How can Mobile Technology address the health sector issues in Malawi? Join the #jmacmw mobile app dev challenge

Malawi’s first technology and innovation hub, mHub with sponsorship from MyJobo.com is announcing the start of a mobile application development competition called ‘Jobonology Mobile App Challenge (JMAC).

The competition seeks to motivate Malawian software developers to design an application that can address problems faced in the various sectors in the country and Africa. This competition is focusing on addressing challenges facing the health sector in Malawi. The Theme of the Challenge is “How can Mobile Technology address the health sector issues in Malawi?” The winner of JMAC will be given seed money of USD2000 and will be nested in mHub to further develop the application into a proper business through technical assistance and support from local and international resources.

The Jobonology Mobile App Challenge will run for 10 weeks starting from 1st May 2015 to 10th July 2015. Below are some of the details of the competition:

ELIGIBILITY:

The competition is open to individuals, teams of individuals (not more than 3), Malawian, aged not more than 35, resident in Malawi.

TIMELINE:

The competition will run for 10 Weeks from 1 May 2015. The first two weeks will be for submitting ideas. A link will be opened on 14th May 2015 to allow developers to submit their finished mobile applications.

HOW TO ENTER:

Participants will submit their idea of a Mobile Application at www.jmacmw.com After presenting the idea of the mobile app, the participants will develop the application within a period of 8 Weeks. The finished mobile application will then be submitted to mHub through a link to be
provided.

PRIZE:

The best mobile application (s) will be given seed money of USD2000 and will be nested and incubated in Mhub. Myjobo.com will provide support to the winning idea (s) to develop them into proper businesses utilizing its international network.

PRIZE PRESENTATION:

The best 5 participants will present their applications in front of judges and an audience on a date and venue to be announced. An overall winner will also be announced at the same event. The presentations will be video recorded.

THE SPONSORS:

Myjobo.com is Malawi’s largest platform that connects people with jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities. The platform promotes the concept of Jobonology and facilitates individuals to maximize their potential in any area of interest and earn a living. Myjobo.com runs the Jobonology Mobile Apps Challenge to identify skilled Malawians who are ready to get their ideas to full potential to address development issues facing Malawi and Africa in general.

Myjobo.com will run a series of Challenges in various sectors such as Health, Education, Agriculture and other sectors in collaboration with Mhub. Winners will get seed money and will benefit from Myjobo.com’s international network of developers and advisers to get the idea into a business. Winners will be nested
at mHub’s incubator in Lilongwe.

THE ORGANISERS:

mHub is a unique open technology hub in Lilongwe where students, fresh graduates, young technology entrepreneurs and innovators come to work on their ideas and turn them into viable business models. The hub provides technical assistance and a community of experienced mentors who provide both technical and business assistance to the upcoming entrepreneurs

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Youn? !nnovators Malawi Competition

Are you a young Secondary or College student in Malawi? Are you interested in Computer programming? Here is your chance to learn easy computer programming, design your first ever video game and win a prize for your effort. Youn? !nnovators Malawi is running a competition for students which will officially start in September but registration is in progress. You just need to fill their online application form

The competition is based on an easy to use computer programming language called Scratch and the worlds smallest computer, Raspberry PI which will be provided by the organisers.

The Challenge

Using the Raspberry PI, develop a video game of any format. The game must run without crashing and must have clear rules, objectives. Ideally it should have increasing difficulty levels as the player proceeds.

Examples could include:

(a) 2-d 'platform' games - moving around the screen avoiding 'baddies' and winning rewards
(b) 3-d maze game - moving through a maze to find the way out
(c) text adventure - an interactive story where the player chooses which actions to take
(d) 'physics' based games (like angry birds or tetris)
(e) quiz-based games (like trivial pursuit)
(f) board game simulation (e.g. chess)
(g) multi-player (multi-pi) games encouraged
(h) linking Pis to e.g. mobile devices for gaming too.
(i) completely novel format! - this would steal the show!!


The rules

1. The competition is open to teams of between 2 and 5 students.
2. All students in a team must be studying in the same school/college and must be over 15 and under 23 years old on 1st September 2013.
3. Each team must be supported by a member of staff from their school/college.
4. Each team must fill in an application form which must be submitted by the school/college.
5. There is no limit to the number of teams entering from any school/college.
6. A student may only join one team.
7. A teacher may support any number of teams from their school/college.
8. youn? !nnovators Malawi will provide a development kit, including a Raspberry Pi computer, power supply, operating system and necessary cables
9. The team is required to provide its own keyboard, mouse and TV/computer screen to use the development kit.
10. All teams must be represented at the September Raspberry Jam event and must exhibit their work at the final exhibition in December in Lilongwe
11. youn? !nnovators Malawi will recruit and assign a professional to work with the team as a mentor.
12. The mentor will spend half a day each month helping the teams to progress their project
13. ach team must also submit a report detailing their final work
14. The judges will make their decision at the final exhibition and prizes will be announced and awarded.
15. The judges decision will be final.

The prizes

Prizes will be announced at the September Raspberry Jam event.

There will be three prizes awarded in two categories; schools and colleges

There will be great prizes for the top three teams, as chosen by the judges.

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Pictorial Focus of the Blog Workshop at Mikolongwe

On 10th April i was facilitating a blog workshop on behalf of Africa Interactive and Humana at Mikolongwe Vocational School in Nguludi, Chiradzulu. The idea was to teach students the inspiration behind blogging and how to set up blogs. The workshop attracted 20 participants both students and teachers from the vocational school.

Below are some of the pictures taken at the workshop.

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