Khalmax Robotics Project

Recent studies reveal only 7% of engineering graduates globally have the required STEM and digital literacy skills needed to gain employment after school.

Furthermore, only 2% of the entire population of African students under 18 years have the  necessary STEM skills required in this digital age.

One major reason for this deficiency is, education in African countries like Ghana, from the basic level, has been limited to only cramming formulas and passing exams with very little emphasis placed on digital literacy and STEM.

Our solution, the Khalmax Robotics Project seeks to solve this problem by empowering students from 8 years to the university level by training them to create and build problem solving robots from electronic waste.  

By establishing robotics clubs in schools, millions of African students enroll and are given practical digital literacy and STEM skills in coding, robotics and AI, making up for STEM training deficit in our educational curriculum.

LACK OF STEM EDUCATION AND INADEQUATE DIGITAL LITERACY SKILLS IN AFRICA

A recent study reveals only 7% of engineering graduates globally have the required STEM and digital literacy skills needed to gain employment after school.

Furthermore, only 2% of the entire population of African students under 18 years have the  necessary STEM skills required in this digital age.

A 2016 report from the International Commission on Financing Global Education reveals the quality of education in Africa trails the rest of the world by 70 years.

One major reason for this deficiency is, education in African countries like Ghana, right from the basic level, has been limited to only cramming formulas and passing exams, hence the popular Ghanaian terminology "CHEW, POUR, PASS AND FORGET". i.e. Memorize and reproduce during exams, pass with good grades, then forget what you've learnt). 

Very little of classroom lessons is applied in solving real life problems. 

This lack of practicality of theoretical classroom lessons and inadequate STEM programs in our educational curriculum has given rise to a generation of African graduates (especially in the engineering field), who are unable to fit into the job market after school.

The Khalmax Robotics Project currently operates in two sectors:

• Basic, Junior and Senior High schools (8 -17 years)
• Universities (18- 25 years)

According to the Ghana Statistical Service there are 14 million Ghanaians from the age of 8 to 25 years. The Ghana Education Service also reveals there are 60,000 schools (basic, high schools and universities) in Ghana alone. 

In continents like Europe and America, technology skills such as coding and STEM have been successfully incorporated into their educational curriculum. 

Unfortunately, in many African countries such as Ghana, our educational system in its deficiency in providing adequate and practical STEM skills has  denied millions of students from the basic level to college.

To help solve the deficiency in our educational curriculum the Khalmax Robotics project collaborates and partners with schools and universities by establishing robotics clubs i.e the Khalmax Robotics club(KRC).

By enrolling in our robotics program students are given vital training skills to make up for the STEM training deficit in our educational curriculum.

By obtaining skills in coding, robotics and AI, students at a young age are empowered to tackle real life and daily societal problems by developing automated systems such as alarm sensors and farming etc.

The Khalmax Robotics Project seeks to promote digital inclusion for all ages through robotics education, engineering and Artificial intelligence. It is an initiative that empowers students from 8 years  to the university level by training them to create and build problem solving robots using electronic waste and other discarded materials. It is implemented in three ways;

1.   KHALMAX ROBOTICS CLUB

By establishing robotics clubs in schools, known as the Khamax Robotics Club, thousands of students across Africa enrol and are given practical training skills in coding, robotics and Artificial Intelligence in a minimum of 6 months.

2. FINAL PROJECT STAGE

After the 6 month module, they embark on a final project.  With the guidance of their instructors they are tasked to identify problems in their communities and build robots to solve them using mainly discarded household materials and electronic waste. The students then present these robots at our annual ROBOCOMPETITION event, a robotics inter-school's competition which we organize amongst schools.

Listed below are examples of robots built by our students:

• Automatic seed planting robot cars for farming.
• Fire detection and extinguishing robots
• Pulse heart rate measuring devices

3. MANUFACTURE OF EDUCATIONAL ROBOTS

Aside training, teaching aids known as educational robots are used by students to effectively program and assemble robots. These educational robots consist of PCB microcontrollers, wheels, actuators and sensors assembled as a kit. 

