South African students blend robotics and cultural preservation
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Grade nine students in South Africa demonstrated projects at the Roboticon x World Robot Olympiad in Pretoria that combined technology with cultural heritage.
Pupils from across the country competed, showcasing inventions designed to both innovate and preserve traditions. One group from Redhill School built the Magic Marimba, an AI-powered instrument that plays Shona songs, traditional music from Zimbabwe, to safeguard musical knowledge often lost when elders pass away.
The students coded 3,000 lines to enable the marimba to identify images and play corresponding songs related to daily activities like grinding, praising, threshing, and weaving. Another team from Greenside High School created a robot named Lakshmi Khan, which represents Indian culture by performing dances, teaching Gujarati, and identifying Indian foods like butter chicken and jalebi. They intended their creation to educate people about Indian traditions and challenge stereotypes. Meanwhile, students at St.
Dominic’s in KwaZulu-Natal designed the Bead Bot, a device that creates beaded bracelets and necklaces. Yuvaan Singh and Jason Fan built the robot after Singh struggled to repair a sentimental bracelet, recognizing a need for a tool to simplify the intricate process of beadwork. The students hope to compete with their projects at the World Robot Olympiad in Puerto Rico this year.
