The Yewa robotics expo will bring students from 20 selected secondary schools in Ogun West to Ilaro on 29 and 30 October 2026. Organisers have scheduled exhibitions, coding challenges and discussions with academics and technology professionals.
Yewa Digital Initiatives, the community organisation behind the event, lists ASUP Hall at the Federal University of Technology, Ilaro, as the venue. Sessions are scheduled to begin at 9am daily under the theme “Frontiers in AI for Community Development & Governance”.
Programme coordinator Akinode Olalekan said the aim was to give pupils experience of creating technology. “We are deliberately designing this to move students from consuming technology to becoming creators,” he said in an August announcement published on LinkedIn.
The invited-school list includes Yewa College and Anglican Grammar School in Ilaro, Comprehensive High School in Aiyetoro and Iganmode High School in Ota. Schools in Imeko, Ipokia, Igbogila, Idiroko and other Ogun West communities are also listed.
The first day will combine the exhibition with a written coding challenge. A computer-based challenge follows on the second day, alongside expert conversations, networking and the announcement of winners. The organisers describe the exhibition as a platform for robotics, engineering prototypes, artificial intelligence systems and software.
In the earlier announcement, Olalekan said the Ogun State Ministry of Education, Science and Technology had approved the programme. The organiser’s current website carries the same approval claim. The planned event is for selected schools, rather than an unrestricted invitation for individual pupils.
The organisation has also announced support intended to reduce participation costs. Its secretary, Olusola Olatunji, said it would provide feeding and accommodation for competing students and their coaches during the two-day event. Those arrangements remain commitments for the forthcoming programme.
Olatunji said prizes would include robotics and STEM kits for use in school laboratories and classrooms. The proposed awards are intended to leave participating schools with equipment after the competition, alongside the experience of developing and presenting projects.
Organisers want the prototypes to address practical problems in Ogun West. Their announcement identifies waste disposal, agricultural productivity, traffic management and local security among the possible areas of work. Professor Bamidele Adetunji, who leads the initiative’s research and innovation programming, said the expert discussions would consider community applications of AI.
The advertised speakers include Professor Wasiu Popoola of the University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh identifies him as a professor of communications engineering and director of electronics and electrical engineering. His research covers digital and optical communications, including technologies that transmit information using light.
Popoola previously led widening-participation and outreach initiatives as a deputy director of learning and teaching in Edinburgh’s engineering school from 2019 to 2024. The university also records his work as a science communicator at festivals and on BBC radio.
The Ilaro host institution has separately identified robotics as part of a wider technical-education agenda. Its report of the 23rd convocation records plans to incorporate robotics and solar photovoltaic installation into curriculum development.
The expo’s published timetable places the announcement of winners on Friday, 30 October, after the computer-based coding challenge and expert discussions.
Illustrative archival image: Arduino Uno R3 board, Mr Revolution, 5 February 2013, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0. Not equipment or a project confirmed for the Yewa expo.
