At a time
when Nigeria is trying to catch up with the technological advancement of
developed nations, one of her own, 26-year-old Silas Adekunle, is taking over
the robotics world with his ingenuity and innovation.
Adekunle was
born and had some of his education in Nigeria before relocating to the UK when
he was a teenager. Having completed his secondary school education, he
proceeded to the University of the West of England where he graduated with a
first class graduate in Robotics.
In 2013, he
founded Reach Robotics, a company with an aim to infuse gaming and augmented
reality to perform functions. Ever ready to learn, he gained experience on
robotics within a space of 4 years and also became a team leader of Robotics In
Schools programme, a programme which encourages and pays attention to students
in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). It was during his
involvement in the programme that he thought of developing robotics to make
education more entertaining for STEM students.
In 2017, Mekamon,
the world’s first gaming robot was born. A part of its unique feature is the
ability to customise the gaming bot to perform personalised functions. Despite
being hit by disbelief when he was seeking funds, his initial launch of Mekamon
sold 500 bots, generating $7.5 million.
Owing to
this milestone success, Adekunle has received support from various
organisations including London Venture Partners $10 million (N360 million). In
the same year, Reach Robotics signed a deal with Apple securing exclusive sales
in Apple stores.
Not only
have his works gained recognition, but he was also listed in the 2018 Forbes 30
Under 30 Europe: Technology.
He notes
that the secrets to his success are balance, shared ideas, time management and being
oneself.
Update:
Adekunle has now become the highest paid robotics engineer in the world and has
also been described as the smartest robotics engineer in the world.
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