Strathmore University is getting all the good rating and attention from all tech companies. Just yesterday, Strathmore was signing and MOU with Samsung Electronics to support Research and Development of Mobile applications by the students. Samsung will be funding the venture and supplying Strathmore with the equipment.
But at the Imagine Cup, Team QuestO from Uganda’s Makerere University emerged the winner of the 2011 edition of the East and Southern Africa regional contest. Imagine Cup is a student competition which centers on the use of imagination, creativity and technology to help solve some of the world’s toughest problems. Main focus being the UN Millenium Development Goals.
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More than 20 teams comprising students from universities from Kenya and Uganda competed during a challenging day of presentations held at Strathmore University. The winner, Team QuestO from Uganda, showcased a desktop, mobile and web based system, dubbed CRIMEX, that focuses on crime pattern analysis in developing countries.
Louis Otieno Chats with the Media:
[vimeo width=”580″ height=”420″]http://www.vimeo.com/23524886[/vimeo]
The team comprising of Joseph Lutalo,a finalist at the College of Science and Joshua Kaizzi, a first year student in 3D animations at the college of Computing and Informatics, under the mentorship of Joseph Kaizzi,a past participant in two Imagine Cup worldwide finals,will now go on to compete in this year’s Worldwide Finals, which will take place in New York City, USA in July 2011.
The winners walked away with a ticket to Imagine Cup finals in New York, laptops and a printer. They were clearly speechless. There were many challenges like the government in Uganda not supporting creative minds the way the Kenyan government does and also the tech community not as active.
Kenyan Students came second and third and all are from Strathmore University. Carol Odanga was the first runners while James Kairegi was the second runners up with a project titled “The Greenhouse Project”. Carol’s application was the only entry in the “Game Design” category. The game focused on the “universal education and gender equality” millenium development goal. Carol is a BBIT student at Strathmore University
Louis Otieno, General Manager, Microsoft East and Southern Africa challenged the contestants not just to use technology for the sake of technology. He said that technology must change how we live and think and must solve our immediate problems first. Louis also urged techies to mentor and encourage the young minds. With mentorship, local developers can effectively compete in all areas.
The Imagine Cup is now in its ninth year and has grown to become the world’s premier student technology competition with more than 325,000 students representing 100 countries participating in last year’s event.
The winning team, QuestO, will represent East and Southern Africa at the Imagine Cup finals that will be held between 8 and 11July 2011 in New York.
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