BlueCrest College felicitated 40 beneficiaries of BlueCrest Scholarship at the maiden edition of the Scholarship Awards Ceremony held in Accra on Thursday.
Two categories of scholarships were announced by Dr Anand Agrawal, Rector of BlueCrest. They are the Presidential Scholarship Awards (PSA), and the National Competitive Examination (NCE).
Ten (10) new students received full scholarships worth 34,000 Ghana Cedis each, in the BlueCrest Presidential Scholarship Awards category.
The amount covers the entire four years of tuition, library and other ancillary expenses needed to complete their chosen bachelor’s degree programmes at BlueCrest.
The National Competitive Examination (NCE) given to 30 recipients were open to about 4000 students from 13 Senior High Schools who competed in Analytical and Logical Reasoning; English Language; and Mathematics.
The competition took place in March and April this year.
Winners in the NCE category will receive scholarships worth between 50 and 100 per cent of tuition and ancillary costs.
Sujith Jayaprakash, Director of Outreach and Collaboration, who explained the awards said that BlueCrest University College was inspired by the Ghanaian government’s decision to provide free secondary education.
“The first batch of Free SHS graduates will be nearly double the number of their immediate predecessors so BlueCrest decided to help the government and parents support SHS graduates with scholarships,” explained Sujith Jayaprakash.
The ceremony was attended by over 300 individuals including Dr Okraku-Yirenkyi, a member of the Ghana Robotics Foundation, who urged Ghanaians to place a premium on character.
The College is located in Kokomlemle near Accra Technical Training College (ATTC). The college is legendary for its innovative academic programmes in Data Science, Fashion and Design, webinars and Intelligent Retailology.
BlueCrest has recently upgraded its Mass Communication faculty by bringing on board the best mentors in writing, blogging, social media management and online journalism which could guarantee jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities for the future.
MUSTAPHA DIYAOL HAQQ, A Beneficiary of BlueCrest Presidential Scholarship Award shares his story.
Mustapha Diyaol Haqq, a young Ghanaian app developer was among 40 students who received scholarships to study at BlueCrest College (BCC), Accra.
We reproduce below Mustapha’s response at the scholarship awards ceremony held on 30th August 2019 at the BCC auditorium.
The Chairperson, Honourable members of the high table, members of staff present, invited guests, fellow students, ladies and gentlemen.
Good afternoon to you all.
I am extremely humbled to be a recipient of this special award. I am grateful to the Scholarship team of BlueCrest College for giving me this opportunity to further my education in this noble institution.
This is my story…
Inspired by global technological success stories, from the likes of tech giants like Facebook, to the achievements of young talented people, especially people of colour like Iddris Sandu, 15 year old me decided to do something I had never seen anyone in my community do; walk miles to an internet café to teach myself how to code. After a year, I created an app to help myself and my classmates pronounce biological terms better. I created a website to connect teenagers around the world to form safer and meaningful friendships. And a lot more fun stuff.
Three years down the line, I built a predictive analytic model that leverages machine learning, a subset of Artificial Intelligence to diagnose and predict breast cancer, which earned me one of the six Most Influential Students of the Year Award in 2018. We are currently working on improving our model and releasing it for use by hospitals and research centers across Africa, later this year or early next year.
The app will enable faster, accurate and cheaper diagnosis of breast cancer among women and save the lives of many of our mothers.
Part of my research on Artificial Intelligence led us to develop an AI curriculum for kids. Kids in Ghana have already started learning AI and Machine Learning as a result of our work. Machine Learning is one of the most exciting technologies in our world today.
A tech enabled community like BlueCrest College will empower me to explore other areas of technology, combined with what I’m doing.
I believe we will have a greater impact on our communities.
In 2018, I co-founded Okuafo Foundation, an NGO, with the mission of helping farmers produce more by cutting down on disease infestations through applied AI research.
The Chairperson, Honourable members of the high table, members of staff present, invited guests, fellow students, ladies and gentlemen.
My name is Mustapha Diyaol Haqq and I define myself as a 19 year old revolutionary dreamer walking the path my ancestors paved.
Thank you.
