Female engineering students of Bolgatanga Technical University (BTU) have won the 2026 Women in Engineering (WiNE) Affair competition with a smart emergency communication system designed to detect floods, identify the location of victims and alert emergency responders.
The team emerged ahead of 18 other tertiary institutions, including the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the University for Development Studies (UDS) and the University of Ghana, Legon, at the competition held at the Ho Technical University.
The innovation, dubbed “Smart Emergency Communication System with Flood Monitoring,” was developed in response to Ghana’s recurring flood disasters and is designed to help emergency agencies locate people trapped in floodwaters.
The BTU team was awarded a trophy and GH¢20,000 cash prize for the innovation.
Lecturer at the University’s Electrical and Electronics Department and patron of the team, Madam Aurelia Ayamdor, said the device can automatically send information to emergency responders, including the Ghana National Fire Service and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), when it detects a flood.
“This device can help save lives of people, those who are trapped during flooding. So it’s a communication system that communicates to respondents, for example the fire service, NADMO, in order to come to save the lives of the people,” she said.
According to her, the system is equipped with GPS technology, allowing responders to determine the location of victims and potentially shorten the time required to reach them.
She said the innovation was developed after participants were tasked to identify real problems confronting communities and develop technological solutions to address them.
“For the WiNE Affair 2026, projects were given to the various universities to come out with a solution for a problem to be solved in the community. And we know that recently there was flooding in various regions. So our team came out with a solution, which is a smart emergency communication with a flood monitoring system,” she explained.
Madam Ayamdor attributed the victory to the determination of the students and their commitment to repeated rehearsals ahead of the competition.
She, however, called on the management of BTU to increase investment in initiatives that expose female engineering students to practical innovation and mentorship.
“Management should invest more in these kind of activities so that they are able to develop more of their skills, especially women in engineering, because ladies in engineering is something that is difficult. It’s not easy,” she said.
The Dean of the School of Engineering, Eng. Dr George Alexander Dordah, said the significance of the victory goes beyond the competition, describing it as evidence that students can apply classroom knowledge to address challenges confronting communities.
“This competition was all about innovation, how to innovate to solve problems in our society. What this means for us goes beyond just winning. It demonstrates that our students can apply the knowledge we are giving them here to develop, innovate, and solve problems in society,” he said.
Dr Dordah said the flood-monitoring system was particularly relevant given the recurring flooding experienced in parts of the country, including communities in northern Ghana affected when the Bagre Dam is spilled and communities in Accra that have suffered deadly floods.
He said the ability of the system to detect rising flood conditions and automatically transmit a signal could improve the speed with which emergency responders locate people in danger.
“It is important that we are able to early detect these floods. With this device, it’s very easy. The good thing about it is that you don’t need somebody triggering it. Once it senses the flood, it goes ahead to send signals and indicate where you can actually locate whoever is in a problem. And so it becomes easy to save people,” he explained.
The Students’ Representative Council President of BTU, Kenneth Atonka Nsoyine, congratulated the team, saying their achievement demonstrated the value of discipline, teamwork and dedication among students of the university.
The WiNE Affair, organised under the Ghana Institution of Engineering (GhIE), seeks to empower women in engineering through skills development, innovation and mentorship.
Source: Bolgafmonline.com| 102.7 MHz| David Azure | Bolgatanga
