Youth-led robotics and STEM initiative

Founded in 2019 by Jens Griebel and Dr Funmilayo Akpokiniovo, non-profit organisation Genius Robotics Club (GRC) looks to empower the youth through training in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programmes.

The training programme has lab facilities that provide the youth with opportunities to venture into STEM related fields. The GRC team consists of Dennis de Abreu, Nolan Ndokosho and Azor Hiaranguru.

The idea for the club emanated in 2017 when First Global was scouting for local representatives from various countries to participate in its inaugural event. Akpokiniovo reached out to Delta Secondary School to start the team. She further brought together learners from various schools to represent Namibia at the global STEM competition.

GRC was established so that the alumni of the group could start a mentoring programme. The team hopes to grow the mentoring programme into an academy.

“We ventured into this field because of the keen interest to acclimitise the Namibian youth with the current worldwide trend in robotics,” Griebel said.

The programme has received support from Pebl, StartUp Namibia's digital transformation centre and Salt Essentials IT company. The latter and Impact Tank have supported GRC for quite some time and assisted the team with networking and hosting the club.

The GRC team members are students studying in STEM fields and rely on the support of volunteers to continue their mission of empowerment.



Team members

Griebel graduated from NUST and has a bachelor of engineering degree. In addition, he completed a bachelor of information technology qualification in software development. He serves as the manager of GRC as well as a team mentor.

As a STEM enthusiast, De Abreu has five years of experience in building competition-based robots and three years of experience in engineering computer-aided design software and is an undergraduate mechanical engineering student at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). The young GRC president also received a certificate from President Hage Geingob, honouring him as a young innovator.

The team competed in the First Global 2022 challenge, which focused on retrieving global greenhouse gases - specifically carbon dioxide. They competed against international teams and one of the tasks was to create international alliances. Tasks at hand included designing and prototyping robots through the guidance of mentors.

Furthermore, the members had to cooperate and communicate to expand their STEM skill sets. The mentors who assisted the team were not allowed to compete, but rather allowed the members to creatively tackle the “important things in life”, a blog post by GRC read.

The team placed seventh out of 198 participants.

“We left with ambition, curiosity and perseverance and returned with experience, humility and appreciation,” Griebel said.

GRC's focus is on mentoring young students, and has empowered 25 students so far. They are currently training six more students to support the existing four members.

According to Griebel, robotics is seen as complex field, but he encouraged students to embrace STEM. To be successful in the field, students are required to have soft skills such as critical thinking and documentation and a clear sense proficiency in STEM subjects. Subjects that are recommended are mathematics and engineering.

Griebel added that Namibia has the environment to improve the field of robotics and the sector is gradually growing.

“We see countless opportunities for Namibians to foster their minds and build a community that provides them with the essentials and well-being they deserve,” he said.