African scientists gathered for a competition but Moses Bangura, a Sierra Leonean won

Engineer Moses Bangura took home top prize at the New Einstein Forum that brought together over 700 scientists and innovators to Senegal.

Moses Bangura a scientist from Sierra Leone took top prize for his idea to use drones to carry medical supplies to hard to reach places. Bangura is a PHD Student at Australian National University. He graduated with a First Class Honours in Aeronautical (Space) Engineering from The University of Sydney in 2010. Prior to commencement of his PhD, he spent two years working as a modeling and simulation analyst for the Defense Science and Technology Organization. He did his internship at CSIRO which focussed on the development of a firmware for visualization and control of the hot metal carrier on a PDA.

“Mr Bangura wants to use a fleet of electrically powered drones, which could be used to deliver treatment to patients in hard-to-reach areas.

The unmanned aerial vehicles could serve a double purpose, both delivering essentials like medicine or emergency fluids, and also taking away blood or other samples for testing.

The drones would be able to bypass traffic congestion, a major problem in many African cities, as well as reach rural areas with poor road networks.

They would be able to fly with an 8kg (17lb) payload for 40 minutes, covering a radius of 40km (25 miles).”