Sierra Leone is a west African country with lots of young people who are into problem solving. Our team is made up of young makers who often ask “why?” to push themselves hard to come up with the what and how can we do it to change the narrative.

ADINA MATILDA THOMAS: She was recently promoted to JSS 3 at the St Joseph Secondary School. Adina recently took part in the Africell Coding boot camp and gained a lot of experience about software development and App coding. With the training in software development as part of her summer school engagements, she has developed excellent skills in app development and has been very instrumental in robot building. Her post-competition commitment is to gain more knowledge and help promote robotics building among young girls.

JOSEPHINE DUSUBA HARDING: Dusuba is a recent high school graduate and very passionate about STEM. Her main focus in her high school years has been problem-solving, something she has been involved in for a while now. She took part in last year’s Innovation competition organised by Innovate Salone. Though her project did not make it to the final stage, her contribution to the overall outcome was immense to the point that she was awarded for her resilience in showcasing her community as a home that nurture creative young people. Being involved in the development of the robot has opened her eyes to take on numerous opportunities, including the need for girl empowerment nationally. Her conviction is girls in their teens should lead development at grassroot level and she is committed to putting that in action when she returns from Dubai.

OSMAN KOLLEH YILLAH: Born in Freetown, Osman Kolleh Yillah is an excellent science student, involved in self taught engineering education using mostly YouTube. He has learnt the skills of basic engineering design. His role on the team has been helping to create the design of the robot. Like most of them, he’s taking part in the competition but has expressed willingness to learn and grow. That has been exhibited throughout this one month on the robotic team. He is committed to see the team thriving in the competition in Dubai.

PATRICK ELOGEMA NGEBEH: Patrick Elogema Ngebeh is an outstanding programmer and a social innovator. In his early years in high school, he made his own FM transmitter. He is also working on several internet of things projects, including using a phone that could switch on power in homes.  In 2015 he won the Sierra Kid Expo and in 2017 he won a programming competition organized by a leading IT University in Sierra Leone. This year, he led the team during the Sensi Tech hub Health Hackathon on Risk Communication in West Africa with an app they self created called Health Awareness app. He has diverse knowledge in building mobile apps.

NANCY SHERIFF: She is a recent graduate from Junior high school and is a passionate change activist in her community. She has participated in various innovation competitions in Sierra Leone. She is a mentee to one of the FIRST Global alums who represented Sierra Leone in the inaugural competition. Since one of the team members came back from the inaugural FIRST Global Challenge in the US in 2017, she had mentored Nancy to be a great driver of the robot, something she had mastered at a tender age of 15. In 2019, she’s on the team to practice things she had learnt on her mentorship journey.

2017 Team Video