Cape Coast-Ghana, Feb. 11, GNA – The Department of Physics at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in partnership with Arm, the world’s leading semiconductor Intellectual Property (IP) company with speciality in computer processors, has commissioned an Arm Technology and Ecosystem Laboratory to train students.
The arm (E3) NGAGE UCC Ecosystem Lab is furnished with a variety of outstanding computing equipment, including computers and microprocessors to empower students to build their own technologies and companies to address human problems.
The facility was built through the British company’s Education Division and is accompanied by a curriculum to adequately prepare young people for the 21st Century and a variety of certification programmes and opportunities for internships.
The laboratory is open to students of UCC and Senior High Schools in Cape Coast.
Arm technologies (processors) are found in most of the world’s mobile phones, smart watches, laptops, satellites inter alia and are used to enhance operations in every field including agriculture, health, oil refinery, weather mapping and banking.
Mr Stephen Ozoigbo, Senior Director, Emerging Economies, Arm, said the partnership with UCC and the construction of the laboratory was intended to open the eyes of students to a brighter future.
He said as a regional institution of excellence, students of UCC deserved to be given the opportunity to compete at the world stage.
He intimated that sessions in the lab would be purely practical and that students would be taught to build sensors.
“Sensors are used in building worldclass devices across all fields of endeavour including health care, robotic, and fintech technologies,” he explained.
Mr Ozoigbo urged the students to take full advantage of the lab, stressing that “we are here to accelerate the learning and the big deal is that all of it is free.”
Touting the company’s achievement since its inception more than 30 years ago, the Senior Director averred that the company was behind most of the world’s computing technology, from the smallest phone to the biggest satellite.
Professor Benjamin Anderson, Coordinator of Laser and Fibre Optic Centre, UCC, intimated that the world was tilting towards digitisation and therefore, it would be unfair to train students without digital knowledge.
He said they would offer students a hybrid of hard and soft skills to enable them to survive the digital evolution.
“The idea is to train students already prepared for the world market because our products will not only end up in Ghana, but some will also travel abroad.“We are looking into the future to explore more job avenues in this area because we have seen that without it, the students will lose out now that jobs have become scarce,” he added.
He said he was overwhelmed by Arm’s support and expressed gratitude for the partnership.
