BLACK AMPHI

Afrobotics – Keeping an Eye on Robotics in Africa

Here we come again!!!

…as we all stood at attention in front of the Black Amphitheater, singing our melodious anthem and looking up to the black, white and green flag waving in the sky, part of my attention was focused on the gigantic African map on the front wall, right of the blackboard. As I stood still admiring the little shapes and colors that represent the various countries and territories on the African continent, I realised that we have been to three countries already; Cameroon (Mambe Nanje and Suh Minang), Nigeria (Ugo Uchechukwu and Francis .O. Oghuma) and South Africa (Vinny Lingham and Justin Stanford).

Turning my head slightly to the West, Ghana caught my attention. The very first thing, out of a thousand, that I set my eyes on when my feet touched the soil was Afrobotics, born of  Nii Simmonds, Henry Barnor and Ayorkor Mills-Tettey.  What is Afrobotics? Could it be African Robotics? Let’s find out.

The Concept, the Mission, and the Benefits

Competition is probably the greatest factor that motivates people to set bigger goals and embark on achieving them. When a group of people are allowed to compete with another group or compete amongst themselves, they are urged to think, research and develop skills that can help them stand out of the crowd. Engineering, science, innovation, and entrepreneurship, though growing at a fast rate, are relatively at the embryonic stage in Africa. What can be done to boost the growth rate?  Nii Simmonds, Henry Barnor and Ayorkor Mills-Tettey figured out that the key players in the above mentioned fields are students, especially those at the university level. How can these students be inspired to be science, engineering, and technology leaders? How can self-confidence, communication, and leadership be fostered amongst them? Competition is the answer.

Robotics is the science and technology of robots, and their design, manufacture, and application. Robotics brings together the power of computer science and engineering to build automated electro-mechanical systems that intelligently interact with the environment to make production more worthwhile by improving on efficiency and output in agriculture, factory, health, education and other related fields. Through robotics, computer scientists and technologists can effectively design, implement and integrate skills that are essential for them to carryout their duty. With applications ranging from agriculture to factory automation, from healthcare to education, robotics is a fascinating and fun way to develop creativity as well as the design, implementation, and integration skills that are essential for computer scientists and technologists.

Engineering, science and manufacturing all hold the key to development and prosperity in Africa but are severely hampered by the lack of entrepreneurs who are ready to take risks and venture into the “impossible” and “uncertain”. Afrobotics seeks to motivate African students and bring them together to embrace a collaborative, fun, and challenging competition for sustainable engineering startups throughout Africa. Afrobotics will be a country, regional and continental-wide competition for all African students in the Secondary school and University levels. In addition, she will showcase the students’ creative engineering talents.

The People behind Afrobotics

As we earlier mentioned, Nii Simmonds, Henry Barnor and Ayorkor Mills-Tettey are the main driving forces of Afrobotics. While hoping to get these guys to “talk to you directly” through interviews in the nearest future, Below is a summary of what we have dug about them.

Nii Simmonds is an Ghanaian currently living in Washington DC, Metro Area – USA. He is a holder of a B. Sc. In Management/Finance from Smeal College of Business at Pennsylvania State University and a minor in Information Systems and Statistical Analysis. He also holds a Business Process Outsourcing Masters Certificate from the Wharton School. Mr. Nii Simmonds is a recognized speaker, consultant, and sustainable evangelist on African entrepreneurship. He speaks at frequent events and conferences about entrepreneurship, ICT, sustainable technology, e-learning, globalization, and outsourcing market in Africa and other emerging markets He is interested in creating partnerships that can fuel sustainable growth in Africa. He is currently the Director of WJF Africa Prize at William James Foundation, Co-organizer of Maker Faire Africa and co-founder at Afrobotics. Through His very popular and informative blog, Nubian Cheetah, he seeks to inform those who have an intrinsic interest in Africa’s sustainable development with regards to ICT, technology, business, venture capital and social entrepreneurship.

Mr. Simmonds is a consultant who has experience in corporate finance, supply chain management, competitive intelligence, corporate strategy and outsourcing. He has a lot to offer (and has been offering) to Africa in the following fields;  Business Development, strategic Alliances and Partnerships, product management, Small Business Advising, Entrepreneur Development, Business Ventures, BPO Advising, Biofuel development, Africa Web 2.0, Mobile payment, as well as African connections, Deals, Negotiations and  Value Propositions.

Having a close look at Mr. Simmonds’s Linkedin profile, one can quickly realize that besides William James Foundation, Maker Faire Africa and Afrobotics, his skills have been put to great as a board member (Investors Without Borders), Project Manager – Global health (Booz Allen Hamilton), senior Financial Analyst (Johnson & Johnson (McNeil)), Senior Finance & Competitive Intelligence Analyst (Astra Zeneca Pharmaceuticals), and BPO Strategy Consultant (Cap Gemini).

