East Africa’s contestants gave a good show at the ITU third annual Young Innovators Competition after two entries – Kenya’s NduruApp and Uganda’s M-Tambula – emerged among the 10 winners. The two were among winners announced by Geneva-based ITU Telecom on October 10.
NduruApp – developed by Kenya’s Thomas Kioko – is an Android mobile application created in April 2012 which manages almost all incidences related to road safety. The app integrates various services by creating inter-connectivity among different parties, thereby giving power to users to take charge of their own safety through the mobile phone. The app is targeted at motorists; pedestrians; school institutions and ministry of roads among other institutions.
The app enables the user to send complaints about various incidences – speeding, careless driving and other traffic offences – to the responsible party for review and action. It uses Google Maps to display the user’s location and black spot locations and notifies the users when approaching a black spot. The users travel speed is also displayed on the maps thereby helping the user to know the speed they are travelling at.
Apart from emerging winner at Young Innovators Competition, NduruApp came third in the student category globally and second in East Africa at the just-concluded Ericsson Applications Awards.
M-Tambula – created by Uganda’s Brenda Katwesigye – provides the elderly with easy access to public services using Interactive Voice Response (IVR) over mobile phones. IVR systems direct users using pre-recorded instructions.
The 10 winners have been invited to the ITU Telecom World 2013 – a networking, solutions showcase and knowledge-sharing event for the global ICT community – scheduled to take in Bangkok, Thailand on November 19 – 22, 2013.
Below is the complete list of the 10 winners:
|
No. |
Innovation |
|
Description |
|
Country |
| 1 | Al Dalilah Advanced Operational GPS | Represented by Ahmed Fawzi, it’s an advanced tracking and first response system using meteorological data | Egypt | ||
| 2 | Broad Street Maps
|
Represented by Hannah Judge, it produces individualized healthcare maps to support health organizations | USA | ||
| 3 | KUMBA Connect | Represented by Keston Perry from, it’s an interface connecting unemployed Caribbean migrants with technical skills based in the UK with Caribbean-based companies | Trinidad and Tobago | ||
| 4 | Land-Sea Digital Bridge | Represented by Nguyen Tran Hoang, it’s an HF digital radio communication system connecting fishing boats and shore stations | Viet Nam | ||
| 5 | M-Tambula | Represented by Brenda Katwesigye, it provides the elderly with easy access to public services using Interactive Voice Response over mobile phones | Uganda | ||
| 6 | NduruApp | Represented by Thomas Kioko, it’s a one-stop mobile app to manage all aspects of road safety | Kenya | ||
| 7 | Open Curriculum | Represented by Varun Arora, this is an online platform for local K12 educational material for standard, primary and secondary schooling | India | ||
| 8 | SalvageHub | Represented by Oscar Ekponimo, this is a a web and mobile platform to reduce food wastage at individual and retail levels | Nigeria | ||
| 9 | SiSwApp | Represented by Timothy McDermott, the English-SiSwati translation app aimed is aimed at migrant workers | Australia/ Swaziland | ||
| 10 | Tudlo Disaster and Emergency App | Represented by Yvone Loremia, it’s a multi-purpose information platform for emergency and disaster situations | Philippines |
At ITU Telecom World 2013 in Bangkok, the Young Innovators’ winners will take part in an accelerator programme to take their projects to the next level via one-on-one mentorship sessions with start-up mentors and business experts, hands-on workshop training, peer mentoring from the winners of the 2012 competition, and the opportunity to showcase their projects to the event’s influential audience at the InnovationSpace on the showfloor.
The winners will also be competing for up to US $ 5,000 prize money for great concepts, and up to US $ 10,000 for innovative start-ups.
Commenting on the winners, ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure said: “These are bright young minds with creative technological solutions to developmental challenges both in their communities and in the wider world. Bringing the competition winners to the forefront of the global ICT stage at ITU Telecom World connects them with the event’s influential audience, with the entrepreneurial experiences and with the success stories of their expert mentors and their peers from 2012.”
The Young Innovators Competion was open to young social entrepreneurs between ages 18 and 26 from around the world and targeted innovative digital solutions in the form of start-ups or initial concepts meeting global developmental challenges.
Other winners from Africa were Al Dalilah Advanced Operational GPS from Egypt and SalvageHub from Nigeria.
The final 10 winners were selected from the initial 600 entries received from 88 countries worldwide. They were chosen as having the greatest possible social impact and potential for business success.
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