Team TAWI, winners in the education category of the 2023 Imagine Cup world finals qualifying round have gone on to win the World Championship. The team qualified from 48 competing global teams to be selected among the top 3 to compete in the World Championship at Microsoft Build. They win the grand prize of USD 100,000, a mentorship session with Microsoft’s Chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella, and Level 2 access to Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub.
They faced winning teams from the Americas and Asia regions; Eupnea from the United States, and CS-M Tool from Thailand, respectively. Winning the competition showcasing their solution that seeks to help people with auditory processing disorder communicate more easily. It leverages speech recognition tools from Azure Cognitive Services and OpenAI Whisper to enhance speech, reduce background noise, and transcribe speech to text in real-time.
The team will work to take their solution to the next phase and scale it. Watch the full 2023 Microsoft Imagine Cup World Championship event and hear more about their solution.
An innovation by four university students that translates the local dialect into English or Kiswahili to make it easier for doctors to diagnose patients’ symptoms remotely has emerged as the overall winner of the fourth season of the Game of Learners (GOL) competition. The solution, dubbed ‘Jambo Care,’ was developed by Team Ruby, which beat 16 other teams from universities across Africa to win the season on Friday. This season’s challenge aimed to develop technological solutions for Africa’s health challenges and featured more than 80 students from 11 African countries, with an equal balance of men and women.
This season, the Microsoft African Development Centre (ADC) partnered with Population Services International (PSI) and AMREF Health Africa in a five-week hackathon to design and build technology solutions that make primary healthcare more accessible to people. This was informed by the fact that African healthcare systems face several challenges, including inadequate health infrastructure, a shortage of healthcare personnel, limited access to essential medicines, low health literacy, and poor health-seeking behaviour. This makes it difficult for individuals and communities to receive high-quality care. Increasing access to affordable digital technology provides an opportunity to address these challenges.
Jambo Care aims to bridge the communication gap whereby the healthcare provider and the recipient don’t have a common language of communication. This will ensure effective healthcare delivery. As part of the next steps, PSI will provide some students with internship opportunities to progress their knowledge in digital health. At the same time, AMREF Health will offer 3-months of technical support to the best two teams to advance their innovations.
Speaking at the Season Finale, Ruth Ferland, the Regional Head of Student & Community Engagements at Microsoft ADC, said: “As part of this year’s competition, we challenged participants to delve into the healthcare sector, identify a unique challenge, and design a tech-based solution. Through the competition, we can obtain what we hope will be a creative solution to one of our long-standing healthcare challenges and assist them in learning more about technology and how to use it for good.”
The Microsoft Africa Development Centre (ADC) and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Department of Computing have reviewed the university’s Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Bachelor of Computer Technology curriculum to make them more relevant to industry demands.
The new curriculum will impact the delivery of 128 units within the university’s Computer science and Computer technology courses. The curriculum is expected to start with the September 2023 students intake.
The updated curriculum will assist in preparing students for the demands of a rapidly changing technology industry by emphasizing practical skill development and simulating real-world experience within the classroom. In addition to a refreshed approach to traditional technological concepts, the reviewed curriculum will introduce new and innovative concepts, including Applied Machine Learning, Virtual Reality, Quantum Computing, and User Experience Design, as well as industry-standard tools at the education level to improve student’s familiarity with them as they enter the workplace.
Catherine Muraga, the Managing Director at Microsoft ADC said that they are delighted to have partnered with Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) in the curriculum review process and have their experts contribute specialized knowledge that will allow for tech industry-ready students and use of improved standards of teaching. Globally employable Kenyans boost Kenya’s attractiveness as a destination for technology companies looking to invest here. The startup ecosystem, local businesses, and entrepreneurs working on transforming technology will also benefit.
The curriculum review process is part of the ADC’s larger goal of catalyzing digital transformation by providing opportunities for skill and practical knowledge acquisition to equip Kenyans to be competitive in the global digital landscape.
“The review process has been extensive, with invaluable insights and recommendations from experienced industry experts that will add significant value to classroom instruction. We look forward to providing our students with best-in-class education that integrates practical skills building and theoretical understanding as they prepare for success in the technology industry,” said Dr Lawrence Nderu, Chairman, Department of Computing at JKUAT.
Similar curriculum review initiatives will be implemented at other institutions of higher learning as part of efforts to bridge the ever-present gap between industry and academia, particularly in the technology sector.