Unfortunately, these educational robots required for effective STEM training are highly expensive, complex to use and can only be procured overseas, hence limited to only a few.

As part of our effort in promoting access to STEM education through the use of educational robots, we locally manufacture and produce educational robots and microcontrollers at low cost to students and technology savvy individuals across Africa and beyond.

We are innovative in 3 ways: 

1. BUILDING ROBOTS FROM SCRATCH

 Many of our competitors don't really create robots and hence are not engineering centered. 

They merely train students to assemble already purchased educational robots with very little improvisation.

In Khalmax, we train our students  to build robots almost from the scratch level. Innovation is birthed when children below 12 years are able to create the robots that  university students are unable to. Examples of projects built by our students are :

•   Pulse heart rate devices

• Fire detection and extinguishing robots

•  Automatic seed planting robots for farming.

2. RECYCLE AND REUSE OF ELECTRONIC WASTE

By 2020, households in the U.S. alone will generate approximately 800 million used electrical and electronic gadgets.  In 2018, the U.S. toy industry bumped its annual sales by $264 million to $11.6 billion. With toys contributing a huge chunk of electronic waste, we train students to recycle and reuse outgrown toys by transforming them into useful robots instead of disposing them.

• MANUFACTURE OF EDUCATIONAL ROBOTS

Effective STEM education requires the practical use of educational robots. Unfortunately the brands on the market are either very expensive, complex to program or can only be procured overseas.

To improve access to STEM education we became the first  company in West African to locally manufacture our microcontroller and educational robot known as the Eureka Development Board(EDB).

Our educational robots are far cheaper, user friendly and can be easily procured locally by our target market

Our robotics program employs technology in the following areas:

1. ROBOTICS ENROLLMENT APP

Currently, students enrol manually into our robotics program.  However, we intend to automate the entire process through the use of a robotics enrollment mobile app which would be downloaded by parents and students. The app would:

• Enable student enroll digitally.
• Track class attendance and send performances, pictures and videos to parents.
•  Receive and track student payments seamlessly.

2. ROBOTS WITH AI

Our robotics program constitutes a minimum of 6 month training for students in engineering, coding and Artificial Intelligence.

After 6 moths, students embark on a final project and with the help of their instructors they are tasked to identify problems in their environment and build robots to solve them.

Many of the devices built by our students are robots fused with AI and IoT. An example of such  device recently built by our students is a Smoke Alarm Bluetooth Sensor.

This device upon detecting smoke triggers a smart phone using Bluetooth to make a call to the fire service.

3. MANUFACTURE OF EDUCATIONAL ROBOTS

In the manufacture of microcontrollers and educational robots deep technology concepts such as PCB manufacture and IoT are employed. The educational robots we manufacture includes sensors that makes the robots have some level of intelligence.

ROBOTICS TRAINING

Our solution addresses the focal point and root cause of the educational problems plaguing Africa i.e. lack of an effective and practical STEM education in our educational curriculum.

In providing STEM training to students, the 2% of the population of African students below 18 years and 7% of college graduates who lack adequate and practical STEM skills needed in this digital age would be a thing of the past.

By identifying problems in their communities and building useful robots to solve them, students do not only acquire STEM skills but understand the true purpose of why they are in school. ie. solve Africa's problems.

ORGANIZING THE ROBOCOMPETITION EVENT

Recent studies reveal inter-school competitions are key in boosting student interest and participation in STEM. The introduction of our annual inter-schools RoboCompetition since 2018 has led to over 40% increase in school's participation and student enrollment in our robotics program as more students and schools seek to gain bragging rights over the other.

MANUFACTURE AND SALE OF EDUCATIONAL ROBOTS

A recent study by schematicschorlars.org reveals the main barriers to the progress of STEM and robotics education in schools is the lack of educational robots as teaching aids. Major reasons were because they were considered very expensive and complex to use. Our local manufacture and sale of user friendly educational robots at low cost to students and tech savvy individuals would improve and increase access to STEM education.

