In 2016, a team from Prempeh College travelled to Michigan and won the Robofest World Championship. The college became the first secondary institution in Ghana and Africa to win the competition and also received the Toyota Innovation Award.
The team prepared through Robotics Inspired Science Education, commonly known as RISE, and Ghana’s national Robofest qualifiers.
The breakthrough year
The 2016 season brought together years of classroom science, programming practice, mechanical design, and patient trial and error. Prempeh won national qualification, represented Ghana in international competition, and received recognition for both innovation and engineering knowledge. The team also carried Ghana’s flag to the World Robot Olympiad, a role the college repeated in 2017.
The world championship gave younger students a visible example of what could be built on campus. Robotics gave them a practical setting in which Physics, Mathematics, ICT, and engineering could meet a real problem with a working solution.
Later competitions
When international travel and in-person contests were disrupted in 2020, the club adapted. Prempeh won the Game category of the Robofest Online World Championship. In 2021, the team won the national qualifier and placed third in the Game category at the world championship.
The 2022 results demonstrated the programme’s range. Prempeh won the national qualifier and the RISE competition, producing the event’s highest score and fastest time in the multigrain colour sorter challenge. At the Robofest World Championships in the United States, the college won the senior BottleSumo Unlimited category and placed in the Game and Unknown Mission Challenge events.
In 2023, the team remained active across robotics and cyber security. It won BottleSumo Unlimited at the world championship, took first place in the World Robot Olympiad national qualifier, and won RISE. Funding constraints prevented the team from attending one international event, a reminder that talent and preparation still require sustained institutional and alumni support.
Results in 2023 and 2024
The 2024 season added another international chapter. Prempeh became champion of the Unknown Mission Challenge at the Robofest World Championship and placed second in the Game category. At the national qualifying level, students recorded first place in Robomission and strong finishes across Game and UMC events.
The Unknown Mission Challenge is especially suited to the habits the college seeks to develop. Teams must respond to a task they have not been able to rehearse in full. Success depends on clear thinking, teamwork, programming discipline, and the ability to improve a machine under pressure.
The 2016 team was followed by new groups of students who kept competing, testing their designs, and improving them under pressure. The programme now gives each intake a demanding introduction to engineering and scientific problem-solving.