To bridge the digital divide and build foundational capacity in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics, the Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development (AI4SD) project, under the Responsible AI Lab (RAIL), has donated laptops to 22 participating schools during the maiden AI4SD Robotics Challenge.
This initiative ensures that students have the necessary tools to transition from theoretical knowledge to practical, hands-on experience in coding, programming, and AI development.
Prof. Jerry John Kponyo, Principal Investigator and Scientific Director of RAIL and Project Lead of AI4SD, underscored the critical importance of this resource provision. “It is evident that AI has come to stay, and there is an urgent need to build our capacity and fluency in AI to help us secure a future,” he stated.
He detailed that the donation to the 22 schools is part of the project’s cumulative donation of 45 laptops to schools across Ghana. Prof. Kponyo directly linked these tools to the broader mission of nurturing homegrown talent. “We believe that Africa can take its place in emerging technologies by building the right talent from the basic level upwards,” he added.
The laptop donation is a key component of RAIL’s multi-pronged strategy, funded by the French Embassy in Ghana, to embed AI and robotics into Ghana’s educational ecosystem. Beyond hardware, the project has also established AI and Robotics clubs in 22 schools nationwide, each equipped with Arduino and LEGO kits for practical, project-based learning.
This infrastructural boost provides students with the essential technology to design, code, and innovate. By placing these resources directly into the hands of learners, the RAIL AI4SD project is taking concrete steps to ensure that Ghanaian students are not just consumers of technology but active creators and pioneers in the field of AI, ready to tackle both national and global challenges.