Movers and shakers
Bjorn Wiedow has always been interested in design, engineering and what information technology (IT) and robotics can do for us. He chased this dream and is now the co-founder of a RobotSchool in Windhoek. He teaches young learners coding and engages with them to educate them on technical development.Education
Wiedow completed his primary and secondary education in Windhoek. He obtained an industrial design degree from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. “I do have to say, I learnt as much from messing around in garages throughout my younger years as I did through academic education,” he said.
He added that the academic education he received helped to channel and focus his potential.
Robotics and the Internet of Things (IoT) were still in their infancy when he dived into the field, he said. Prior to this, Wiedow said he could not have imagined being a co-founder of a RobotSchool “where we teach kids to code and build robots, machines and harness technology”.
He said the best thing about his job is never having to do the same thing twice. “Just last week, I was working out how we could promote RobotSchool. We created stickers for my beloved old-timer car, the Morris Minor, which informed people about the RobotSchool,” he said.
Additionally, he said seeing the faces of kids go from confusion to understanding as they start to code and create something that works as a robot is amazing to see.
Being an entrepreneur, Wiedow added that it is not easy to be your own boss, but is hugely rewarding to know that you are accomplishing something, or that what you have envisioned has become a reality.
“You need to be resilient, creative and focused in all aspects of the business. Any one thing that may seem insignificant can trip you up in the long run. Working with learners as young as four all the way up to 15 created special challenges and gives me great respect for teachers,” he said.
The entrepreneur said starting and refining a new venture gives him the opportunity to find himself doing a little bit of everything, from learning how to do business accounting and marketing to creating a new and exciting curriculum. He enjoys developing and testing new ideas for the innovative RobotSchool curriculum, he added.