Microsoft to host maiden Xbox Game Studios Game Camp in Africa

Microsoft to host maiden Xbox Game Studios Game Camp in Africa

Microsoft’s Africa Transformation Office (ATO) is announcing a two-day Xbox Game Studios Game Camp in Africa. To empower African creators to realize their potential in the gaming industry through unique learning experiences from industry leaders. The conference will run from July 15th – 16th, 2023.

The two full days events are themed “The Journey of a Game” and will offer multiple perspectives on the complex craft of game development. In addition, there will be online learning components to the camp, which will allow participants to engage with focused training modules on topics that align closely with their skills and interests, before and after the event.

While the camp is available online for all registered campers, Game Camp will also host in-person viewing events for 100 selected campers at the Microsoft campuses in Cairo, Johannesburg, Lagos, and Nairobi. These sites will offer viewing parties on-site panel sessions and opportunities to meet with Microsoft and Xbox personnel. Furthermore, teams or individuals with games to pitch are encouraged to do so.

Game Camp Africa on xbox controller logo as Microsoft hosts Xbox Game Camp in Africa

To participate, individuals must be of legal age, reside in any country on the African continent, and be studying or working part or full-time in the field of software development, visual arts, 3D, music and audio, web design, narrative design, or professional project management. See the complete list of participation requirements at Xbox.com.

At Xbox, we’re on a mission to bring the joy and community of gaming to the world’s 3 billion gamers and we recognize that Africa is home to the largest population of youth in the world, many who love to play. In 2019 I attended the opening of our Africa Development Centre and met with tech leaders, educators, and developers from across the region to understand their vision for the future of game creation. Through the inaugural Xbox Game Studios Camp Africa, in collaboration with Microsoft’s Africa Transformation Office, we have an opportunity to continue to deepen our relationships with talented developers in region and help African games studios realize their vision and role in the global gaming industry,” said Phil Spencer, CEO, Gaming at Microsoft.

The Xbox Game Studios Game Camp program is an initiative that unifies various Xbox initiatives under one umbrella where talent is celebrated and game developers are empowered to pursue their dreams.

At Microsoft, we are excited to enable African game developers and creators to build faster through access to tools and resources, and to help their games be discovered by players in Africa and around the world. We want to grow strong roots in this significant market for gaming and game development. The ATO and Xbox personnel will also combine efforts to identify game studios to invest in through our Startups acceleration program and venture capital investment partners. I’m looking forward to seeing what innovative concepts this Game Camp produces,” says Wael Elkabbany, Strategic Initiatives Lead for Microsoft CEMA.

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Students from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa qualify for the 2023 Microsoft Imagine Cup world finals

Students from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa qualify for the 2023 Microsoft Imagine Cup world finals

University student teams from Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa are among the shortlisted finalist of the 2023 Microsoft Imagine Cup world finals. They are among 16 teams who will represent the Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region at the Microsoft Imagine Cup student technology competition.

The African teams consist of seven teams from Kenya, one from Nigeria, and one from South Africa. The remaining finalist teams from the region come from the UK, Pakistan, UAE, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The EMEA teams will be competing with 32 other finalist teams from the Americas and Asia regions. For a chance to win USD50,000 in prizes and a spot to present at the 2023 Microsoft Imagine Cup World Championship.

Only three teams will make it to the next stage of the technology competition. The teams will need to get the top-scoring points in the region or category to progress to the next stage. The winning teams will get support from Microsoft mentors to prepare for the World Championship in May during Microsoft Build. Where they will win the grand prize of USD100,000 and a mentoring session with Microsoft Chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella.

African student teams have been performing exceptionally well in the technology competition that seeks to empower the next generation of creators and problem-solvers. In 2021 and for the first time in its 19-year history, an African student team from Kenya won the technology competition.

Here is a highlight of the African teams and their projects.