Henry Barnor was born in Ghana, where he spent most of his early years climbing the educational ladder. After Senior Secondary School, he was admitted to Oberlin College, OH as a 3-2 engineering student.
While at Oberlin he focused on Computer Science and Physics with excursions into Women’s Studies.
At the end of his junior year, he transferred to the California Institute of Technology, CA to finish his engineering program.
Henry graduated with a BA in Computer Science and a BSc in Electrical Engineering and is currently a software engineer in San Jose, CA. The portrait on the right features on Maker Faire Africa on a post that explains how together with Henry Addo (another Ghanaian developer), they built a system that permits people to register for Maker Faire Africa by Mobile Phone.

He is a co-founder at Afrobotics and also a co-founder at GhanaThink, an Africa-focused think-tank based in Ghana that seeks to mobilize and deploy Diasporean volunteer labor for the primary benefit of Ghana, and consequently of Africa and the whole world.

G. Ayorkor Mills-Tettey is a Ghanaian native. She attended Dartmouth College and graduated with degrees in computer science and engineering. She has taught and developed curricula at Ashesi University in Accra, Ghana and is also a 2006 Google Anita Borg Scholarship recipient.  Her interests and research activities include developing optimization algorithms for robotics path planning and task allocation, and understanding the synergies between technology and education, especially in developing communities.

She is currently a Ph.D. student in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. She is also student representative for Tech Bridge World, a program that seeks to bridge the gap between technologically advanced and “technologically deprived” communities. As student representative for this program, she is responsible for liaising with other students and participating actively in the development of new and existing Tech Bridge World programs.

That’s it for now. Round 1 of the Black Amphi Tour continues. We have many surprises in stock for you. Many big guns have been interviewed but we can’t “let all the cats out of the bag at once”. They will soon here…

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The Emerging Silicon Valley of Africa

After announcing the birthday of the CEO of AfroVisioN Group and wishing a happy birthday to the CEO of Naija Born and Qube Street, the Black Amphitheater is now taking us to South Africa and opening up the curtains to two big shots. Let’s give a big hand of applause to Vinny Lingham and Justin Stanford. Wondering why this audience and the attention? Before  we proceed with the facts, let us observe a minute of meditation and reflection.

Hard working patriots never consume 24 hours a day for self interests. Many at times, they take a minute or two to have a look around the neighborhood and bring together resources within their reach to set up a breeze of change. This breeze, like any big thing, starts from a small starting point, maybe just an idea and the strong will to accomplish a set goal, but has the potential of flowing across thousands of miles, nationwide, continent-wide or even worldwide. This is exactly what Vinny Lingham and Justin Stanford are doing for Cape Town. These two entrepreneurs and investors share a common vision for Cape Town. They realized that this region has a great potential, with an increasing number of tech startups emerging. Presenting, their focus is not only Cape Town but the whole of South Africa.  Could the Cape Town born Silicon Cape  Initiative be the Silicon Valley of Africa?

The Silicon Cape Initiative is a movement, a mindset, a vision and a belief. This movement has as mission, giving entrepreneurs in the Western Cape the best chance to succeed with access to the right people, structures and most importantly, capital. The Silicon Cape Initiative believes she can unify the efforts of every South African to focus the nation into a successful technology hub. She believes she can enable entrepreneurs to succeed and investors to make above market returns.

In their own words,

The Silicon Cape vision is of an ecosystem in the Western Cape of South Africa, that serves to attract and bring together local and foreign investors, the brightest technical talent, and the most promising entrepreneurs, to foster the creation and growth of world-class IP start-up companies in an environment that competes with other similar hubs around the world against the backdrop of one of the most beautiful settings and pleasant places to live, work and play on the globe.

The initiative aims to start a conversation and create a global brand – to plant a seed and foster the concept of the Silicon Cape in people’s minds and on their lips around the world as the emerging Silicon Valley of Africa, and to create an environment and a perception of the area as a world-class location and destination that is not only capable of delivering but already is. This will in turn create real benefits for the Cape and it’s residents and stakeholders, and assist in attracting further foreign direct investment into South Africa.

The Silicon Cape Initiative seeks to solve, in South Africa, a problem that prevents or discourages startups and hinders the progress of entrepreneurs in numerous African countries. These problems are usually levied by the bigger well established bodies (snatching up talents and making bigger names and more money for themselves) and the state (difficult tax laws and poor incentives).

Let us tread on Black Amphi’s tradition of talking “more” about the people than the “business”. In case you were about to ask, who these two shots really are, reserve the question for we are about to dig into some biographies.

