ASHESI D:LAB FELLOW’S WORKSHOP IN CONJUNCTION W/ ASHESI D:LAB OPPORTUNITY DESK
November 13, 2017
The fellows session started off with a visit from the Practical Education Network. They gave an introductory presentation, there are Heather and Samuel. They came here to recruit participants of the program which is ran in collaboration with Columbia University. The challenge they are trying to tackle is the occurrence of “chew and pour” in schools, especially in STEM fields. The project involves the use manuals and videos mapped directly to the Ghanaian curriculum to make teaching and learning as real as possible. The approach used is training teachers, who pay a fee for the training, and those trainees in turn train other teachers.
They are thinking of scaling, and the main points through which they identified are; training of trainees, partnering with Varkey Foundation Ghana and Micro Franchising. Micro Franchising is the option they are trying to develop at the moment, so they want students to volunteer and aid in developing a working business model for it.
The fellows workshop, hosted by Yoofi, featured Samuel Owusu-Acheaw. The discussion centered around trying to understand the phenomenon of prostitution. This is in line with Samuel’s project the empower individuals
The participants brought up some reasons they believed people enter into prostitution but two really stood out. They were; poverty and forcibly introduced to the life. They also tried to understand why people who were forced into it at a young age do not get out of it when they grow older. They believed that it may be psychological, the individual believes he or she is not good at any other thing apart from prostitution. The incidence of child trafficking was also discussed, with the trauma the individuals go through playing a key part in the discussion. They also discussed the possibility that education is failing to equip young people with the necessary skills they need, no matter the level reached. This is due to the alarming number of school dropouts and even graduates do not have the skills necessary to survive in the working world, so they resort to prostitution.
The session helped to widen the scope of the topic of prostitution and Samuel left with new insight into the problem.
ASHESI D:LAB FELLOW’S WORKSHOP
October 12, 2017
The fellow’s session began with the moderator, Yoofi, warming up the audience with some activities. He then called on the fellows to come introduce themselves and their projects.
Meet the fellows:
Matthew Ndekudugu: Matthew is a freshman who is constantly trying to use technology to push the boundaries of innovation. He is currently working on building the first mobile barbering van in Ghana.
Samuel Owusu-Acheaw: Another exciting freshman with a keen interest in diplomacy and motivational speaking, Samuel wants to help make people aware of their unique potentials and to use them to the fullest. He realizes that most people have very low self-esteem and high inferiority complex and wants to solve this problem.
Pearl Abbam : Pearl is a junior here at Ashesi who is interested in community building. She is currently running a community library which provides children in her community access to books and study resources. She is looking to improve the value the library renders the community as well as its impact.
Rosemary Anku: Rosemary is a sophomore here at Ashesi who is passionate about improving the health of children. She is currently working to start a project, the”PaediCare Africa Project” which aims at providing avenues for vulnerable children in society to have access to quality healthcare.
Theresa Sarudzai: Theresa is an engineering sophomore, who has a project which centres around children. She makes toys from recyclable materials which children can play with. She has previously produced some for the KayaChild Care Organization, which brought a lot of smiles to the children. She would like to find more innovative ways to build toys to bring smiles to even more children.
Owusu-Banahene Osei: Osei is a freshman who is interested in improving the agricultural sector. He is taking advantage of the vast opportunity the modern world is providing and is currently working on a way to bridge the gap between peasant farming and industrialized agriculture. His aim is to build a more efficient African agricultural society.
The introductions ended and the audience broke up into groups to help the fellows bring up ideas to push their projects forward.
After the program, the fellows came to present the various ideas they had come up with in the group sessions with the audience.
Samuel Owusu-Acheaw: They built an empathy map which drew out what ordinary people in Africa thought about the West and what they believed they could enjoy there. But we have a lot so we can just build what we sought in the West, right here on the continent.
Matthew Ndekudugu: They worked on the BMC and saw that they had a lot of value to provide the consumer, which translates into revenue for expansion.
Pearl Abbam: They drew up the service blueprint canvass. They have an online base to store feedback from students or kids. They also provide lending services.
Rosemary Anku: They came up with health campaigns, health forums and health insurance. But they are going to narrow it down after more research
Theresa Sarudzai: Came up with a P.O.V which specifically stated the problem as low income parents need a way to keep their kids busy while they work, so they need low cost toys for them. This POV will work as a direction for future designs.
Owusu-Banahene Osei: They drew up a two by two matrix which mapped out how resources which are not available to peasant farmers more readily available to them.
