Sundaymail Editor
Sunday Mail Correspondent
Youth Buzz
AT 16 years of age, Peterhouse Girls High School learner Tayamika Mandiwanzira already has the world at her feet.
The young innovator will represent Africa at the Seventh Belt and Road Teenage Maker Camp in China in November after wowing judges with her work at this year’s edition of the Africa Science Buskers Festival held recently.
Mandiwanzira — who is a Form Three learner majoring in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects at Peterhouse Girls School in Marondera — received the prestigious International Broadcom Foundation Award for her innovation and original research on a portable, solar-powered sterilisation unit.
The Africa Science Buskers Festival — an annual event that began six years ago — is Africa’s premier science communication showcase for young scientists, engineers, artists and science communicators in primary and high schools.
Despite being Afrocentric, it is open to participants from different parts of the world.
This year’s festival had a hybrid format, with physical participation by different schools in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Lesotho, while virtual participants were drawn from Malawi, Cameron, Türkiye and Mexico.
Mandiwanzira said she was elated by the award and is revelling in the grand opportunity to represent Africa at the global stage.
“Having my project chosen to enter this competition was an enough honour, but to have won the prize is just brilliant. My project is a sterilising piece of equipment for use in hospitals and clinics in underdeveloped communities that have no access to electricity,” she said.
“It uses solar power — a renewable energy — to combat health risks and threats to life associated with use of unhygienic medical equipment in remotely located medical institutions. Therefore, the unit is a more sustainable version of the current autoclave sterilisers, which are expensive and, as a result, inaccessible to poor communities.
“My version consists of cost-efficient materials that are easily available in developing countries. Furthermore, it consists of a mechanism that also minimises the health risk when medical professionals have to manually remove the equipment from an autoclave steriliser and leave it to air dry. This handling may reintroduce bacteria and/or other microorganisms.”
Mandiwanzira’s innovation is seen as a vital piece of equipment that resonates with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 7, which advocates clean and affordable energy for all.
At the Seventh Belt and Road Teenage Maker Camp in China next month, Mandiwanzira and other young innovators from around the world will be exposed to exponential technology areas, including space exploration and artificial intelligence.
The event will be held from November 5 to 11 in two Chinese cities — Chongqing and Urumqi.
The Belt and Road Teenager Maker Camp seeks to inspire innovation in the young generation, and also for inventors and science teachers to support mutual learning.
Furthermore, the camp will enable participants to cooperate with the best of their age at the international level, exchange ideas and study cutting-edge knowledge in science labs at top schools in China.
Apart from STEM subjects, Mandiwanzira’s other passions are culinary science and public speaking.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter