Each year Microsoft hosts its student Imagine Cup competition. A competition where student developers showcase their innovative solutions built on Microsoft’s technology. Starting with online finals, national and regional finals. Then on to the world finals with winner of the competition being awarded a grand prize package of about 100,000$.
This year’s EMEA online semifinal competition as usual received hundreds of submissions. With only 12 teams moving on to the next stage. Only two teams, iCropal and Athena-IO from Kenya and Tunisia respectively qualified from Africa to present at the online finals. They will present their innovate ideas for a chance to win the first place price of 15,000 $. And qualification to the world finals championship.
Team iCropal is made up of 3 Kabarak University students. Emmanuel Okumu a Cyber Security and Forensic student, Ian Kamau and AbdhiHakim Hussein Computer Sceince students.
The teams solution looks to hep farmers know and understand the diseases attacking their crops or farm animals. Using Microsoft’s cognitive AI services and Augmented reality technology.
An overview of team iCropal’s project
Agriculture is the major sector that contribute to the economy of the country. Yet, many farmers are going under difficult conditions majorly on diseases affecting their farms. This causes huge loss to the farmers and organizations. The rate at which diseases affect is inversely proportional to the food production.
Augmented Reality brings farmers into a visual room where a farmer interacts with a holographic bot Cortana. As a virtual veterinarian assistant that brings possible infected cow hologram in front of the user (farmer). Explains about the disease, possible source and also predict the possible solution to the disease affecting the cattle based on the users’ enquiries in the augmented reality application.
Farmers can now have a reality experience of a dairy cattle diseases and how to go about in mitigation ways of finding the best solution to a certain disease.
Also, the crop farmers can use our app extension module to upload or capture image from the vegetables, crops or some fruit section affected with a certain disease and the app will perform analysis through computer vision to recognize the possible problems affecting them.
Not all about that, it will pull possible solutions and uses GPS tracker to send the reports to the data centre where from this point, it will use Machine learning process to show the possible spread of the diseases through the Bing maps visually or running models as data, drugs with high demand, highest infected areas, the fall or raise of market profits and also the organization or government strategies that can help them to enforce proper strategies suggested to help farmers in such situations.
Congratulations to team iCropal and we will bring you an update after the finals in March.
I’m poised to spend the next three months in Nairobi, as my executive editor will say, as the East African correspondent. Previous visits in Kenya have been brief or short. Maybe a few days, weeks or at most a month. So to be here for that long means I had to find a good workstation. Primarily for me this will be mostly getting a good, reliable and fast internet. Electricity too, but I think electricity is more stable in Kenya. As I’ve experienced few disruptions which last for hours or minutes.
Be Curious, ask questions
I always will encourage anyone looking to use a service to ask questions, listen to other users concerns before deciding. It might or mightn’t influence your final decision but you would have been thoroughly informed. Also bearing in mind several factors might make your situation different from theirs.
So i reached out to my techy, thoughtful friends and inquired of their opinions. What is the best internet service around? I asked around, talked to some internet service provider vendors and looked at my budget. First and foremost i wasn’t trying to break the bank. So i believed a fixed broadband service will be way cheaper than mobile broadband.
From my collated data, Safaricom will be the go-to service provider. A lot of consumers trust Safaricom to be reliable and fast. But it had a hurdle. Firstly, Safaricom home fiber service isn’t available around the neighbourhood i stay in. My only option was to get the Safaricom GIGA box; a 4G tv digital box with hotspot. Secondly, its GIGA box is expensive. You don’t get a bundled service. You pay for the box and then buy data as well.
So that wasn’t my way to go and somehow that seemed to be the issue with other providers like Faiba and Airtel. You buy the 4G router and then buy data. As a consolation, these others have lower data prices for much more data sizes than Safaricom. For reliability, I opted to get a Safaricom 4G sim card and hotspot from my phone. I didn’t see it worthwhile to get a 6,000 KSH or 9,999 KSH router. The only issue is I’m a big data user. Safaricom’s 10Gb weekly data bundle of 999 KSH finished before mid-week. My going for their free unlimited WhatsApp bundle proved a scam, lol, literally.
Why not Zuku?
I hadn’t looked into Zuku because I hadn’t seen any customer care shop in my hood. There was this one time i was returning from Naivas when I was approached by a Zuku sales agent. She gave me a brochure with Zuku data packages and pricing. My only question was, is Zuku fiber service available in this area and reliable? To which she replied yes. oh, I had a second question, how soon can this be done? As soon as you pay. Perfect! I then remembered that guest houses, Airbnb apartments and hotels I had stayed in during previous visits had Zuku and it worked very well for me. Zuku also had my attention with FREE INSTALLATION and Unlimited data. These sounded like music to the ears of a heavy data consumer. Technically most fiber internet services come with free installation. I was like bring it on.
So i called Doreen the sales agent i had met and spoken to and asked for the service to be installed in my apartment. I was ready to give it a try but not commit whole heartedly. Here’s why. A day to when it will be installed, i saw a tweet from another friend wishing Zuku good bye. I reached out and it was more like run away whilst you still can.
For me at that moment it was the better option; unlimited data for a month and i was ready to try an alternative. So i went in for the internet only (Zuku has internet, TV and phone call) service. I didn’t need the others. I have a digital smart tv and will only loose out on a few Zuku channels. The Zuku phone, calls other zuku lines for free but pays more to other networks per-second. I’ll pass, thank you.
The thing with African internet service providers is when they give you unlimited data they can’t give you a higher internet speed as well and vice versa. In testing the service I decided to go in for the Zuku fiber 5 Mbps internet speed package which costs 2,499 KSH.
