Microsoft hosts 32 women in technology in a hackathon event in Nairobi.
9th July 2019, Nairobi: Kenya
Furthering its commitment to diversity and inclusivity in the engineering and technology space, Microsoft hosted the LEAP Hackathon. The event, which strives to increase technology skills, facilitate learning through challenges as well as strengthen the place of women in the technology sector, focused on solutions in the agricultural and health sectors.
“Research shows that the average productivity of major crops in Kenya has only increased by 17% over the last 10 years.
The lack of digitally enabled agripreneurs, inputs and quality data are sited as the reasons for this slow growth.
Microsoft endeavors to close the gap that exists in this sector by training ‘women hackers’ from non-traditional ICT backgrounds in the LEAP Hackathon programme who competed for the top spot in the hackathon”
Amrote Abdella, Regional Director for Microsoft 4Afrika.
The LEAP Engineering Acceleration Program is a 16-week program – launched to increase diversity within Microsoft. The program provides real world experience through development and project management apprenticeships and combines traditional classroom learning with hands-on projects.
32 Female hackers were identified to participate in the hackathon using a strict recruitment process which helped gauge the abilities of the applicants through 2 rounds of evaluation of the applications.
Participants of the hackathon received Azure credits while the overall winning group was awarded prizes.
The hackathon was a success, many novel solutions
were brought forth by the participants, but the group called The BugSlayers took
centre stage with their innovative AgRight presentation. AgRight is a
web application that uses Microsoft AI (Azure Custom Vision) for pest and
disease prediction. The app can also predict harvest time, connects farmers to
buyers and monitors farm activities. The bright minds behind this invention are
Clara Nashipai, Sylvia Achach, Rosianah Musyoka and Bethany Jepchumba.
Post hackathon, Microsoft will work with the
winning group on an ongoing internship program where they will be mentored and
helped to further build and develop their solution and skills.
“We are thrilled at the outcome of this year’s LEAP hackathon! As we continue to work to upskill and educate women across the continent – the endless opportunities and unprecedented innovations this brings is something we are excited to be a part of” Amrote Abdella.
All-Female Microsoft LEAP Hackathon event in Nairobi.
I thought it was going to be just an ordinary hackathon, when I first heard about the Microsoft LEAP hackathon. Where you just go and compete for prizes and that is it. Says Rosianah Musyoka, selected participant at Microsoft LEAP hackathon in Nairobi, Kenya.
“I was very excited when I got the acceptance email to participate in the program. My expectations were surpassed, interacting with some of the Microsoft engineers and learnt quite a lot from them. I gained a lot of knowledge around Microsoft Azure and made new friends.” she shares.
Microsoft selected twenty-six female developers to participate in its maiden LEAP hackathon event in Nairobi, Kenya. With a similar event underway for female developers in Lagos, Nigeria. An initiative of the recently launched Microsoft Africa Development Center in both cities. The all-female hackathon event “is to strengthen the place of women in the tech ecosystem” Microsoft says.
Learning
Participants were taken through four days of learning: Microsoft Azure, Azure DevOps, Azure AI, Machine Learning, etc. technologies. As well as hacking ideas using learnt technologies.
For Rosianah Musyoka the Microsoft LEAP
program was amazing. She hopes there we will be more of such in Kenya. Sharing that some of the things she learnt
during the event aren’t taught in school. Rosianah is a computer science final
year student at the University of Nairobi.
“Through the program, we have gained lots of skills which have equipped us to become better developers. The trainers who were all Microsoft employees were great, friendly and always ready to help.
Most of the things learned within the one week of the LEAP hackathon are not taught in school. It started with learning how to write maintainable and testable code, learning about dockers and containers, Azure Dev Ops, Azure custom vision, Azure machine learning studio among others.
In addition, we were exposed to other key nontechnical skills which are important when creating systems. These include creating a system that is inclusive of everyone, trustworthy, transparent, etc.”
The female developers were put in teams and tasked with solving societal problems in Agriculture and financial services industry (FSI). Requiring them to develop creative solutions using the technologies they’ve learnt. Rosianah and her teammates emerged winners of the hackathon event. Designing a web application powered by Microsoft Artificial Intelligence. The app helps Maize farmers predict and manage pests and diseases, predict harvest time and the yield amount as well as connect buyers to the farmers.
Hacking Ideas
“During the hackathon my team came up with a project which focuses on two main users, maize farmers and maize vendors. The problems we are solving for the farmer include: Lack of information about pests and disease and how to manage them. Lack of ready market access. Unpredictability of yield and harvest time. Due to this, the farmer is unable to plan for his business well.
The problems we are solving for the vendor include: Unpredictability of supply, hence the vendor is unable to plan for business. Lack of a reliable supply.
We solved the above problems using a web application powered by Azure AI services to: Help farmers predict and manage pests and diseases. Predict harvest time and the yield amount. Connecting Buyers and Farmers.
