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Schools drone competition opens today

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 23 May 2016
The Drones for Good competition will see South African learners design and build a drone.
The Drones for Good competition will see South African learners design and build a drone.

Think Ahead Education Solutions, in partnership with Create Africa and the Onsite Group, today announced a South African inter-school drone challenge.

The challenge, called Drones for Good, will require school learners, between grades four and 12 on their own or in a group of up to four, to come up with a drone solution to a social problem.

The student or team will then have to build their own drone and demonstrate at a festival later this year how it will work to solve the problem. Learners are not allowed to make use of a pre-bought complete drone.

"This competition aims to challenge students to think creatively and critically, and identify a problem in their home, school, community, country or the world that their team feels could be solved by using a drone," Think Ahead says in a statement.

The company hopes to unlock engineering, science, robotics, maths, design, coding and electronics potential in learners.

Students need to submit a video as the competition entry with a detailed explanation on how a drone can solve the stipulated problem. Together with the submission of the solution to their chosen problem, students also have to submit a full technical document detailing the construction of their drone.

The challenge is launching to schools today and submissions will close on 15 September, after which finalists will be invited to participate in the Drone Festival.

Learners and parents will be responsible for funding the drone construction. Schools can assist if they wish. Think Ahead says it is in the process of getting various sponsors on board to try and assist learners with the funding of their drone kits.

Any schools or students interested in participating can contact dronespace@thinkahead.co.za.

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