By Martin Mungai and Winfred Magu

CEMASTEA has been at the forefront of promoting STEM education and particularly coding and robotics. The Centre, from 13^th to 16^th December 2022, organised a four-day STEM Coding and Robotics Boot Camp for 2022. The coding and robotics boot camp is an educational program that offers learners a platform to learn coding and robotics skills. Overall, the camp's goal was to provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in the rapidly-evolving fields of computer science and robotics. The camp brought g together learners from pre-primary, primary and secondary schools to impart them with relevant coding and robotics skills and hands-on experience that allowed them to apply the concepts they were learning in a practical setting. The specific objectives of a coding and robotics boot camp were;

1. To provide students with a strong foundation in coding and programming languages, such as Python, Java, C++, or C#.
2. To teach students how to design and build robots using various hardware and software tools.
3. To provide students with hands-on experience working on coding and robotics projects, such as building and programming a robotic arm or creating a simple computer game.
4. To help students develop problem-solving, creativity, and critical thinking skills through designing and building robots and coding projects.
5. Building a community of learners by giving learners opportunities to collaborate on projects, attend guest lectures and workshops, and connect with industry professionals.

During the camp, participants undertook intensive training where they explored Bionics, Creative coding, Robotics (A) – Tetrix, Robotics (B) – EV3 Kit, Mobile App Development, 3D and Graphics design – Fabrication and Arduino Prototyping. They developed projects to address societal problems such as mental health, gender-based violence and fire safety. The camp was highly interactive and provided them with opportunities to create, collaborate and ideate some of their projects.

Participants engaged in various activities during the boot camp

The opening ceremony was graced by the SAP representatives, who encouraged the participants to use such initiatives by CEMASTEA to build on their skills. They were equally urged to make use of the open learning platform from the SAP website to acquire a skill through the freely offered online courses.

The Closing ceremony was presided over by the Deputy Director of CEMASTEA, Madam Lydia Muriithi. She awarded participants with certificates of achievement and medals. In her remarks, she urged tie participants to continue upgrading their skills and ensure that they build on what they learned during the four days course. She also urged them to train their peers in school so that they could also benefit from the skills acquired.

The Boot Camp was co-sponsored by CEMASTEA with various partners. This includes STEM impact Kenya, Angaza Elimu, Africa Code Week (ACW) and iStart to support the camp activities. The partners offered financial and in-kind support, including trainers. Mr Martin, the deputy coordinator of STEM programmes, chaired the organising committee for boot camp. He commended the participants for observing discipline and being innovative in their projects.