Peterhouse learner shines in China
TAYAMIKA MANDIWANZIRA, of Peterhouse Girls School, was one of five learners who recently represented Zimbabwe at the 7th Belt and Road Teenager Maker Camp in Guangxi, China.
The Form Four learner was in the Asian country between November 5 and 11 and her team walked away with “The Best Maker” award at the camp, which seeks to boost science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.
Mandiwanzira travelled to China after being named International Broadcom Foundation Award winner for her innovation — a solar-powered medical sterilising unit.
In an interview with this publication, the 16-year-old girl, who was the youngest among her group, said her knowledge of STEM had been enhanced.
“In China, the delegates to the teenager maker camp went through a rigorous programme of being tutored and attending science courses with top Chinese professors, learning how to build things that solve problems in areas that include artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, ecological restoration, smart construction and technology innovation. At the end, we were evaluated and I am proud to say we won ‘The Best Maker’ award,” she said.
The young innovator said seeing how China has advanced in terms of innovative technologies was an eye-opener.
“On the educational side, I am incredibly grateful to have had the chance to be given lectures and be taught by world-class professors. Furthermore, myself and the rest of Team Zimbabwe were enrolled for the Intelligent Manufacturing course, which consisted of robotics, 3D printing and laser cutting. It was really awesome to explore the engineering side of the STEM world.”
It was humbling, Tayamika said, that the audience in China still recognised her solar-powered medical steriliser project.
“I was delighted and so motivated to find that teammates who were at the festival still remembered my project entry and were fascinated by my work. In addition, I had conversations with people from all over the world, one of which was with a teacher from Malaysia. She spoke of how, in her rural community, the project would be a life saver.”
At the camp, Mandiwanzira and her team collaborated to make an AI robot that performs three functions.
“It can vacuum-clean, and can work as a lawn mower and a combine harvester, which was able to move on voice commands. We also experienced 3D laser cutting,” she said.
“I also had a new experience; I travelled on a bullet train from our host Guangxi University to Luizhou city, to visit a high-tech car manufacturing plant belonging to Wuling Motors Company Ltd, and watched the electric car making process from start to finish.
“We got to see how that part of the world is moving in terms of green energy because they were assembling electric cars that just need charging to move. We realised, too, that most of the cars on China’s roads are now green-energy vehicles. They seem to just glide on the road with no sound, let alone noise, and it was awesome.”
Mandiwanzira was also inspired by the prominent role women are playing in the engineering sector in China.
“It was also interesting and totally empowering that a lot of the professors for the engineering courses were female, and young females too.
“I am saying so because we are generally conditioned to believe engineering is a male field because it has been male-dominated for a long time but obviously, the opportunities keep increasing for females to occupy the same spaces and excel in the process,” she said.
“I will continue to give it my all. I am also grateful to the Zimbabwe Science Fair organisers, who continue to give the youth an opportunity to innovate and participate on global platforms,” she added.