About 100 people, mainly Senior and Junior High School students from communities surrounding the University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development (USTED), have successfully completed a three-day free Arduino Bootcamp, jointly organised by the University and its partners – STEMPower Incorporated, an international non-profit organisation.
The intensive training from March 18 to 20, 2026, exposed the participants to embedded systems, which are the foundational technologies for innovations such as Robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), and Smart Devices. It formed part of the University’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives.
Beyond the Arduino Bootcamp, the Chief Technician and facilitator of the training, Mr. Boateng Oduro, said USTED would be rolling out a range of short courses in Robotics, IoT, 3D Printing, Drone Assembling, Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Industries and Electronics, from which the participants could identify area(s) of interest to pursue further towards future career paths.
“The world is increasingly shifting toward STEM and AI, and those who aspire to succeed with emerging technologies need hands-on experience in embedded systems,” Mr. Oduro explained.
He was happy about the enthusiasm of the participants, encouraging them to explore more about the Arduino Kit through continuous practice in order to unlock its full potential.
One of the participants, Mr. Lemuel Owusu-Antwi, from the Opoku Ware Senior High School (OWASS), expressed gratitude to USTED and STEMPower Incorporated for the training, which has exposed him to the basics of Electronics, Programming with Arduino, and working with Embedded Systems.
He noted that the time for the training was short and therefore would need to explore the field further to get a better grasp of the important concepts taught at the bootcamp.
Another participant, Miss Philipa Oppong Yeboah, from the Catholic Technical Institute, Buokrom in Kumasi, was grateful to the facilitators. She said, complex concepts were simplified to make for easy understanding. Miss Yeboah said she learnt the Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) and its application on traffic lights.
Two other participants, Messrs. Amos Nyarko Boamah and Prosper Ansah, both Electrical and Electronics Technology students of USTED, noted that the training served as a valuable refresher. Although they had prior experience using Arduino, the bootcamp significantly deepened their knowledge and practical understanding.
The bootcamp took place at the STEM and Innovation Laboratory that USTED and STEMPower Incorporated, jointly established at the University in 2024, valued at US$20,000.00. Among other things, the Laboratory is intended to support the Ghana Government’s policy to strengthen Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)/STEM education to promote industrialisation, foster job creation, and drive growth of the country.
It is designed into two distinct sections: a Computer Laboratory equipped for simulation and allows students to run virtual experiments, model real-world scenarios, develop software and programming skills, explore data analysis, and visualisation, etc., and an Electronics Laboratory Section for developing electronic gadgets, including robotics, circuit design and prototyping, microcontroller programming, and embedded systems development.
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