A Kenyan team from Kenyatta University has won the first prize in the Innovation Category of the Huawei 6th Global ICT competition held on 5 July.
The three students Ashtone Onyango, Stephen Katona and Catherine Wanja, guided by their Lecturer Michael Munyao used Huawei’s AI technology to design an innovative program for detecting early childhood pneumonia, which was highly recognised by judges and won the first prize in the Innovation Competition.
Kenya also scooped the third prize with a team of students from Machakos University in the Network track and another team from Kenyatta University won third prize in the Cloud Track.
The Global Final Competition attracted 130 teams, 150,000 students and 2,000 universities participating in Network, Cloud and Innovation categories. It encourages students to combine their practice and propose innovative solutions to address the problems facing social development.
The Huawei ICT Competition is free and open for students in Huawei ICT academies and those in higher education institutions. Through this competition, Huawei aims to provide students with a platform to compete healthily, win awards and exchange ideas, thus enhancing their ICT knowledge and practical skills as well as increasing their ability to innovate by using new technologies and platforms. The competition is organized at a National Level, Regional Level and finally a Global Level.
In Kenya, Huawei has set up ICT Academies in over 50 Universities and Colleges to provide access to the latest technology training in Networking, Cloud, 5G and AI, annually training over 4,000 students. The annual Huawei ICT skills Competition attracts over 6,000 students every year in Kenya alone, contributing to Huawei’s goal to provide access to the latest ICT skills. The Huawei Kenya Engineering Training Academy recently became an authorized training center for ICT skills for the government. It plays a crucial role in Kenya’s ICT talent cultivation providing advanced training to the public and government.