Interviews

Interview With AFRIGAL Tech Winners Of The 2014 Microsoft Imagine Cup Visual Studio Online Challenge

imagine cupAfriGal Tech from Uganda recently took part in the Microsoft Imagine Cup world finals in Seattle, Washington, USA held in August 2014 together with other young techies from across the world in a bid to help resolve some of the world’s toughest challenges using technology.

Tell us your name, title and place of work?

Nanziri Bonita Beatrice. I am the team-lead for AfriGal Tech and a Student at Makerere University.

Microsoft Corporation recently awarded the Microsoft Imagine Cup Visual studio Online Boost award to AfriGal Tech, a locally based Ugandan group of women venturing into technology-based mobile apps. Tell us more about AfriGal Tech and how you managed to win this competition.

AfriGal is a team of software engineers who are passionate about creating innovative software solutions for the African community. The team is comprised of four enthusiastic ladies who are looking forward to changing the world with software. We qualified for the World Finals for developing an mDex project which is a mobile sickle cell diagnosis tool comprising a mobile app and external compound lenses. That mobile app allows for quick, easy and affordable diagnosis of sickle cell disease.

What does qualifying for the World finals mean to AfriGal Tech?

It means that women have a place in the tech industry and have the ability to contribute to the creation of great tech innovations. If we could make it to that level, that implies all the other ladies out there can do it and even do better. The sky is the limit for women in technology, they just need to come up and prove their worth with no fear that someone could look down on them.

Afrigal tech was among the teams that won the Microsoft Imagine Cup Visual Studio Online Boost. What was this all about?

Visual studio is an Integrated Development environment used to develop programs for Microsoft Windows. Using Visual Studio Online gives a developer in-browser access to the latest Microsoft technologies for source code control, agile planning, application analytics, and much more.

All we had to do was take screen shots as proof that we use it in the development of our app mdex which we had submitted for the Microsoft Imagine Cup.

How does Afrigal tech intend to use the mDex application towards the betterment of Uganda or the East African region?

Afrigal Tech intends to develop the application further and put it on market so that hospitals can be able to use it at a lower cost. It is cheap compared to buying the machine used to diagnose Sickle Cell.

What triggered your interest in developing a mobile app for early diagnosis of sickle cell disease?

In Uganda, twenty percent (20%) of the entire population totaling to Six Million Six Hundred Thousand (6,600,000) people are at a risk of having a child with the Sickle cells. Currently, 33,000babies are born annually with the disease and sadly, 80% of them die before their fifth birthday. Informed by such statistics, we felt that developing an app that can easily diagnosis the sickle cell disease  at an early stage would come a long-way in contributing to the treatment and making informed decisions regarding its management. 

How does Afrigal Tech intend to work with already existing stakeholders to fight the sickle cell disease?

The team intends to work hand in hand with existing stakeholders to provide a cheap alternative diagnosis of sickle cell by providing the app to them at lower costs. We want the health centers to use the app to carry out sickle cell screening tests for babies who are 3 months old and above. We also want to partner with organizations that carry out genetic and premarital counselling to increase awareness of the disease and encourage sickle cell testing so as to reduce the likelihood of giving birth to sicklers.

With Uganda’s health sector currently being under-funded, what solutions does Afrigal Techintend to offer to try and avert an already alarming problem?

Afrigal Tech aims at providing a more affordable alternative diagnostic solution so that the services can be extended to the rural areas. This will reduce the costs incurred while carrying out the tests. 

Given Microsoft’s interest in Uganda, does this imply that Uganda is capable of fast tracking leadership in health-related technology throughout the East African region?

Yes, because of recent Uganda has become the home of technology health solutions. Ugandans have developed various technologies e.g mdex, WinSenga, matibabu which are some of the mobile apps that can help in solving some of the health problems we have. These technologies mostly solve the problem of low access to health services, limited resources to provide the health services, limited expertise in some health fields and provide  lower cost alternative solutions.

Tell us more about is the Microsoft Imagine Cup all about?

Imagine Cup is an annual competition sponsored and hosted by Microsoft Corporation and brings together young student technologists, developers and aspiring entrepreneurs worldwide to help resolve some of the world’s toughest challenges. This year, Imagine Cup finals were held in Seattle, USA and comprised three major technology competitions, including Software design, and four challenges. All Imagine Cup competitors create projects that address the Imagine Cup theme: “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems”.

How many students took part in this year’s Imagine Cup finals in Seattle?

More than 200 students representing over 80 countries participated in the Imagine Cup World Finals. This included the Microsoft Student Partner Summit attendees as well as the Finalists. Specifically, 125 students represented 34 teams from 34 countries.

How was AfriGal selected to take part in this year’s Imagine cup finals in Seattle?

In 2014, Microsoft introduced the World Semifinals round to help ensure that teams qualifying for World Finals are the best and most competitive teams from around the globe. From 171 top-ranked teams worldwide to emerge from dozens of National Finals, Microsoft selected 34 whose projects were the best, of which AfriGal was among.

How was female participation like in Seattle during the Imagine Cup finals?

In total, we were 29 females participating in the World Finals overall of which three teams were all-female.

Were there any prominent technological themes among the projects presented at the Imagine Cup final?

Student projects addressed a number of trends including accessibility, social media, physical therapy gamification and much more. Over 80% of World Citizenship teams created innovative ways to use technology in the medical field for such areas as accessibility, remote physical therapy, disease diagnosis, and other applications. Over 50% of all projects and 100% of the Games category were created to inspire fun – with examples including an app that enriches tourism by allowing users to scan photos or other documents to search for more information, and a fitness app that encourages users to stay active with a virtual pet.

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Nicholas Kamanzi

Computer Engineer and Tech Reviewer.
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