Review using Zuku Fiber Home Internet
According to Zuku “the performance of Internet component of the Services depends on the number of concurrent users. And customer may experience degraded performance the more the number of concurrent users“. The internet speed has been what I paid for. Never exceeding 5MBps and never lower than 3MBps. I really don’t have to worry about this and even with heavy usage and a lot of devices connected it works great with a few buffering’s. I have concurrently streamed HD videos from YouTube on the smart Tv and streamed live sport on my laptop. Skype and WhatsApp video and audio calls have been excellent.
I have had moments during the night when the internet had blanked out on me but its returned shortly. I’ved had to restart the router if it takes more than 5 minutes. But i am yet to have to call support service for assistance.
I was suprised to recieve a Zuku customer care support call checking up on me after 4 days of usage. Wanting to know if service quality was great and if i had queries or needed any help. Good customer care relationship is always good isn’t it?
All in all, i think I made a great call and I’m saving. Hopefully, this rosy relationship doesn’t turn sour. If it does I will come and tell you in a post update.
Visit the Zuku website for more details on their packages, locations etc. If you want to confirm some other details or have the service set up for you call Doreen[0710 305 250].
Some take away. *Make sure the internet service is available in your hood. *Find out from neighbours if it works. If it sounds like it is half and half, see if the benefits are more to you and you won’t lose much. Then make up your mind about it. You can give it a month’s trial and if it works, good. If they become shitty and you begin to hate them, eeerrrr just move on, lol.
Update 2021: Included “Update: Two years on from when I posted this it is still going great.” to the post.
[jetpack_subscription_form subscribe_placeholder=”Enter your email address” show_subscribers_total=”false” button_on_newline=”false” submit_button_text=”Hi, sign up so you can get the latest in breaking news, reviews, opinions, events, opportunities and community updates right in your inbox. ” custom_font_size=”16px” custom_border_radius=”0″ custom_border_weight=”1″ custom_padding=”15″ custom_spacing=”10″ submit_button_classes=”” email_field_classes=”” show_only_email_and_button=”true”]
Check out other stories making the news in the technology ecosystem in Africa and the Middle East.
Microsoft signs MoU with Jordan government to raise 1000 local software developers, Support emerging software startups and support MCIT ministry with AI technology adoption.
Microsoft has signed a memorandum of understanding and partnership with the Jordanian government. The partnership will see Microsoft support the Jordan ICT ministry with their ICT and AI technology adoption. It will help increase and drive digital transformation across sectors of the country.
The agreement was signed during this years World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Meeting on the side of the event, Jean-Philippe Courtois, EVP and President of Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing & Operations, met with His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah of Jordan. The move is in helping Jordan’s ambition to become a tech hub in the Middle East.
The three phase MoU according to Microsoft “will build the capacity of 1,000 young local software developers. Support emerging software startups and create an e-platform to help hundreds of companies and thousands of programmers.”
Jean-Philippe Courtois shared that he “was honoured and delighted to sign an MOU with the Government of Jordan and the Crown Prince Foundation“. He said “together we will work to digitally transform the country, empowering citizens with the AI skills they need to thrive in the digital economy.”
“In line with Microsoft’s mission to empower every person on the planet, and to support the evolving youthful tech scene in Jordan. Microsoft established a new partnership and signed an MoU with the MCIT and the Crown Prince Foundation of Jordan to digitally transform the country by empowering citizens with the AI skills they need to thrive in the digital economy.”
Microsoft
The MoU was signed by Jean-Philippe Courtois and the Jordanian MCIT minister with His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II witnessing the signing.
Microsoft announces 23 young ambassadors of digital civility for Middle East and Africa region.
Microsoft has selected 23 canidiates to represent the African and the Arab Council for Digital Good. These candidates are chosen from a pool of 750 applications recieved to become ambassadors of digital civility for their regions.
Microsoft’s Council for Digital Good is an initiative to involve teens in advancing digital civility and safer online interactions. Microsoft plans to assemble ambassadors from across the globe.
“Today, Microsoft is announcing the launch of its own African Council for Digital Good, as well as an Arab Council for Digital Good. After receiving more than 750 applications from across the Middle East and Africa, 23 candidates chosen to become ambassadors of digital civility for their region. Inaugural meetings will be held later this year.”
The ambasadors will help raise awareness of online digital safety. They will aslo offer their insights from other young people in their regions to industry experts, policymakers and etc..
Microsoft will make these ambassadors know to us later. We will do well to update you with these details.
Microsoft renames its game development division to Xbox Game Studios
Xbox Game Studios will replace Microsoft studios in name moving forward. Microsoft shares this as it continues to bring its gaming platform across all devices. This means all Microsoft Studios game divisons will come under Xbox Game Studios. Microsoft Studios is Microsoft’s video game development division of 13 teams[studios].
Xbox Game Studios’ Corporate Vice President Matt Booty, shared this announcement in a post. He shares;
“At Xbox, we believe when everyone plays, we all win. It’s why we’re passionate about building a portfolio of games for players across console, PC and mobile. As we’ve expanded our focus beyond the console, the Xbox brand has also evolved from its original roots. Today, Xbox is our gaming brand across all devices, no matter how or where you want to play, or who you want to play with. In that spirit, I’m pleased to share that we are changing the name of our game development organization from Microsoft Studios to Xbox Game Studios.”
Microsoft’s game studios produce games such as Forza, Gears of war, Minecraft, Halo, etc. Positioning itself as a gaming organization, Microsoft looks forward to a great 2019 for gamers. It is also looking to bring in more exculsive and big update games.