“We believe that by partnering with educational institutions, from primary school to the university level, we can help create a future workforce equipped with the skills and knowledge needed to thrive in a digital age. We look forward to working with other institutions of higher learning to develop curricula that will improve the whole technology talent pipeline and grow the pool of tech talent in the country to benefit the whole ecosystem,” added Ms Muraga.
Co-Founder and CTO of Ampersand, Alp Tilev, says the transition to e-mobility in Africa must be expedited. He shares more on why there is an opportunity to drive the adoption of electrically powered motorcycles that produce less pollution in Africa. Talking about the financial and environmental advantages of electric motorcycles for drivers and the environment.
Historically, Asia has been the birthplace of motorcycles. China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam are the world’s four largest motorcycle markets. The continent is home to roughly 58% of all motorcycles in the world.
Africa is quickly catching up. According to a report by AMEND and the FIA Foundation, motorcycle usage in Africa has increased from less than 5 million in 2010 to an estimated 27 million in 2022. Because of Africa’s entrepreneurial spirit, 80% of the continent’s motorcycles are used for commercial purposes such as taxis or delivery services.
Although Africa’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is negligible at under four percent, these petrol-powered two-wheelers contribute a significant amount of carbon emissions. As Africa joins the rest of the world in the drive to reduce pollution, there is an opportunity to drive the adoption of electrically powered motorcycles that produce less pollution.
Electric motorcycles are hardly a new concept, but they are relatively new to Africa where they are starting to gain momentum by firmly making their way into the cultural and economic zeitgeist while inching the continent’s travelers towards a lower carbon future.
Adoption of electric motorcycles in Africa has its challenges, the issue of charging batteries being one. Given that a significant proportion of motorcycles on African roads are used for commercial purposes, riders rarely have time to wait for their batteries to charge.
However, there are innovative solutions that can be deployed to address the challenge, and technology is rapidly advancing, providing opportunities for innovators to create long-term solutions to the continent’s most pressing challenges.
On the back of this, we created Ampersand, an electric motorcycle and transportation energy solutions provider that allows riders to stay on the road while their batteries charge. To make this possible, we built a network of charging stations where riders can swap out depleted batteries for fully charged ones in only 2 minutes, saving them over $500 per year by reducing downtime.
Furthermore, each battery has a range of 60-90 km and needs to be replaced less frequently than drivers typically refuel with petrol. This solution not only saves drivers money but also ensures that they have a constant source of power, making electric motorcycles a more viable transportation option.
As the business grew from the initial 20 drivers to the current 800+ vehicles in Kigali and Nairobi, one of the challenges we encountered was keeping track of the batteries and their condition. With hundreds of drivers swapping out batteries every day, being able to track them and ensure they are in good condition is critical to our ability to support more drivers. Consequently, we built AmperOps, an adaptive cloud solution built on Microsoft’s Azure platform that allows the collection of over 15,000 data points and the execution of multiple transactions per second. The system also enables seamless management of battery packs through customizable parameters such as state of health analysis and geofenced alarms for increased security.
Furthermore, the system includes smart maintenance systems that automatically notify the team of required battery or vehicle repairs before they occur. With this level of customization and real-time response, we can gain a thorough understanding of the performance of each swap station, driver, and battery.
In the long run, the advantages of electric motorcycles extend beyond financial savings for drivers and environmental advantages. As Africa continues to industrialize, so will the capacity for designing, building, and assembling motorcycle components. This demonstrates an opportunity for green job growth throughout the value chain, from design to delivery and maintenance. Given that Ampersand users travel over 1.9 million kilometers per month, there is a clear opportunity for electric motorcycles to impact Africa’s transportation industry and for electric motorcycles to become the sustainable lifeblood of public transport systems In fact, we have set an ambitious goal of electrifying all motorcycles in East Africa by 2030, and earlier in Rwanda by 2027.
Without a doubt, electric motorcycles have the potential to be a viable mode of transportation for millions of Africans. Technology will drive change by enabling innovators to create solutions to niche challenges in the adoption of e-mobility. With the right investment, Africa’s transportation industry could be transformed while also creating job opportunities, reducing pollution, and saving drivers money.
Kenya’s student team TAWI has qualified for the 2023 Microsoft Imagine Cup World Championship set to take place in May. The team emerged winners in the education category of the 2023 Imagine Cup world finals qualifying round. Beating 15 other teams to become the top-scoring team and 2023 Europe Middle East and Africa(EMEA) champions. They won USD5,000 in prizes.
