Unfortunately, in most countries of the Arabian Peninsula, technical education, technical fields, and technical universities are still placed behind education in areas such as medicine and law. Likewise, people in Iraq often prefer employment in the state administration to work in the private sector. This is detrimental to the development of the local economy. However, the trend is changing. New technologies and new technical fields such as 3D printing, robotics, programming, and others are emerging, which attract more and more young people. At the same time, well-established social and cultural stereotypes are being broken and changed.

The project of the non-governmental organization Science Camp from Basra aims to popularize technical education among the young generation of Iraqis, which, thanks to Czech development aid, was able to produce its own robot kits. The result is a remote-controlled robot that young Iraqis can assemble themselves while also taking an educational course. Thanks to support from the so-called "small local projects" program and Czech government aid intended for the Middle East and Africa region, over 100 kits of these robots are to be produced. It is assumed that 3 children will use each kit. In cooperation with schools, Science Camp provides educational courses in which Iraqi youth assemble robots themselves under the supervision of trainers. By July 2024, a total of four courses for children and one training course for supervisors and primary school teachers have already taken place. In July 2024, we are only before the second half of the project, other courses will start after the summer holidays.

The project is unique in a number of ways, its popularity among young people is great, not only among boys, but also among girls. The robot-kit is very successful, it contains electronic components and other parts for assembling a robot with one movable robotic arm and claw, and a remote control. The model is fully functional. Despite the all electronic parts and thanks to its simplicity, it is relatively cheap. Courses for children discuss the possibility of using robots in practice, enables pupils to easily understand mechanical principles, functioning of individual parts, upload software into it, and share experiences with their peers. Both the robot and the kit were designed and manufactured locally by the non-governmental organization Science Camp. The project is also unique in that it clearly shows the youth that not abstractly "one day and maybe humanity will have", but concretely "here and now you can do it yourself". We hope that project will continue on its own in the future, without further participation of the Czech Republic. Czech aid was one-time. 

The children's course itself has 4 parts. In the beginning, young people learn from the basics, about what a robot is, where it is used, whether it will take people's work, etc. The second part explains the mechanical manual for the kit, the third manual for the electronic parts and the last, fourth installation of the software for operating the robot. A fifth part - visual programming - will be added in the future. The courses are held at the Central Library in Basra.

Behind the project itself stands one visionary man with his passion and enthusiasm for new technical fields - Nawres Arif. He found Science Camp 11 years ago. His Science Camp participates in a number of competitions around the world. Young people from Iraq participated in competitions, for example in Singapore, Switzerland, the USA, Mexico, Dubai and Greece. Nawres would like to establish cooperation with similar entities in the Czech Republic or to visit interesting technological events in the Czech Republic. You can contact him via Linked In or Facebook.

Nawres has many new ideas about how to continue the project and how to expand it. He has already prepared an upgrade of the robot model, which will allow children to visually program the robot via the ARDUINO electronic platform with wifi and the use of MIXLY visual software. Over 1,000 new robots are to be produced. Nawres also negotiates with local authorities to include the courses in the official curricula of Iraqi schools. He constructed a large model of his model that will be installed in the Central Library of Basra. Science Camp is selecting its team to participate in the upcoming Robotics Olympiad in Greece and is looking for additional donors to fund more educational activities for young people. 

 

Připravil: Ing. Roman Plevák, Ph.D., vedoucí oddělení obchodu a rozvojové spolupráce, Velvyslanectví ČR v Bagdádu