Tech in Africa
UmojaHack Africa 2021 has concluded as a successful event bringing about 1000 students from across 126 African universities to compete on Zindi on a virtual machine learning algorithm hackathon held during the 27 to 28 March. Over $10,000 worth of prizes were awarded to data science students from 9 African countries with over 8,500 sub-missions created to solve three real-world challenges on Zindi’s machine learning platform.
Among the countries represented are Ethiopia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Guinea, Ghana, Sudan, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Morocco, Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire, Tunisia, South Sudan, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Algeria, and Egypt.
This took machine learning challenges: A financial prediction platform by Sendy A computation biology challenge through DeepChain by InstaDeep. The winning token was developed by Zindi users when shared with these organizations.
Tony Mipawa, the second-placed Sendy Delivery Rider Response Challenge. As a novice in data science, he participated in Zindi’s first-ever Mentorship Programme back in 2020. UmojaHack Africa 2021 is sponsored by leading in global and African tech, financial sectors, and AI such as Standard Bank Group, InstaDeep, Microsoft, and Old Mutual.
Celina Lee, the CEO of Zindi described UmojaHack Africa as a “game-changing event” He pointed out how it’s a chance for students across Africa to “learn, compete and have fun.”