Currently, we have about 100 students enrolled in our robotics program across 4 schools in Ghana. Our plan is to scale this to 1,000 students  in the next 12 months. 

On a long term our goal is to enroll about 15,000 students, comprising Basic level, high school and university students, across west Africa in the next 5 years. 

• In the next 3 months (October 2019) we intend to organize the second edition of our annual RoboCompetition.

• Within 12 months our plan is to scale the robotics program to 1,000 students across 35 schools in Ghana. This involves recruiting and training university engineering graduates, employing them as robotics instructors and positing them to basic and high schools to in-turn train the younger generation of students.

• Currently, the process of enrolling students into our robotics program is manual. 
  To enable efficient and real-time data management, monitor enrollment, track student payments and provide parents feed back our goal is to develop a robotics mobile app to automate the entire process.

• The access and use of educational robots by students is critical to the success of STEM education in Africa. With a working model of our locally developed microcontroller successfully tested and sold, our goal in the next 12 months is to make robotics education more accessible to the masses by establishing a production plant to locally manufacture and sell microcontrollers and educational robots at an affordable cost to students, companies and technology savvy individuals.

•  In 5 years our focus is to make robotics and artificial intelligence mainstream in our educational curriculum. We intend to scale the robotics program to at least 15,000 students across West Africa. In this time, we expect to replicate our robotics project in other West African countries such as Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.

(1) Lack of funds is one of the major problems we face as a startup. Funds are needed to enable us partner with schools in scaling the robotics program across the country. Funds are needed to extend the robotics program to rural and under-deprived communities. Funding is needed to recruit, train and post robotics instructors to schools across the country. Funding is needed for transporting training teams to schools across the country. 

 (2) Lack of logistics. Due to the lack of  training logistics such as educational robots in the African market many of these gadgets are procured at expensive rates from abroad, making robotics education very expensive. The foreign exchange rates, cost of shipping and clearing makes the entire cost of educational robots triple or quadruple when brought down to Africa.

It is for this reason we decided to establish a plant to locally manufacture and sell own micrcontrollers and educational robots locally and export globally.

(3) Lack of adequate skilled personnel. Our robotics program requires highly skilled engineering personnel capable of training students in basic and high schools(K-12). Unfortunately, the educational system in Africa only concentrates on memorizing formulas and passing exams with little practicality. This has greatly affected the quality of engineering graduates released into the job market as many of them are unable to train. This made us introduce our robotics program to the universities to equip them practical skills in robotics.

• Lack of funds.

Our goal is to raise seed funding through pitches,  application to accelerators and seeking angel and VC investment for our startup. 

• Lack of logistics.

This was the primary reason we decided to to make educational robots more accessible by locally manufacture and sell own micrcontroller and educational robots in commercial quantities locally and globally.

• Lack of adequate and skilled personnel.

Initially the Khalmax robotics program was effective only at the basic and high school level. However the lack of adequate, skilled graduates made us realize the problem persisted up to the university level. This propelled us to introduce our robotics program to the universities to equip them with practical skills the universities have been unable to provide for them.

In 2014 we started Khalmax Software Systems, a software and web developing company. Our Robotics Project  started out in 2016 as a project under its parent and legally registered company, Khalmax Software Systems. We however have plans of incorporating the Khalmax Robotics project as a separate and legal entity before the end of the 2019.

We are a team of four with two full time members and two part time members.

Listed below are the members of the Khalmax Robotics team

1. Frank Khalid Limann
Position: CEO/Founder
Qualification: B.Sc.Physics (Electronics)
Experience:
• Over 3 years' experience in training robotics
• 7 years in software/web development

2. Kenneth Ayih Donkor
Position: Co Founder/Engineer
Qualification: BSc. Aerospace Engineering
Experience: Close to 6 years experience as a Field Service Engineer in Aker Solutions.

