Microsoft announces winners of the Game of Learners Hackathon involving Kenyan Universities

The Microsoft Game of Learners hackathon that was announced last month as a way of promoting innovation among university students in Kenya has ended. An entry from a group of students from different universities featuring a unique mobile-based medical application has emerged on top.

The mobile application was developed by five students drawn from different universities. Microsoft says the holistic medical services app, dubbed RemD – short for Remote Doctor – beat stiff competition from four other teams to emerge the winner. The team members who won are:

• Daniel Katungi (Mt. Kenya University)
• Sandra Makena (Dedan Kimathi University of Technology)
• Jeff Melita (Strathmore University)
• Cyndrella Wafula (Multimedia University) and
• Microsoft Student Ambassador Joshua Ndemenge (Dedan Kimathi University)

The challenge was to demonstrate the application of technology in developing e-health systems that will enable patients to access normal medical services remotely.

About the winning app:

RemD uses technology to avail a set of tools and services that aim to bring health care services to a user or an organization.

• Through the app, a user requests for consultation services
• They user selects whether they would like consultation with either a general physician, a psychiatrist, or a pediatrician.
• They then receive a message from the bot to begin triage where all the symptoms are recorded.
• After the triage, the bot sends all the information recorded to the doctor on the App.
• The doctor continues the conversation with a user via SMS.
• If the doctor deems it necessary, an in-person appointment can be set up.

“Any user seeking medical services can access our services through the mobile app or the USSD App. While the doctor on the other end can interact with these users using the windows app,” explains the RemD team leader, Joshua Ndemenge.

The African Development Center Managing Director Jack Ngare congratulated all the 25 participating students noting that some of the projects presented had big potential for commercialization and Microsoft was willing to support them achieve that dream.

“While access to healthcare has been a key concern in Africa for ages, the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the impetus to discover new technology solutions that will enable health providers handle an influx of people who get sick and it is encouraging to see the young generation and innovators harnessing the technology they have access to in developing solutions for the industry,” said Jack Ngare, the Africa Development Center Managing Director at the end of the competition. He added, “We are keen at growing your skills and I will really be proud to see some of you that has participated in the Game of Learners joining one of the engineering teams at Microsoft.”

In addition, Microsoft Research is running a programme called HealthNext that seeks to discover some of the new sustainable methods of offering healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa and India and as such would be following up on some of the projects submitted to see how they can be scaled to the next level, Ngare said.

The winning team will now be featured on the ADC website and along with announcements on social media, each standing member of the winning team will also be rewarded with:

• 1-year Azure credits
• 1-year LinkedIn Learning vouchers
• Digital certificate and digital badge for winning
• 1:1 mentorship from preferred Microsoft professionals

To ensure that all participants had required tools to participate, every participant in the hackathon at the beginning received:

• Solar panel with battery and inverter
• MiFi device loaded with data bundles
• LinkedIn Learning vouchers
• Azure Fundamentals exam vouchers
• DevOps and agile practices training
• 1-year Azure credits
• Digital certificate and digital badge for participation

Through the ADC, Microsoft is enabling digital transformation, bridging gaps in infrastructure, connectivity and capability while creating sustained societal impact on the African continent. The center is recruiting world-class African engineering talent to develop innovative solutions that span the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge and the hackathon complemented ongoing efforts to create a modern intelligent edge and cloud curriculum, unique to Africa.

“We are so keen on enabling the next generation of great African engineers and innovators that will not only benefit Microsoft, but the entire ecosystem as well,” Ngare said.

Apart from RemD, the other projects submitted include:

• Tribore
• MediChap
• Mizizi and
• Motion