21-year-student receives Guido Sohne Award

Mr Reindolf Owusu, a 21-year-old Level 200 Student of Methodist University College (MUC) received the Guido Sohne Fellow Award at a ceremony in Accra on Wednesday.

He received an award of $500 and a certificate presented to him by Free Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) in Abuja-Nigeria, to commemorate the birthday of the late William Guido Sohne.

Mr Owusu in an interview with Ghana News Agency said the award was a privilege which would inspire other young people interested in Information Technology.

He said the award would enable him follow the footsteps of Guido Sohne who developed programme applications in eight languages.

Professor Samuel Kwesi Agyapong, Vice Chancellor of MUC, said he was proud the winner emerged from the university and would encourage the youth to get into original thinking by adding value to natural products to think independently.

Ms Dorothy Gordon, Director General of Kofi Annan Advance Information Technology Institute (AITI) noted that, William Guido Sohne was passionate about technology and instrumental in the establishment of the Institute from its inception.

She said Guido Sohne developed the Semacode application and was a role model.

William Guido Sohne was a Platform Strategy Manager who had managed 52 African countries in Microsoft to his credit.

He also designed how to computerise Parliament and was privileged to develop programme applications in 20 languages.

Guido Sohne died at age 34, and the award which was introduced two years ago is a biannual competition to commemorate his work in ICT.**