2023 Microsoft Imagine Cup logo backdrop and throphy

2023 Microsoft Imagine Cup Africa finalists

Team CAi from Kenya. Project category: Health

CAi is an AI-powered wearable device that detects seizures both prior to occurrence and in real-time and alerts caretakers. It uses the patient’s vital signs and body movements to detect seizure-like symptoms.

Team Paramount from South Africa. Project category: Earth

This system addresses the lack of participation in recycling through a gamification approach. Users earn points and badges for recycling and can also use the app to identify the correct bin to use.

Team iBoost from Kenya. Project category: Lifestyle

iBoost is a smart signal amplifier that leverages Azure Machine Learning, Bing Maps platform, and a host of other Microsoft technologies to bring an end to the internet connectivity and cellular network challenges brought about by poor network coverage.

Team IBTRS from Nigeria. Project category: Lifestyle

Institution based transport system (IBTRS) is based on a shuttle management system, IBTRS uses a telegram bot and RFID system to book shuttles at an affordable price for institutions, students, and workers and maximize efficiency.

Team RIM from Kenya. Project category: Earth

RIM Energy is a Smart LPG regulator that improves safety, monitors consumption, detects gas leaks, alerts on refill, and measures carbon footprint to reduce GHG emissions in African households.

Team Score More from Kenya. Project category: Education

Udhamini web app is a platform that gives students access to a centralized repository of scholarships to make opportunities easier to find and ensure that students don’t miss deadlines.

Team Smart Farmer from Kenya. Project category: Earth

Smart Farmer aims to increase agricultural production in order to help reduce food waste using technology.

Team TAWI from Kenya. Project category: Education

Tawi is a home-based software app that helps children with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) improve their auditory skills. It includes noise cancellation, sound amplification, speech-to-text conversion, and auditory training exercises.

Team Wastestars from Kenya. Project category: Earth

Wastestars aims to design a smart waste collection system that allows citizens to choose and post the various types of solid waste they want to dispose of on the website and for garbage collectors.

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Microsoft, Liquid Cloud to support African businesses with cloud services

Microsoft, Liquid Cloud to support African businesses with cloud services

Microsoft is announcing a partnership with Liquid Cloud through its Africa Transformation Office (ATO) to provide cloud services to businesses across the continent. Liquid Cloud and the Microsoft ATO will collaborate to deliver resilient cloud in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe to meet regulatory and data residency requirements, address low latency workloads, strengthen resilience, and enable business continuity.

The hybrid cloud environment extends Azure capabilities enabling customers to create cloud-native applications faster with Azure platform and data services such as App Service, Functions, Logic Apps, Azure SQL Managed Instance, PostgreSQL database, and Azure machine learning. As a result, customers will be able to innovate anywhere and use the Azure platform to bring new solutions to life that solves today’s challenges, while creating the future.

Liquid Cloud Telecom

We witnessed an accelerated adoption of cloud technologies in Africa, and businesses are now reaping the benefits of their investment. Our customers are increasingly moving to hybrid work culture, meaning the demand for cloud-based services will only grow. Our partnership will enable us to build comprehensive and edge-based cloud capabilities that meet customer regulatory requirements and ensure that they deliver value to their customers,” said David Behr, CEO of Liquid Cloud and Cyber Security.

On his part, Wael El kabbany, General Manager, Africa Regional Cluster, Microsoft said: “Critical infrastructure enablers are needed to provide access to the cloud to accelerate digital transformation and the adoption of digital technologies. Working with Liquid Cloud, access to the local cloud will be available to more organizations and highly regulated industries across the continent. In addition, the hybrid cloud provides in-country resources that address data residency, latency, and storage requirements,

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Microsoft is hiring software engineers from African universities to USA and Canada

Microsoft is hiring software engineers from African universities to USA and Canada

As part of plans to showcase the talent pool in Africa, Microsoft through its University Recruiting program and Africans at Microsoft is hiring final-year students and recent university graduates from across Africa into full-time engineering roles at Microsoft. The Microsoft African University Recruitment Program for recent graduate engineers will provide successful candidates with relocation to the USA and Canada.

