Since CARISCA’s inception in 2020, team members from Arizona State University have traveled to Ghana frequently to help host major events, present trainings and engage in capacity-strengthening work.
For two weeks this September, the ASU team got to turn the tables and host colleagues from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in the United States.
Seven KNUST-based team members traveled to Washington, D.C., in mid-September to meet with representatives from the United States Agency for International Development, CARISCA’s funding partner. Along with ASU-based CARISCA staff, the team briefed USAID on project accomplishments and brainstormed ideas for the future.
Following a full day of meetings with USAID, the team spent a day touring the U.S. Capitol Building and visiting Smithsonian museums. Then they flew across the country to Arizona, where they spent 10 days.
While in Arizona, the group participated in ASU W. P. Carey School of Business activities, including a Supply Chain Executive Consortium board meeting and Women in Supply Chain Symposium.
They also spent a day at ASU’s Luminosity Lab—a student-led research and development space on which CARISCA’s Innovations Lab is modeled. Over six years, the Luminosity Lab has grown to include 100 researchers who have produced 120 innovative projects.
“These labs gave me a better understanding of how to commercialize academic ideas,” says Stephen Frimpong, CARISCA’s Innovations Lab administrative manager and one of the KNUST staff on the trip. “I saw how something could go from an idea to production to the market, and that was fantastic.”
The visit featured tours of several other innovative ASU enterprises as well. These included the School of Earth and Space Exploration, Global Futures Laboratory, Media and Immersive eXperience Center and Dreamscape Learn, a virtual-reality education lab.
“This visit to ASU showed us a completely new way of learning,” says Nathaniel Boso, CARISCA director and KNUST professor. “Our work with ASU is going to make it possible to bring so much to Ghana.”
For Jesse Anim, CARISCA’s Innovations Lab technical manager, the trip was his first time traveling outside of Africa. It opened his eyes to the world of possibilities for the role universities like KNUST could play in Ghana.
“The U.S. economy is driven by technology, innovation and higher education,” Anim says. “Top universities like ASU serve as testing grounds for new policies, technologies and innovations, which are then implemented nationwide.
“While universities in Ghana are doing a lot, there is still much more to be done in terms of development and impact. My experience traveling to the U.S. was incredible, and I learned a great deal. I plan to leverage the networks I’ve established to drive development in Ghana and Africa as a whole.”
While at ASU, the team was interviewed by a university reporter, who wrote about their visit for the ASU News website. The story also was featured in newsletters distributed by the university and the W.P. Carey School of Business.
John Serbe Marfo, a CARISCA senior technical advisor and KNUST lecturer, expressed his impression of the visit to the ASU reporter this way:
“I’m very excited to go back home after what I’ve seen and experienced while at ASU,” he said. “Africa is youthful. Africa is brilliant. And we’re all going back home to inspire our students and help them elevate Africa so it can take its rightful place in the world.”