For the last four years, the World Bank has ranked Ethiopia as the fastest growing economy in the world, with an expected GDP growth of 7.9% in 2020. Sustaining the growing economy can only be accomplished with an educated and motivated working-class coupled with expansions in the science, technology, engineering, and math industries. Ethiopia has begun to address this challenge by broadening university education and providing more support for local STEM and finance companies. However, most universities in Ethiopia lack the resources to provide students with practical application to the theoretical knowledge they learn in the classroom. As a result, not as many students as possible are inspired to pursue professions in STEM and entrepreneurship; while those that are interested end up emigrating to the country in the look of more opportunity. In light of these roadblocks in Ethiopia's growth, the STEM and entrepreneurial sectors in Ethiopia's workforce are not growing at their full potential.
The goal of our project, Ethiopian Diaspora Coalition - A Maker Space Initiative, is to travel to Ethiopia and work with the country's largest university and epicenter for innovation, Addis Ababa University, to create a technology maker space that will be available to the university and the broader community including local high schools, startups, and nearby smaller universities. EDC will work side by side with Addis Ababa University and interested community members to implement a maker space at the university equipped with a wide array of electronics, tools, and supplies. The ultimate vision is that once completed, the maker space will provide university students across all departments and interested community members a space to learn about and pursue practical and entrepreneurial applications to their classroom studies. Once open, Maker Space would be used in various ways such as teaching classes out of it, having open hours for people to come in and work on projects, and bridge programs with local highschools to get underrepresented communities more involved with STEM.
