Four Masters in Mobile Telecommunication and Innovation students, from @iLabAfrica Research Centre; Betty Rose Ngugi, Anthony Khajira, Doreen Aradi and James Ngugi, won 2nd position in the African Grand Challenge Competition (AGC) that took place from 25th – 28th January 2017.The four pitched an idea at the competition from their team member Doreen’s dissertation project, titled Pocket Doctor. A project that focuses on locating licensed clinics in Africa.
AGC, organized by the Nelson Mandela Institute of Science and Technology based in Tanzania held its 2ndannual challenge this year, where representatives from 8 countries from the African states attended. The theme was “How to use emerging technology to bridge the gaps in health care crisis in Africa.” The team was divided into groups consisting of representatives from the different countries.
Within the groups, different case studies were analyzed tackling problems facing the transportation of vaccines into Africa from America. The teams were later tasked with coming up solutions to the above problems, through the use of technology.
The main AGC competition took place on Saturday where a group of 8 teams with two panels was divided into group A and B, each consisting of 4 teams each. Only two teams in each group qualified for the next session, these teams represented Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Rwanda. The Strathmore team in the next round managed to win the second position after Rwanda, receiving an award of 3,000 USD.
Doreen, a Strathmore student commented on their win saying, “we hope to use the money won to develop our startup, evaluating how the product we presented can be useful to our country. We are figuring out how we can incorporate other organizations in our startup for back up.” Such competitions help students gain exposure to real life issues and spark their ability to solve problems within a given time-frame.
This article was first published on the Strathmore University site.