Team TAWI also qualified from 48 competing global teams to be selected among the top 3 that will compete in the 2023 Microsoft Imagine Cup World Championship. Where they will compete for the Imagine Cup trophy, the grand prize of USD100,000 to develop their project, and a mentoring session with Microsoft Chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella.
Team TAWI consists of Muna Said Nomy, John Onsongo Mabeya, Syntiche Musawu, Applied Computer Technology, and Zakariya Hussein, Data Science and Analytics undergraduate students of the United States International University (USIU) – Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. Their innovative solution TAWI looks to make a difference in the lives of those who struggle with auditory processing.
The home-based software leverages real-time speech recognition technology to help children with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) communicate more effectively. Instead of traditional hearing aids, TAWI uses earphones to amplify speech and cancel out background noise, making it easier for children with APD to engage in conversations and interact with others. It includes noise cancellation, sound amplification, speech-to-text conversion, and auditory training exercises.
The team will present TAWI at Microsoft Build 2023 where the Microsoft Imagine Cup World Championship takes place. They will compete against the winning teams from the Americas and Asia regions. Eupnea from the United States and CS-M Tool from Thailand, both from the Health category.
Student teams, Smart Farmer and iBoost from Kenya also emerged as EMEA winners in the Earth and Lifestyle categories respectively.
Hongera to these incredible young developers and all the best to Team TAWI in the championship!🎉
University students from across Kenya and some parts of Africa can now apply to participate in season 4 of the Microsoft Africa Development Centre’s (ADC) Game of Learners (GOL) student hackathon competition. The GOL initiative provides an opportunity for African university students, aspiring software engineers, and solution builders to improve their technical and coding abilities while creating solutions to current challenges facing the continent and the world.
GoL student hackathon Season 4
In this year’s student hackathon competition, participants will be working to develop possible technology solutions that can address different health challenges, including how to improve healthcare service provision in their localities or other parts of the world. The program runs as a 5-week hackathon with teams captained by Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors crafting the innovations while receiving technical training from Microsoft’s professionals.
“Since we launched Game of Learners four years ago, we have seen incredible development in the learner’ skills through each season as they create incredibly clever solutions to some of Africa’s pressing problems using Microsoft technology,” said Ruth Ferland, Senior Program Manager at ADC, and the founder of the Game of Learners Program. “This year’s theme will allow the participants to plug into an area that has enormous potential to impact lives across the continent and indeed around the world.”
The students will benefit from the instruction of 32 coaches and more than 20 advisors who will guide them through the process of learning new technologies and building their solutions. The coaches, mentors, judges, speakers, and trainers will consist of volunteers from Microsoft and partners, who for season 4 will include PSI and AMREF Health Africa.
Winning teams
At the end of the season, the winning team will be eligible for awards, including collaboration with GOL Season 4 partners to advance their solution and entry into the Microsoft Imagine Cup, where they will present their innovation on a global stage.
“This partnership with Microsoft is part of a larger initiative to increase the talent pool of individuals working in Digital Health across Africa”, said Martin Dale, Population Services International’s (PSI) Global Director of Digital Health. “There is so much talent graduating from our universities and Game of Learners is a great opportunity for students to dig in and create solutions that make health care more accessible to all.”, he continued.
Speaking about the initiative, Samuel Weru, AMREF Health Africa Group ICT Director, challenged students to apply for the program and be part of the drive towards creating home-grown solutions for Africa’s challenges.
“As a continent that has historically had serious healthcare challenges, we need the kind of ideas that can only come from the youth to revitalize healthcare service provision. There are myriad opportunities ranging from health informatics and telemedicine to big data analysis and system security for the learners to explore. We are eager to work with the teams to create solutions that have the potential to change Africa and the world,” said Weru.
GoL Season 4
In total, Season 4 will have 16 teams, each made up of 4 learners, 2 men and 2 women, drawn from all over the continent. The virtual student hackathon competition is open to students of accredited universities and colleges in sub-Saharan Africa, who will be vetted as per the requirements after submitting an online application.
“The program is designed to provide a fun, hands-on learning experience while creating a virtual environment that transcends borders to allow young minds to collaborate and drive the advancement of Africa into a global innovation hub. Having gender-balanced teams further ties into our mission of promoting diversity and inclusion within the tech industry,” explains Ferland.
Like a sports league, each 5-week season of Game of Learners follows up with a month-long season of GOL Clinic and GOL exhibitions to accord individuals seeking deeper hands-on technical experience and specialized training from Microsoft and GOL partners.
