Sibongile Ndiweni, Sunday Life Reporter
FALLING in line with the country’s Education 5.0 vision which focuses on innovation and industrialisation, 17-year-old Rahil Bhavan, a student from Christian Brothers College (CBC), has shown his passion and aptitude for computer engineering by building a computer system that functions as a water-cooling system and an emotion detecting system.
The system is designed to detect one’s emotions, gender and age using a screening method. The computer water cooling system which was put out for display at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in a bid to inspire other students who are also doing computer science, took Bhavan three years to design and put together.
Speaking to Sunday Life, the young engineer in the making said his main motivation for delving into engineering at such a young age came from YouTube. Watching videos of people building computers fascinated and inspired him to come up with something of his own.
“The first time I designed a computer system I was in Grade 7 and I used it up until I was doing my Form 2 studies, although my first version was less complicated compared to the system that I have made right now,” he said.
Bhavan is the head of engineering in a robotics and innovations club at his school, a club that seeks to empower students to think outside the box and attempt to solve real life problems. In that club, students are taught 3D models such as fusion 360, auto Computer Aided Design (CAD) and inventor which are used instead of technical drawings. Bhavan’s main duty in the club is to engineer the whole process and apply the suggested solutions to the computer system.
Imanathi Nkomo, another student, is a part of the club at the school and the head of research who works more on coming up with challenges for the group to try and come up with solutions that they can then apply to the problems using their knowhow of computers.
Samson Moyo, the teacher who leads the club said they formed the club after the realisation that they did not want students to come out of high school only armed with theoretical knowledge.
“In this case we thank the junior city council for giving the CBC robotics and innovation club the platform to showcase our skills and also to promote the research and innovation, going in line with the city council’s strategic theme which says local innovations in a global economy.”