Back in 2015, I remember working as an Intel student partner at Maseno University, running Internet of Things (IOT) events using Arduino Boards. I didn’t know then that a decade later, I would use similar devices for advanced level robotics courses.
After my undergraduate studies, I transitioned from Arduinos to teaching robotics with Lego and Edison robots at the African Maths Initiative and later at Edutab Africa, an EdTech company I co-founded with Mike and Patrick. We have been introducing children to robotics through boot camps and outreach programs, oblivious to the fact that this experience would be useful in supporting my post-graduate studies. It’s incredible to reflect on how limited access to these tools was just ten years ago in Kenya. Today, more children are exposed to robotics, and Edutab Africa is one of the organizations committed to making technology education accessible.
In 2024, I moved to Finland to start my Master’s degree in Computer Science at the University of Eastern Finland(UEF). Among the courses on offer was robotics, which I took without hesitation.
I started with a basic course in robotics that introduced robotics and its impact on society, types and applications of robots, robot navigation, electronics and microcontrollers. One of the striking experiences was the hands-on approach with weekly practice sessions, which I found extremely useful. For every theory lecture we had a corresponding practice session with real-life robotics kits such as Lego, Arduino and different robotics simulators. These practice sessions gave me a much deeper understanding of how different components of robots work. Besides the practice sessions, we also had guest lectures from Karelics, a robotics company based in Joensuu, which exposed us to the industry automation robotics projects they have been working on, especially in the construction industry. To finish this course, we were required to develop a practical application of robotics in small groups based on skills acquired through all practice sessions. My group built a soccer-playing robot- What a proud moment!
The knowledge and skills I acquired at this level led me to the second course – Robotics and XR (Extended Reality). This course built on the first basics course and covered robotics application, robot control theory, robot navigation, robotics and AI and fundamentals of XR technologies.
This was among the most special courses I have done in my entire education life because it was the first course I ever took that had both academic and industry experts delivering the course. Our lecturers (Dr. Ilkka Jormanainen and Dr Samuel Yigzaw) delivered the course together with a team from Henki robotics, another robotics company based in Joensuu founded by experienced robotics experts who are UEF former students. Due to this collaboration, we had a learning experience that supported us to acquire hands-on, practical and applicable industry-ready robotics skills, demonstrating the need for collaboration between academia and industry.
Similar to the basic course, we had lectures and practice sessions every week. Two lectures a week, one by the UEF professors and one by robotics experts from Henki Robotics. Then, a practice session was led by the Henk Robotics team.
Among my favourite parts was that this course allowed us to dive deep into industry standard tools in robotics such as the Robotics Operating System (ROS), which gave us a feel of how real life working in robotics feels like. During the practice sessions, we covered an introduction to ROS2 for programming robots, Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) that help robots understand their working environment, robot odometry that helps robots estimate their position in their working environments, creating ROS packages that get the robots to do specific tasks, path planning that help robots to find best navigation routes while avoiding obstacles allowing them to navigate autonomously in their working environment.
At the end of the course, we had to develop a project that implemented a path planning algorithm using all these skills gained in the course. In the event that you would like to get started with robotics, the resources made by Henki Robotics for the course are open source and you can find them on GitHub.
Moving on, I am taking an advanced robotics course, which is purely project work, where we have to define an industry problem and develop a solution around solving that problem. I will be working on a group project on teleoperation using a robot arm. The idea is to use hand gestures to control a robot arm to do certain activities- a system with real-world applications in fields like medicine(e.g., remote surgery). Further into the summer, I will be taking on the Industrial robotics course.
Reflecting on this experience, I have been appreciating the importance of investment in resources for teaching and learning. For example, at UEF, we have fully fledged robotics laboratories with sufficient resources- from human resources, hardware and software. These resources sufficiently support our learning and research activities. It doesn’t surprise me that two robotics companies in Joensuu have been founded by former students of UEF.
With AI quickly advancing, robots are becoming smarter by the day. I wonder how we are preparing for that in Africa and especially by Higher Education Institutions. Are we promoting robotics education enough? How are we preparing the current learners to compete globally in developing robotics solutions that are contextually relevant? These are the challenges we must address, and I am committed to playing a role in making robotics education more accessible through EduTab Africa and global collaborations. Additionally, I look forward to partnering with like-minded organizations to build a community of robotics and foster global collaborations that will make robotics more accessible in Africa.
Written by Maxwell Fundi, co-founder and director at Edutab Africa with a background in computing currently pursuing a Masters in Computer Science at the University of Eastern Finland.