by FIRST for elementary and middle school students in the United States, Canada and other countries of the world.
According to the physics teacher, the school participated in the national FIRST Annual Robotics competition that was held from Jan. 18th to 19th and emerged winner among many other schools across the country.
“Having come first in that competition, we had an opportunity to represent Nigeria in Houston Texas for the international FIRST LEGO League which will take place from April 17 to 20, 2019.
“This is a crucial moment in this country because we are trying to get out of being third world country to a developed country and artificial intelligence is the future of the world.
“We want the nation to know that it is important for the future of this country. We need the country to support us both financially and cheering us to lift the flag of Nigeria on that global scene.
“We want to tell the good Nigerian story because we are making efforts in developing artificial intelligence and in making Nigeria relevant in the world,” Jacob said.
He said that by supporting the students, the school would avail them the opportunity to network with other students and also replicate the ideas they would witness in the country.
“The opportunity is going to be a game changer for the students because it will revolutionalise their thinking because they will network with students from across the world.”
The teacher said that the competition would focus on space and the orbit as well as the exploration of space generally.
According to him, the challenge will range from how humans have been able to travel to space, the problems and challenges astronauts encounter in the space, among others.
He said that artificial intelligence and robotics could break such hurdles in space.
He also said that the school was engaging its students to create different projects in groups which tend to solving the challenges in space in preparation for the competition.
According to Jacob, 108 countries are going to be represented in the competition and the government, private institutions’ support will propel the students to do better.