Starting Fall 2020, the Mechatronics Lab started a new program, “The Mechatronics Lab Academy”, to introduce many newcomers to the basics of robotics. It was launched by several members of the Lab, including Zineb Bahri, Karim Bahoum, Omar Berra, Aniss El Wissi, Meryem El Adwan, Mohamed Amine Harabida, and Mohamed El Kadiri El Hassani. Such a program aims at sharing and passing on knowledge to new students. The latter targets curious and ambitious students who are willing to further assert their interest in this field.
In order to understand more the program and its goals, the AUI Chronicle interviewed two members of the lab, Aniss El Wissi, and Mohamed El Kadiri El Hassani. The two gentlemen were kind enough to explain to us the way the whole program functions and the challenges they face.
Introduction to Mechatronics
The “Mechatronics Lab Academy” program focuses on three main aspects of Mechatronics: Mechanical, Electrical, and Software. The former are all inter-related and constitute very important components of the lessons given. Beneficiaries get to learn about them all through sessions organized by volunteers. Aniss and Mohamed explained that students get to interact directly with the material taught and practice what they learned on-ground. In addition, the program is considered to be both introductory and complementary to the classes offered at AUI.
In fact, it is still relatively new. It started this semester with more than 20 beneficiaries during the first round and more than 60 beneficiaries during the second. Aniss and Mohamed describe this program as an opportunity to spark students’ interest and educate them about robotics. They hope to democratize such knowledge and promote mechatronics to all students in an attempt to encourage those interested to join such an initiative and team.
We want to promote the mechatronics lab and help more students gain access to it and its facilities.
Mohamed El Kadiri El Hassani, Executive team of the Mechatronics
Lack of financing and support
It is important to note that the program is strictly and fully managed by students and members of the Mechatronics Lab. However, they face a huge lack of support and financing from the Student Activities Office. While the program falls under their activities, they are struggling to provide the appropriate material for the beneficiaries and failing to get the money needed to advance such an initiative. Due to the complicated bureaucratic complications, they are unable to benefit from their budget, estimated at 3000dhs, and to collect membership fees from the beneficiaries. Such consequences question the sustainability of the program as well as its continuity. In fact, it questions the university’s support for such student-led initiatives that aim at democratizing knowledge and access to information.
We are struggling to get the proper funds to buy material that is used in the final phase, ‘assembling’, of the program which affects the learning experience
Aniss El Wissi, Executive team of the Mechatronics
Additionally, the lack of support and attention is making it harder for the program to assure its continuity. The members are struggling to keep up with it since the university has not granted proper resources and funds to support their project. Indeed, many projects at AUI go unnoticed by the administration and struggle with sustainability. It seems like educational programs are not given much attention which hinders their performance. The “Mechatronics Lab Academy” program is no different. Their last phase of the program, the most important one, requires funding and material. To illustrate, the ‘assembling’ phase of the program is the on-ground application of all the theoretical knowledge acquired during the previous phases. Therefore, a lack of the latter does not allow the beneficiaries to deepen their interest in robotics and mechatronics.
Finally, the Freshmen program remains a brilliant initiative that is in need of funding and support. Volunteers, such as Aniss and Mohamed, are the kind of people who aim at democratizing knowledge, an action that is much needed in Morocco. In this case, one can only hope that such challenges would not discourage students from launching such projects where many are allowed to learn and further assert their heed to many different topics.