3. Kelvin Ankrah
Position: Robotics Instructor/Engineer
Qualification: B.Sc.Physics (Electronics)
Experience: Over 1 year experience as a Robotics instructor/Engineer

4. Lily Akosua Odoom
Position: Robotics Instructor/Engineer
Qualification: BSc. Biomedical Engineering

With almost 3 years working as a team we have successfully trained over 400 students in robotics both part time and full time basis, hence we believe we have enough expertise and experience to make this business successful.

My ability as a team leader in starting a robotics company for the past 3 years is worth noting. The challenges involved in running a start-up in Ghana, especially a robotics/AI start-up cannot be under emphasized.

As the pioneer and founder of this vision, a lot of skills were required to successfully run the business at its early stages. I had to to play multiple roles in training, engineering, business management, finance and marketing. My multi-talented abilities had been very critical in this start-up.

Khalmax Robotics currently partners with 4 schools in Ghana in implementing its robotics program.  We offer partnering schools 10 % commission on the training revenue in return for access to students and usage of school venue as our training ground. Listed below are schools we partner with.

• Queensland International School, Nungua, Accra
• Fountain Head Christian School, Sakumono, Accra
• Corpus Christi Basic School, Lashibi, Accra.
• Koncord Academy, Lashibi, Accra

Our primary customers consists of:

(1) Students (8 to 25 years)

(2) Schools

(3) Parents

 In a B2B2C and B2C partnership, we partner with schools in establishing robotics clubs i.e Khalmax Robotics Club (K.R.C) through which hundreds of interested students enroll and undertake courses in engineering, coding and electronics.

Parents pay a monthly subscription of $20 or $60 every term (quarter) for their wards as training fees. This way with a 5,000 student membership we can generate a monthly revenue of $100,000 and $1,200,000 annually from training alone. Through this model we have generated close $35,000 in revenue since 2016.

We offer partnering schools 10 % commission on the training revenue in return for access to students and usage of school venue as our training ground.

Aside training, we also generate revenue by locally manufacturing and selling of robotics teaching aides known as microcontroller units and educational robots in commercial quantities to students, companies and technology savvy individuals globally.

Our goal is to raise seed funding through pitches, grants, accelerators and seeking angel and VC investment for our startup. Without external funding we have generated close to $35,000 in revenue from our robotics training and sale of educational robots in the last 3 years.

Our traction despite the lack of external funding and investment is proof our business model is sustainable. In the long term, we expect to increase revenue through our scaled training programs and the sale of our locally manufactured educational robots globally. 

By enrolling 15,000 students in our robotics program in 5 years, we expect to generate a monthly revenue of $300,000 and $3,600,000 from training alone annually.

One of our major challenges is funding. Through the Solve challenge  we believe we can collaborate and partner with leading organisations with similar interest who can assist us through network and access to funds in promoting STEM education in Africa.

We also hope to benefit from the immense exposure, mentoring and network from solve's expertise in scaling our robotics program globally.  

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UNICEF

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MICROSOFT

Robotics, coding and AI form the core of our solution. The AI innovations prize will be best fit for our plans to scale our robotics program across Africa. 

Many of the projects built by our students are robots fused with AI and IoT. An example of such  device recently built by our students is a Smoke Alarm Bluetooth Sensor.

This device upon detecting smoke triggers a smart phone using Bluetooth to make a call to the fire service.

Another is a seed planting robot vehicle for farming. This automated robot has a digging mechanism that scoops the soil on farm beds and drops seed into them.

Secondly, with funding from this prize we intend to make educational robots cheaper an more accessible to African students by establishing a  production plant to locally manufacture educational robots and PCB microcontrollers  at an affordable cost. 

Robotics, coding and AI form the core of our solution.  With funding from the GM Prize on Community-Driven Innovation more students in Africa will have more access to locally manufactured educational robots and microcontrollers at affordable cost. Also, majority of the funding would be channelled into reaching under-deprived communities and rural areas who are left out in STEM education to ensure digital inclusion.

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