Uchechukwu Nnaike
Three students of Greensprings School, Lagos, Segun Balogun, Adewale Saliu and David Onukwugha, have made Nigeria proud at the just concluded 2023 Conrad Challenge.
The students represented their school as Team S.A.D (formed using the first letter of their first names) and emerged as the overall best in Nigeria for creating a smartphone application that connects craftsmen with people who need their services. Their innovation won them $298,000 worth of scholarships for their college tuition, an exclusive invitation to represent Nigeria at the Global Conrad Summit in April at NASA’s Johnson / Kennedy Space Center, USA, and ₦1 million cash prize.
Speaking on Greensprings School’s participation in the challenge, the acting Deputy Director of Education, Mrs Feyisara Ojugo, said the school presented five teams out of the 230 teams from several schools that participated in the competition. Four of the five teams made it to the finals, with Team S.A.D emerging as the best in the cyber-technology and security category and the best in Nigeria, thus claiming the grand prize after weeks of rigorous efforts.
Apart from the awards given to the winning team, each of the 15 students that made up the four finalist teams received $60,000 worth of scholarships from Clarkson University and awards of excellence.
Expressing satisfaction with the students’ accomplishments, Ojugo said that beyond winning the competition, she is pleased that the students were able to develop an app that would help to solve a specific challenge in the country by connecting craftsmen with people who need them, thereby giving access to a larger market without the limitations of geographic location.
She said it also enables instant access to their services at the customer’s convenience, without the hassle of driving around endlessly in search of workers, expressing delight that the students can apply what they learn in the classroom to solve societal problems.
“I want to say congratulations to all the teams that participated in the competition, and I am super proud of our students for emerging as winners of this year’s Conrad Challenge. Beyond developing the winning app for the competition, our students have put out a service through tech to help link artisans with those who need their services promptly and efficiently,” Ojugo stated. “This year, we embedded coding in our curriculum as a core subject that all our students should take.”
The Conrad Challenge is a purpose-driven innovation competition to create the next generation of entrepreneurs who will change the world.
