UNIST has announced the successful completion of the 2019 World Friends ICT Volunteers Program, held in Ghana from August 5 to 23, 2019. This year, about 8 students from UNIST participated.
During the course of the event, students visited the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), located in Kumasi, Ghana. Their contributions focused on using innovative ICT technologies to solve critical educational and societal issues through cultural exchange. About 25 students from KNUST also took part in this year’s volunteering program.
Students carried out their own training sessions for developing Arduino and mobile apps. KNUST students learned programming and coding through the courses and came up with a system, reflecting on what they have learned so far. In addition, 12 of the trainees used the contents of their education to carry out projects to solve real life problems.
“Seeing the excitement in my students’ eyes when they first understood how Arduino programming worked remains a vivid memory,” says Jiwon Lim in the School of Mechanical Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering at UNIST.
Students also took advantage of what they have learned in class to build a recycling system that separates recyclables from the general wastes, as well as a drone-based crop monitoring system.
Along with this, students also enjoyed partaking in various cultural exchange activities between Korea and Ghana. This volunteering program offers students with an unrivalled opportunity to share their skills, immerse themselves in a new culture, and make a difference volunteering abroad. Students also had opportunities to learn more about each other’s languages and culture through playing traditional games and sharing food.
The name of this year’s volunteering group is ‘GhaU’, which refers to the group of UNISTARs who worked as a World Friends ICT volunteer in Ghana. This year’s group consists of Young Hoo You (School of Design and Human Engineering), Eun Seong Park and Yu Jin Kim (School of Electrical and Computer Engineering), and Min Hye Park, In Hye Park, Soohyung Park, Young Im Nam, Hong Ro Jang, and Jiwon Lim (School of Mechanical Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering).
Meanwhile, the World Friends ICT Volunteers Program is supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT and is managed by the Korea Information Society Agency (NIA). UNIST has been continuously volunteering for the World Friends ICT Volunteers Program since 2014. The relationship between UNIST and KNUST began in 2018. Based on the MoU agreement in 2018, the two universities will continue make cultural and academic exchanges.