Interested persons who will like to apply should have recently graduated from the university or will be graduating by 2023. Here are the qualifications you will need to meet.

  • Open to relocating to USA or Canada
  • Pursuing or recently completed a bachelor’s or master’s degree in engineering, computer science, or related field.  
  • One year of programming experience in an object-oriented language (C, C#, C++, Java, Python).  
  • Ability to demonstrate an understanding of computer science fundamentals, including data structures and algorithms. 

Activities that will give you an edge include experience building software outside of the classroom environment like an internship, hackathon, or research project. As well as showing the ability to work in a team and effective time management.

USA and Canada Microsoft

Microsoft started the program in 2017 dubbed Africa to Redmond; Hack for Africa. For its first iteration, Microsoft University Recruiting and Africans at Microsoft selected five universities on the continent to recruit from. University of Nairobi (Kenya), University of Lagos (Nigeria), Ashesi University (Ghana), Makerere University (Uganda), and University of Cape Town (South Africa).

The Microsoft Team is organizing free virtual resume workshops to help interested persons prepare for the application process. Where they will provide information on Microsoft’s recruitment program, share tips on how to make your application stand out, and answer your questions. The free resume workshop will take place at different times depending on your country. Here are a few below:

Ghana – from 6 – 7:30 pm GMT on Saturday 20th August 2022. The link to join the session will be provided after you register, link: http://aka.ms/ghtomicrosoft.

Nigeria – from 7 pm WAT on Thursday 18th August 2022 via https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1OdKrBDoOAeKX.

Kenya – from 6 – 7 pm EAT on 24th August 2022 via https://www.meetup.com/ms-ambassadors-ke/events/287900428/

During the workshop, Microsoft recruiters will share more on the recruitment process. But it usually takes place in three phases and will look something like this. It starts with an online coding challenge. A panel will then review the entries and select applicants for the next stage. The selected candidates will have an in-person or virtual interview. Finally, a successful candidate from the three steps will join Microsoft for a full-time position. The candidate will be assigned to an engineering team once they accept the offer.

Don’t forget to kindly share this opportunity with your friends or anyone this might help so they don’t miss out.

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Sell Harvest wins N2.5M at Microsoft Agro-Tech Hackathon NG

Sell Harvest wins N2.5M at Microsoft Agro-Tech Hackathon NG

Sell harvest, an agritech solution by Team Software Chasers emerges winner of the first Microsoft Agro-Tech Hackathon in Nigeria. The team wins two and a half million Naira as prize money, mentorship and technical support from Microsoft. It will also join the Microsoft Global Social Entrepreneurship program to develop into a unicorn.

Microsoft Agro-Tech Hackathon NG is an initiative of the Microsoft African Transformation Office (ATO) in partnership with Sterling Bank, Ted Prime Hub and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). To identify and develop sustainable and inclusive digital solutions for agro-products and services in Nigeria.

Microsoft Agro-Tech Hackathon

Microsoft says seventy thousand Nigerians applied to participate in the hackathon. With two thousand being shortlisted for the first phase of the hackathon. Which was then filtered down to fifty and then thirty teams. The teams went through virtual skill-up sessions on technology and cloud services, emerging issues on agricultural value chain process, start-up ecosystem and idea scaling and product testing.

The final event featured 10 solutions by teams from Abuja, Benue, Enugu, Jos, Kaduna, Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Oyo and Sokoto states competing for the top three positions. Farmsquare came in second winning N1.5million while third place winner Farmers’ Market got N1 million.

Olatomiwa Williams, Microsoft Country Manager Nigeria and Ghana affirmed Microsoft’s commitment to working with both the private and public sectors to accelerate digital transformation in African agriculture. As well as harnessing the potential of the youth by helping support homegrown start-ups in critical sectors.

Muhammad Mukhtar, Albany Muhammad, and Sa’adu Abubakar of Team Software Chasers expressed their delight in the product development experience. They added, “It has been an interesting journey with wide experiences from varying degrees”.

Watch the Microsoft Agro-Tech Hackathon grand finale

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