Therese Izay-Kirongozi

w:Therese Izay-Kirongozi(born 3 June 1973) is a Congolese industrial engineer. She is notable for designing traffic robots that were initially placed in two locations in Kinshasa towards the end of 2013. By 2015 five robots were in use in Kinshasa[3] and one in Lubumbashi. The use of robots as traffic lights may be unique to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kirongozi was born in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) on June 3, 1973. She studied in her hometown before starting undergraduate studies at the Higher Institute of Applied Techniques.From an early age, Kirongozi had an interest in traffic safety after witnessing her brother being crushed by a vehicle.

Kirongozi is known for her development of humanoid robots that regulate traffic in Kinshasa.The idea for traffic robots first came to Kirongozi and a few of her peers at the Higher Institute of Applied Technique. Kirongozi has stated she was motivated by the ease with which people could speed, run red lights, and flee or bribe their way out of consequences. She wanted something more reliable and incorruptible on the roads to enforce traffic laws. Robots, she thought, could make sure that people were accountable to the rule of law, and could help the state recoup some revenue, potentially funding further infrastructure developments.[8] The robots are manufactured by Women's Technology (Wotech), an association headed by Kirongozi.

The first generation of robots was commissioned in 2013 and cost about 15,000 dollars each to manufacture, while the latest generation unveiled on March 4, 2015, cost about 27,500 dollars each. They weigh 250 kg (550 lb) each, are 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in) high and are made of aluminium to better withstand the equatorial climate. The autonomy of the robots is provided by a solar panel placed over their head. The solar panels that power the robots could prove a major asset in a city where whole districts still lack electrical power. Made of aluminium, the robots are designed to resist a harsh equatorial climate with high temperatures, humidity and massive downpours. These humanoid traffic robots can rotate their chest and raise their arms like a human traffic officer would do to stop vehicles in one direction, and allow their flow in another one. Some of these robots can detect pedestrians and are programmed to “speak” to tell them when the road can be crossed or not. When they wait to cross, he sings a song that recalls the principles of road traffic.The first goal is to implement the humanoid robots all around Kinshasa, but to achieve this, according to some experts, it is necessary to mobilize 12 million US dollars because Kinshasa has about 600 strategic and dangerous intersections, the price of a robot oscillating between 10,000 and US$20,000, including the cost of maintenance.

Quotes

• Science has no sex.
• The idea of manufacturing robots came from information I read in the report of the World Health Organization (WHO) on road safety for children; also because my brother died following a traffic accident coming from school when we were still in elementary school. I was very shocked.
• Today we have reduced these accidents by 60 per cent, so for us, it is really something very important, that we have come to understand that road safety must be practised in relation to the regulations and in relation to the signals.
• If we look at the evolution of the world today, the revolution of artificial intelligence, we are pushing more young girls to follow suit more at the university level in fields like science, technology, engineering and mathematics, because we have found that the future of mankind rests on this kind of option.
• Robotics, astronautical engineering… is not made only for men and for me, I can say that science has no sex because we have the same formulas that we are given from elementary school to university, boys and girls alike.
• We are in a very dynamic world. There are jobs that will disappear. For example, the bank will no longer need a lot of cashiers because it will be the robots that will replace them. It is up to us to know what jobs we can teach our children and above all how to be more entrepreneurial to create wealth from know-how, from technology, in order to help others.
• There are many robots in the world, but a robot handling road safety and traffic control, that's truly 'Made in Congo'.