Earth Tech Futures executive director Robert Turner recently traveled to Ghana to launch the pilot venture accelerator program  - Design, Inspire Innovate with the National Society of Black Engineers Ghana Secretariat. This program was intended to develop student interest in social impact entrepreneurship and human-centered design.

First Robert stopped at the University of Ghana in Accra to lead a talk on human-centered design with  Dr. Elsie Kaufman’s 3rd Year Biomedical Engineering Students. Dr. Kauffman is one of Ghanas leading scientist and has recently been appointed Dean of the College of Engineering Sciences at the University of Ghana

Along  the way he stopped to enjoy the vibes at Labadi beach and live music at Chez Afrique, followed by a trip Cape Coast to reflect on our ancestral past at the Elmina and Cape Coast Slave Castles and Asin Manso Slave River, and braved the heights of the canopy bridges at Kakum National Park.

After a quick 40 minute flight from Kotoko International Airport, Robert arrived in Kumasi to launch the accelerator at E-Cycle, a upcylcing design studio located a few block from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. During this weeklong program, student teams were tasked to identify a social issue that was meaningful to them and design solutions to address them. They then developed and pitched business models to take these innovations to market. Ultimately one team, led Serwaa Aloko prevailed as the winner; Their product: a manual filtrations system to purify rural well water. 

Serrwaa remarked about the accelerator “I learned about key processes involved in sustainable business development and good product design, and I look forward to applying these learnings to future projects.” 

Each Participant, however , left the program with one important realization - That each of them were uniquely empowered to create the positive change that they envision in the world.

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