After the presentations, which showcased some top notch design thinking and innovation, we had a talk from the D:Lab facilitator, Dr. Gordon Adomdza. He thanked the participants for showing up and bringing up such innovative ideas. He reiterated that the D:Lab fellows was designed to be a workshop for students who had ideas, but could not find the spark to make it work.
D:FELLOWS WORKSHOP: FARM MODELLING AND NOURITURE DE LA MAISON
September 20, 2017
Design Thinking involves collaboration and discussion, one thing the D: Lab is passionate about facilitating. With that in mind Wednesday’s D:Lab Fellow’s Workshop invited budding young entrepreneurs (D:Lab Fellows) and members of the Ashesi Community to share ideas using the design thinking process to create innovative solutions to problems encountered by the Fellows. This exciting session saw two fellows initially present their business ideas then sit down with interested members of the community discuss and improve on their business models.
Introducing The Ventures
First up was Nouriture de la Maison headed by Comfort Appiah. Prompted by experiences she had working in her mother’s shop in the market, she saw a previously unidentified need. In the market, healthy food options are extremely limited, the only way market workers can buy food is either by buying food traditionally sold on the roadside or by walking long distances to buy better quality food. Neither of these options are optimal since the closest food is unsanitary and walking long distances would require leaving their stands thereby customer loss. Comfort, therefore used design ethnography to ask market women about their interest in her innovative solution. Her survey was successful as a lot of market women were willing to sign up hearing about her idea, although others being more cautious wanted to see it in operation before patronizing the service. During this session she was looking to improve her business model as well as prevent others from copying her solution.
Secondly was the Farm Modelling Project a which was presented by Nutifafa Amedior, and Yayra Azaglo. This is an experimental learning platform developed by Ashesi Students to engage their peers in studying the supply chain for vegetables and herbs. Their aim to to target the problem of the large number of imported foodstuff by trying to cultivate them locally and share successful practices with the agricultural sector in Ghana. This summer they began replicating a business idea they worked on with Northwestern University which was using vertical farming to increase crop yield on small farms. They are currently implementing this idea but a wooden structure isn’t cost effective so their goal was to find innovative ideas to reduce costs.
Conclusions After The Discussion
The discussion was extremely fruitful and discussion led to a plethora of ideas the fellows could use to develop their idea’s. Highlighted below are some ideas that were developed during this session.
Nouriture de la Maison: The Ashesi Community recommended more extensive design ethnography in order to have more comprehensive data before running the business. Students suggested focusing on a cost analysis, the speed of delivery and deciding the specific customers they wanted to target. They also suggested a more user friendly name which market women would be able to say and connect with to improve branding. Comfort was very excited by this information and this motivated her to pivot and use these new ideas in order to improve her business model.
Farm Modelling Project: The discussion was very fruitful with numerous ideas for a more cost effective plan for vertical farming. One of the ideas that stood out was using rope, supported by bamboo or plastic materials in order to create a working structure. A new innovative design idea also suggested to try a spiral design which would increase in height. Mast support systems to hold the structure in place.
The success of this discussion is exciting and opens avenues for more innovative ideas to better not only Africa but also the world. The D:lab is excited to be a part of this experience and is looking forward to facilitating more discussions like this.
BLOCKCHAIN (BEYOND BITCOIN): RESEARCH WORKSHOP
March 24, 2017
A blockchain – originally block chain – is a distributed database that maintains a continuously growing list of ordered records called blocks. Each block contains a timestamp and a link to a previous block. By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data — once recorded, the data in a block cannot be altered retroactively. Read more.
In Ghana, blockchain is being used by Benben, a lands services company in Ghana. This session will explore the user of block chain in industries other than in digital currency.
This research workshop brought together faculty and students curious about blockchain technology and the potential of using this technology in creating innovative business solutions.
Idea areas identified for the application of blockchain in Ghana after the research workshop included:
Public sector – Government contracts and tenders
Elections – national, institutional
Music purchase and copyright
Transportation management
Counterfeit Food certification – Food and Drugs Board, Ghana
Lead – Carl Yao Agbenyega
BUILD AN APP IN 60 SEC WITH WITH FIREBASE
January 27, 2017
With the ever-increasing introduction of new technologies and frameworks, it has become possible to build your very own web or mobile app with little background in web development languages and script (HTML, CSS and JavaScript). Firebase is one of such platforms which we will be exploring! This session, led by Nii Apa Abbey ’15 and Carl Agbenyega ’15, taught the use of the Firebase platform for building a simple web application.
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