ATU, GDG partner to host 2022 DevFest in Accra
The Accra Technical University (ATU) Library over the weekend partnered the Accra chapter of the Google Developers Group (GDG) to host this year’s Developers Festival (DevFest) which brought together about 500 participants in Accra.
DevFest is an annual, free decentralised tech conference by GDG across the globe which allows developers to connect locally, learn and build google tools to generate social and economic impact.
Dr Florence Plockey, librarian, ATU, in a speech read on her behalf by the Head of Research at the Library, Donus W. Buadi, said that the library was enthused about new technologies and took advantage of them to support the teaching, learning, and research mandate of the university.
She indicated for instance that the library was using a platform that allowed for student-supervisor interaction in a manner that students’ project works were uploaded without the library having to do the uploads individually for the over 5,000 final year students they had.
“We are currently using Youtube for most of our tutorials and I dare say that ATU Library Youtube Channel has the most academic library subscriber base in the sub-region. So, you can tell that we are indeed very much interested in technology and obviously excited that DevFest found in us a worthy partner,” she added.
Dr Plockey said that the event was the third in a series of tech events the library had hosted, adding that “we are excited because we believe we can use this platform to shop for new technologies.
We will like to see innovative technologies emerge, following this event, that are tailored towards the library’s activities.”
Pro Vice-Chancellor, ATU, Prof. Amevi Acakpovi, said partnering to host the event was to afford students the opportunity to tap into the benefits of developing google tools and making money out of them.
He emphasised that the university deemed it necessary to sandwich its Information Technology (IT) programmes with soft skills and certifications that were globally recognised, such as Microsoft and google.
“This will take employability to a higher level and will make our students ready for a career in the field,” he added.
Prof. Acakpovi said the university would welcome more of such collaborations going forward and urged the students and other stakeholders to take the event seriously and be committed as they would benefit a lot from it.
Shadrack Inusah, GDG Accra Lead, said that they partnered the library due to its social visibility and vast usage of new technologies.
BY ABIGAIL ARTHUR
