Amrote Abdella Microsoft Regional Director shares on Microsoft investing in Africa’s technology space.
Microsoft’s Africa Development Center [ADC] is an opportunity to hire and give exposure to young engineers coming out of universities. An opportunity to work side by side with Microsoft engineers building latest technologies. Amrote Abdella Microsoft Regional Director 4Afrika shares with hosts of The Morning Show, Arise News, Nigeria.
In the interview she says the announcement of the datacenters and ADC is with the premise of how we [Microsoft] build skills and allow Africa be part of tech space in terms of Microsoft products. We believe Africa has a huge role to play in the tech space she says. Given how long we’ve been on the continent, we really believe it is Africa’s time to be part of the core development of technology not just consumption.
On skills development she says the IFC report on digital skills shows that by 2030, 230 million digital skills and jobs will have to be created. Microsoft is working with universities, creating the opportunity for right training through curriculum contributions.
Microsoft is also working on a bridge to the work force through its internship program. Amrote shares that the Interns4Afrika program discovers, trains, identifies and places graduates with Microsoft’s 12,000 plus partner ecosystem. This she remarks allows for a small medium enterprise to grow their business because they don’t have the resources. Giving the young graduate the opportunity to grow.
Windows #Insiders4Good East Africa Fellow Caleb Ndaka is changing his world.
“You’ll see him sometimes, walking village to village in rural Kenya, 5 laptops strapped to his back.” This how Caleb Ndaka conceived Kids Comp Camp. An organization serving remote communities with accessible computer training to empower them to discover new opportunities in technology.
“You’ll see him sometimes, walking village to village in rural Kenya, 5 laptops strapped to his back. Years ago, when he was in college in Nairobi, Kenya, Caleb Ndaka and his friends decided they wanted to help those who were less fortunate. They went to a school in a village with no access to computers and spent a few days training students on computer basics. The students were awestruck by these lessons and able to quickly pick up the skills. Caleb was surprised to see such fast progress and realized he could have a real impact on his country with this work. That was the day Caleb’s business Kids Comp Camp was born.”
East Africa Windows Insiders4Good Fellow
In 2017 Microsoft asked East Africans with brilliant ideas creating solutions to critical social and economic challenges, to apply for a fellowship program. The Insiders4Good Fellowship. It had been tried in Nigeria and Microsoft was scaling the program up to East African countries. A six-month program that will up open opportunities to the selected entrepreneurs.
Caleb’s Kids Comp Camp was one of 20 ideas selected from entries received from Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. As a fellow Caleb received training to develop his business and technology concept, hardware, software, tailored mentorship and support from Microsoft.
So far, Kids Comp Camp has reached over nine thousand
students with 90% being first time users of a computer. It has also evolved to
include training small rural businesses on how to leverage technology to grow.
Microsoft Build 2019
Caleb Ndaka joined other Windows Insiders at Microsoft Build this year. Where he made a presentation about the journey and impact of Kids Comp Camp during the Windows Insiders session. These Insiders, Microsoft says are supporting their local communities and bringing us feedback to build products and services for everyone. Click to read about his journey and experience at Microsoft Build 2019.
Microsoft demos new iOS specific Minecraft Earth features at WWDC.
Microsoft demoed its latest creation in Minecraft; Minecraft Earth at Apple’s 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference(WWDC). The augmented reality (AR) game was announced last month and will be released on iOS and Android. Saxs Persson and Lydia Winters, Minecraft Creative Director and Mojang Brand Director were on stage for the hologram demonstrations.
The directors showed off the game on a tabletop before moving it out to cover the whole stage. Then showed off some cool things like immersing themselves in the game. A fully interactive world they called it.
What is Minecraft
Minecraft is a randomly generated
world filled with secrets, wonders and peril where players place blocks and go
on adventures. Players can build whatever they can imagine with limitless
resources in the creative mode. Or explore the world and mine its resources to
feed, house and defend themselves in the survival mode.
Minecraft Earth and AR
Minecraft Earth brings augmented reality to Minecraft letting users experience the mobile game in our world. It gives you the same immersive feel as Pokémon Go. Allowing players to interact with builds in real life. Taking advantage of new iOS-only features, it was demoed that players can even step into builds.
Microsoft says you can build in tabletop mode with 3D holograms
and then bring those creations to life with full-size augmented reality. Thanks
to some new iOS-only features, you can even step into your builds
yourself.
Two new technologies introduced to make the AR game immersive is People Occlusion and Motion capture. People Occlusion will let players show up in their build. Players will be able to walk through their builds as if they existed in real life. More so other players will be able to see players mess around inside their own build. Motion Capture, on the other hand allows players to trigger pre-set animations for their in-game character. Mirroring the actions of the player.
Microsoft Tech Community and Microsoft Student Partners invites students to participate in a hackathon event.
Labelled the Engineers Hack 2019. A 36-hour hackathon event opened to students of all institutions of higher education in Kenya.
The Engineers Hack will bring students together under one roof to build solutions to local challenges. Solutions to challenges in these area of society; Zero hunger, Proper Education, Affordable housing and Health care. Using emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, internet of things, etc.. Selected hackathon participants will receive mentorship on how to build a business model for their products.
Got an idea? Register. 60 participants will be selected based on creativity, innovation and feasibility of their idea. Participants will receive training on Microsoft Azure AI platform. Learning Azure Cognitive-services, custom vision and Azure machine learning studio.
The event is taking place at at the Incubation center (DeHUB), Dedan Kimathi University of Technology in Nyeri.
Adjudged winning teams of the hackathon event will receive prizes. The winning teams will also receive mentorship and an incubation opportunity at DeHUB.
Register to participate in the Engineers hack 2019 and invite your frends to join you for an amazing time. Have questions or want more details call 0715208670.
We are listing Microsoft Interns4Afrika initiative open positions in Mozambique.
Microsoft 4Afrika‘s internship initiative provides real employment opportunities to talented young professionals in Sales, Marketing and IT Technical Support tracks. A response to demand from its software distribution and development partners across Africa and the Middle East.
Do you live in Maputo, Mozambique? Get to be a Technical Support, Sales or Marketing intern. Microsoft’s Interns4Afrika initiative is offering a unique experience with a dynamic and agile technology organization.
All the best to you as you apply. If you do get in, come back and share the experience with us? Also kindly report any broken links so we can fix them. We will be updating this list when new positions are available. So bookmark it and check back. Subscribe to recieve latest opportunities as well. Thank you.