His Excellency, Lyonpo Ugyen Dorji, Minister of Home and Cultural Affairs graced the inauguration of 2nd Winter STEM Camp on 10th January 2023. The STEM Camp is organized by Jigme Namgyel Engineering College, Dewathang is a Grassroots STEM Education outreach programme, an initiative to reach STEM education learning tools to the youths of rural Bhutan. The program is supported by UNICEF-Bhutan and IEEE Pre-University STEM Portal. Dasho Dzongda, Samdrup Jongkhar Dzongkhag, Dasho Thrompon of Samdrup Jongkhar Thromde, and Gup of Dewathang attended the program.
Lyonpo shared about the ongoing transformation in education and its significance for a better future. STEM Camp aligns with the priority of education transformation; hence His Excellency advised the participants to make the best out of the opportunity to become STEM-driven pioneers.
28 girls and 17 boys from Garpawoong Middle Secondary School are attending the 5-day camp. Students are introduced to Arduino programming and STEMSEL runlinc E32W controller programming. The student participants are exposed to hands-on application development using the platforms and to eventually enable them to draw their projection on the future through their creativity and innovative ideas. The same program will be conducted on the campuses of 9 more schools in Samdrup Jongkhar and Pemagatshel.