What would interest a Bulgarian/American who lives in Britain have so much passion and interest in pushing for global awareness to discover hidden talents in Africa and helping such talents to patent and commercialise their inventions for optimum commercial benefits.
For Stoyan Smoukov, 48,promoter of this unique and novel idea,the Pan African innovation competition is intended to” find curious and inventive minds in Africa, who want to make their new instrument vision a reality. It is also a chance, to distinguish themselves and be able to continue their education in prestigious universities, or also to attract the attention of potential investors who may want to commercialize their invention.
According to the young innovator,the competition which is opened to all Africans is to stimulate and arrange the funding of identifiable inventions and train them for better exploits
Said he,” we will show in training a few basics of sensor/electronics assembly with Arduinos, including programming on the Arduino platform.”
The competition is really trying to combine the curiosity and ability of people who know how .
The 3 themes of the competition are:
1. COVID-19/ Malaria related innovations
2. Robotics and Automation for agricultural or domestic use
3. Entrepreneurship in sustainability – we give away technology help people develop businesses around it
Similarly, the aim is also to enable participants to “know scientific principles, through which they can construct many useful devices from damaged appliances. In fact, many such as CD players, contain multiple Nobel Prizes. One man’s trash could literally be another’s treasure with knowledge.”
The essence of the training according to him in an online chat with Newdawnngr.com, “is is also combined with the fact that new sensing and control electronics, such as the Arduino and Raspberry Pi platforms, have opened the world to assembling and controlling multiple devices together for £5-25.
In general, it’s use of cheap or recycled electronics, machining and 3D printing to make functional instruments at 10x and often 100x lower price than existing commercial instruments with similar capabilities.
That is not all,winners in the competition which entries will close on July 20 will be able to assess €1200 (euros) each for the 3 first prizes.
But besides winning first prize, all finalists will have proof-of-concept funding (average €450 each) to make their dream a reality.
Terms of the competition:
The teams must register at our website: Tinyurl.com/2020Africa by 20th July 2021, and submit final application (3 pages PDF) by 31st July 2021. These are in either English or French with a Google Translation to the other language.
If selected for finalists, the teams will get training, support, and about €450 in funding to produce 2 prototypes each, one to be sent to the judging committee together with full documentation to assess their performance and quality.
Is the competition only open to Nigerians?
No, it is open to all Africans. That said, Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa, yet we have only had 1 application from Nigeria. It is time to spread the news and show that Nigeria has its fair share of inventors and entrepreneurs.
Are there social media platforms people can visit to know more about the AIM LABS and its projects in Africa?
YES! Please engage and retweet our competition opportunity. We have several social platforms:
Twitter: @InnovateCompete
Instagram: @africalowcostcompetition
Facebook: facebook.com/innovation.stoyan
In an on line interview,Stovan also provided more details about his background and the far reaching objectives of the novel competition.
How did you come about the AIM LABS idea?
I started the Active & Intelligent Materials Lab at the University of Cambridge (2012-2017), and have moved it now to Queen Mary University of London (2017-present). I’m a Reader (Associate Professor) in Chemical Engineering. I have published > 85 journal papers, cited over 3200 times, with H-index of 31 (31 peer-review journal articles cited > 31 times). I co-founded a startup company for producing nanofibers and I am now leading the work on a number of European projects and industrial collaborations. My current research interests are focused on the fundamentals properties of materials in confinement, multi-responsive materials, as well as geometry and processing technologies for achieving responsiveness. The longer term goal is to create autonomous material robotics, where the materials themselves are the robots.
What got you interested in this field?
I went to a Materials Research Society (MRS) meeting in 2005 and saw that polymers can act as artificial muscles to power flying robots. Since then I have thought, we can put many functions in the same material and make the material itself behave like a robot. We have achieved much in this directions – we have made programmable materials that have “muscle memory”, ones that can walk by themselves under the influence of light. We have also made the materials that not only move, but store energy, and even sense their environment. We are exploring how we can start growing artificial robots in similar ways as we grow bacteria.
Can you break down Low Cost instruments in a Layman’s term?
Low Cost Instruments is perhaps inspired initially by me growing up in Bulgaria, and another way to say it – necessity is the mother of invention. Knowing how to fix household appliances is a feeling that must be familiar to many people in Nigeria and mid-lower income countries. Sadly in richer countries people can fix almost nothing, and don’t even know the principles of the devices working.