Vinny Lingham is a resident of San Francisco. He is married and enjoys golf, chess and poker. He studied a B.Com (Information Systems) at the University of Cape Town but is certainly more into entrepreneurship than anything else. He is co-founder of the Silicon Cape and also the CEO of Yola, a browser based, website development software for SME’s and groups. He is an Entrepreneur & Search Engine Marketer. He has previously served on marketing advisory boards for Nasdaq listed Valueclick & Yahoo. He also previously founded Clicks2Customers.

Vinny’s hard work has earned him lots of recognition and awards both at home and abroad. He is the recipient of Top Young ICT Entrepreneur in Africa (2006), finalist for Men’s Health Best Man (2009) & ICT Personality of the Year in South Africa (2008). Clicks2Customers, which he previously founded, won the Top Technology Company award in South Africa in 2006, for its revolutionary search engine marketing software and services – servicing world class clients such as Walmart.

Justin Stanford is an Entrepreneurial businessman out to generate and identify opportunities and maximize them in order to create, consolidate and grow diversified and general wealth, jobs and quality of life for those around him, while having fun doing so. He is highly interested in merging technology and other areas of opportunity with business to identify and nurture innovations and bright people that can be successfully commercialized. He loves Business High-performance vehicles Property Boating & Wakeboarding, Fine Dining, Fine Wines, making and listening to music, etc..

Justin Stanford is co-founder of the Silicon Cape Initiative. He is also co-founder and director of Venture Capital & Private Equity industry. He portfolio continues to Non-Executive Director of GetClosure, Investor & Advisor of South African Drilling Services/Scott Drilling and NewbieBowls.com, Founder, Investor & Non-Executive Director of FireID, Founder, Director & CEO of ESET Southern Africa and 4D Innovations Group.

The Silicon Cape Initiative will be launching an event on October 8, 2009 from 7:30am to 1pm at the Bay Hotel Rotunda, Camps Bay. This event is aimed at catalyzing widespread conversation around the concept online and offline, build a global brand, and to establish a working group of volunteers and donors to take the vision forward and see it through to reality, garnering support from all sectors and stakeholders and ultimately establishing a foundation. The event is due to be attended and addressed by the Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille. Due to limited resources, the attendee register has been closed already but every interested individual is invited to attend via twitter at http://twitter.com/siliconcape.

Long live the Silicon Cape Initiative, Long live her founders, long live the entrepreneurs and startups she stands for, and long live her well-wishers.

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Let the Candles Glow for Francis .O. Oghuma…

…when all of a sudden I heard loud drum rolls. “I know that sound”, I thought to myself. “The melody is unique”. I jumped from bed, “wiped” the sleep off my eyes and turned my head towards the direction of my wooden clock. It read 5:55am but looking through my window, it was a little too dark for me to catch a glimpse of the famous black hurt-like amphitheater, about www kilometers away.

As I stood by the Window waiting for “the sign”, I hear the town-crier crying out louder than ever before…

“…silence, silence. Put your candles and lighters up and let’s all light them on the countdown. 3,2,1…Go!”

All of a sudden, I saw the Amphi glow and a few seconds later, a thunderous applause. My thirst for awareness couldn’t keep me on the spot any longer, so I reached for my extra large mobile phone and dialed CHURCHILL. Upon enquiry, I got the good news.

They are celebrating the birthday of a cherished friend, brother, entrepreneur and partner. His name is Francis .O. Oghuma.

Who is he?

…fast-forward >>>>

…is a 24-year-old Nigerian, the big guy behind NaijaBorn and Qubestreet. He studied in his home country but is currently in South Africa pursuing further education in communication engineering.

Having a close look at his projects and his “lifestream” at twitter (http://twitter.com/papaqube and http://twitter.com/qubestreet), one can tell that Francis .O. Oghuma is brilliant and hardworking. He is one of those who will stop at nothing to making it to the top as far as the “Afro Web” and Ventures are concerned. NaijaBorn and QubeStreet are some of his pojects proving he is an innovative African known for his publicity stunts and media strategies which all attribute him the nick name “MR HYPE”. I am particularly in love with NaijaBorn and sometimes, I wish I could be a Naijaborn just to get a profile on NaijaBorn. Ha ha ha.

I can’t really talk about Francis .O. Oghuma as much as his personal friend and partner on Naija Born, Mambe Nanje Churchill, would. I therefore “hand over the mic” to him for updates on this post tomorrow morning… but before then, on behalf of the entire AfroVisioN Group and Black Amphi Team, I say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Francis .O. Oghuma. I hereby urge everyone to pray unceasingly for 7 breakthroughs to happen in his life before this same time next year.

Long live Francis .O. Oghuma. long live Qubestreet and hope he gets alot of returns in this his new age coming with alot of exciting and challenging activities.

BlackAmphi

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