It was great to work on solutions that positively impact our society. Our solution was motivated by the problem, not any technology.
We had to think about the business model for our project, any similar projects that have launched and even competition market. We also brought in some knowledge acquired in school such as design thinking (developing for the user), business management and entrepreneurship among others to ensure that we do our project well and to completion.”
#MSLEAPHACKATHON#Microsoft I am really excited. My team and I won the competition. We hot ourselves some interesting prizes including ???
The winning team will continue to receive mentorship and assistance from Microsoft in building their project into a realization. Rosianah hopes their idea when actualized, will be used by farmers and maize vendors soon.
Microsoft invited female developers in Kenya and Nigeria to participate in the Microsoft LEAP Hackathon 2019 event. An initiative of the newly launched Microsoft Africa Development center. The all-female event seeks to strengthen the place of women in technology. A four day program combining traditional classroom learning with hands on projects.
In Nigeria 30 female developers were selected from about 170 who successfully applied to participate in the event. Nelly Tadi from Abuja state was one of the 30 selected female developers. She shares with us her experience of the Microsoft LEAP Hackathon. For Nelly it was a learning curve. Learning new technologies and tools, practicing how to use them and working with a team.
“I got a forwarded message from a friend on WhatsApp and actually ignored it at first. I later went back to it, clicked on the link and started to fill the form on my phone.” She mentions almost giving up as there was a quiz section in the form where she had to write code and the phone wouldn’t allow. She however had the urge to continue because she found the quiz challenging, intriguing and wanted to solve it. “So I picked up my laptop, entered the link and started the quiz again.”
“I was super excited to be selected. I felt honored. I mean it was a Microsoft event with free accommodation and feeding. It felt important.”
Learning
“Having once participated in a hackathon event in school – Bingham University – I thought it was going to be coding throughout. We had trainings for the first two days and then the Hackathon for the remaining two days of the event. To be honest before this I had never heard about Azure, Microsoft teams and DevOps.”
Participants were taken through
writing maintainable and testable code. Learning about DevOps, Azure,
machine learning studio, virtual machines, Azure AI and other Microsoft
technologies and tools.
“The mentors were really patient with us. Going over the same thing again and again just to ensure that we were learning. The organizers, mentors were all so friendly and easy going. The atmosphere there was enough to give anybody the confidence to ask questions and learn. We hosted our web app on azure and also did a machine learning project on it with the free credit given to us. So yeah, it wasn’t just about the training, it was great because i actually got to practically use these tools.”
Hacking with Team 5X at the Microsoft LEAP Hackathon
During the hackathon Nelly Tadi was put in Team 5X. A team that saw her becoming friends with Busola Okeowo, Catherine John, Mary Olohitare Belo and Hope Oluwalolope. Learning the valuable lesson of working in a team. Nelly says “I’m so glad we learnt to understand ourselves. If not i’m quite sure we wouldn’t have been able to come up with a good project not to talk more of winning. I was really excited about winning.”
Nelly’s Team 5X won the Microsoft
LEAP Hackathon with a solution they named AGRIFY. A platform that connects buyers, sellers and transporters of good and
quality farm produce.
“We created a solution based on a real life problem. Our idea was a product called AGRIFY. Agrify is a platform to connect buyers and sellers of farm produce and also ensure delivery of good quality farm products. We used machine learning to determine quality of farm produce and built the web application with PHP Laravel. During the training we were taught how to host web apps on azure so we implemented that knowledge by hosting our demo app on https://agrify.azurewebsites.net.
Nelly Tadi lives in Abuja and is the founder of Why Code. An organization training young people in different aspects of IT. She shares “we are currently working on introducing coding clubs to schools, running summer schools and other training events. I intend to continue to pursue this dream and also keep learning more about programming and improving my skills.”
Microsoft Invites Female Developers to participate in the Microsoft LEAP Hackathon 2019. The LEAP Program is a benefit of the recently announced Africa Development Centres in Lagos and Nairobi, Microsoft says. It is a 16 weeks Software Engineering Program which focuses on strengthening the place of women in technology. Combining traditional class room learning with hands on projects in a real-world development experience.
Microsoft is inviting lady developers to participate in the inaugural LEAP hackathon event. There will be two events scheduled to take place in Kenya and Nigeria. At the Radisson Blu, Upper Hill in Nairobi on the 17th to the 21st of June. And at the Microsoft Office, Civic Tower in Lagos, Nigeria.
The LEAP Engineering Acceleration Program provides a new approach to talent sourcing. Leveraging modern models and avenues to find passionate and capable talent among women who are from a non-traditional ICT background or those returning to the workplace environment after a while.
Visit the Microsoft LEAP Hackathon 2019 registration page to register. By providing personal details and answering a few questions.