The book “Jugaad Innovation” shows the creativity that can emerge from knowing how to jerry-rig new devices from something broken or other materials. The “Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid” also shows social innovations can emerge in poor environments. Similarly, if one knows scientific principles, they can construct many useful devices from damaged appliances. In fact, many such as CD players, contain multiple Nobel Prizes. One man’s trash could literally be another’s treasure with knowledge. This is also combined with the fact that new sensing and control electronics, such as the Arduino and Raspberry Pi platforms, have opened the world to assembling and controlling multiple devices together for £5-25. In general, it’s use of cheap or recycled electronics, machining and 3D printing to make functional instruments at 10x and often 100x lower price than existing commercial instruments with similar capabilities.
Tell us about some of your previous and on going efforts in Low Cost instruments ?
A Master’s student of mine, I and two other colleagues from Belgium and France were the 4 musketeers, who brought people from all over the world to a symposium on Low Cost Instruments. It was in 2017, at the International Materials Research Congress (IMRC), which I was organizing in Mexico – the largest Materials Science meeting in Latin America.
The workshop we ran on how to assemble microscopes, spectrometers and other instruments ran for the standard 4 hours, and people wanted to stay longer so we extended to more than 6 – to accommodate people wanting to learn / do it. Since then we have run other workshops, e.g. in London, where we showed extraction of DNA with home-assembled centrifuges, built UV-visible spectrometers, particle detectors, 3D printed micropipettes, and microscopes.
At Queen Mary we have run a number of classes based ono recycled instruments and students find that they are both great as educational opportunities and as research projects to develop technology.
Could you please tell us more about the competition ?
It’s trying to find curious and inventive minds in Africa, who want to make their new instrument vision a reality. It is also a chance, do distinguish themselves and be able to continue their education in prestigious universities, or also to attract the attention of potential investors who may want to commercialize their invention. In addition to the funding, we will show in training a few basics of sensor/electronics assembly with Arduinos, including programming on the Arduino platform.
The competition is really trying to combine the curiosity and ability of people who know how
What has been the biggest challenge so far?
Africa is a huge continent, teeming with rich talent and ambition. Similar competition had been run previously for a few French-speaking countries only. In order to include all of Africa, we wanted to run the first technology Pan-African Innovation Competition, and we are running it in both English and French! As everything done the first time, building connections across the continent is the first hurdle. COVID-19 closed a lot of universities and innovation hubs. But now that vaccination is starting to open countries, we have high expectations. In fact, the COVID challenge forced us to re-evaluate parts of the competition and make them even more efficient.
Who is eligible to take part in the competition?
Anyone in Africa interested in innovating with low cost instruments and their team. The 3 themes of the competition are:
1. COVID-19/ Malaria related innovations
2. Robotics and Automation for agricultural or domestic use
3. Entrepreneurship in sustainability – we give away technology help people develop businesses around it
-What are the Prizes to be won in this competition?
€1200 (euros) each for the 3 first prizes
But besides winning first prize, all finalists will have proof-of-concept funding (average €450 each) to make their dream a reality.
What are the terms and conditions for participation?
The teams must register at our website: Tinyurl.com/2020Africa by 20th July 2021, and submit final application (3 pages PDF) by 31st July 2021. These are in either English or French with a Google Translation to the other language.
If selected for finalists, the teams will get training, support, and about €450 in funding to produce 2 prototypes each, one to be sent to the judging committee together with full documentation to assess their performance and quality.
Is the competition only open to Nigerians?
No, it is open to all Africans. That said, Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa, yet we have only had 1 application from Nigeria. It is time to spread the news and show that Nigeria has its fair share of inventors and entrepreneurs.
What is the Remote training in Arduino about?
The training will cover basic Arduino programming, working with an Arduino hardware kit, which will be sent to all finalists. It will involve several pre-recorded materials followed by several interactive (online) workshop sessions. The goal is to familiarize inventors with a popular and inexpensive electronic sensing and control platform to use later to build their inventions.
How can people contact you for more information?
africalowcostcompetition@qmul.ac.uk and also visit our website: Tinyurl.com/2020Africa
Also engage us on the Social Media platforms below.
Are there social media platforms people can visit to know more about the AIM LABS and its projects in Africa?
YES! Please engage and retweet our competition opportunity. We have several social platforms:
Twitter: @InnovateCompete
Instagram: @africalowcostcompetition
Facebook: facebook.com/innovation.stoyan
