The team, consisting of Kalisa Ineza Giovanni, 18, and Bisizi Muhire Ighor, 19â€"both graduates of Rwanda Coding Academyâ€"along with Iradukunda Moustapha, 19, a student at SOS Technical High School in Kigali, impressed judges with their ingenious AI-powered solution designed to bridge the communication gap between people with hearing disabilities and those with speech impairments.
Their innovation, Signal AI, is an application primarily aimed at schools, promoting an inclusive environment by converting sound and text into sign language in Kinyarwanda and vice versa.
"With this application, teachers will no longer struggle to teach students who are deaf or have speech impairments. They simply speak, and the application translates everything into sign language using a 3D model," Giovanni explained.
"It can also translate sign language for someone who doesn't understand it, converting it into text or sound for the other person," he added.
Giovanni noted that the technology is scalable and can be applied in various real-life situations, including assisting traffic officers and accident victims in communicating during emergencies.
The team's lead developer described the hackathon as an incredible experience that allowed them to apply their skills in a real-world setting and expressed excitement about their victory in the highly competitive event.
"This has been an incredible experience. We utilised both our skills and the resources provided to us, which helped us address the challenges faced by those who feel excluded due to hearing or speech impairments," Giovanni said.
The team plans to use part of their RWF 5 million awardâ€"sponsored by AI and open data company Digital Umugandaâ€"to further develop their solution.
Held at the Irembo campus in Nyarutarama from Friday, March 28 to Sunday, March 30, the 48-hour hackathon was hosted in partnership with Irembo, the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR), and several other institutions that sponsored the awards. Twenty teams participated, competing for innovation glory.
Other Winners
The second-place winners, who took home RWF 3 million, developed ScholarSphere, an AI-powered platform designed to help users upload content and receive personalised career or subject paths based on their submissions. Once users upload content, the platform generates a summarised graph outlining a clear learning or career trajectory.
The third-place award went to a team of two developers for their project, Maitress, an AI-powered educational tutor assistant. This virtual "teacher" speaks multiple languages and utilises computer vision. By pointing a camera at a question, Maitress can interpret what it sees. Users can either speak to it or show it something, and it will analyse the input. When asked a question, it processes the query and delivers a step-by-step solution.
Libériste Clarence and his teammate, Ndizihiwe Regis, won RWF 2 million for their project. This marks Clarence's second podium finish, having previously won the first edition of the hackathon with Cedric Izabayo for their AI-powered chatbot, Bwenge.
Speaking about his victory, Clarence couldn't hide his excitement, sharing his determination to turn his ideas into reality.
"This is just the beginning," he said. "I'm eager to push these impactful ideas forward so that they can start providing value to society."
The second and third-place prizes of RWF 3 million and RWF 2 million were sponsored by Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB) and Proto, respectively.
Peter Charles Djomga, Director of Software Engineering at Irembo, termed the second edition of the hackathon a big success, revealing that the teams presented even more impactful projects than in the previous edition.
"The candidates delivered amazing solutions, including voice AI, translation tools, contextual education platforms, and even a farming solution to identify plant diseases. We saw a wide range of impressive projects, and it was really tough to pick a single winner," Djomga remarked.
In developing practical AI solutions, the participants leveraged large language models (LLMs) and locally built technologies. Teams also had the opportunity to access IremboPay APIs to integrate cutting-edge digital payment solutions into their projects. Pindo, a partner of the event, provided access to its latest speech-to-text and text-to-speech AI models for voice-enabled applications.
Beyond the innovative displays and prizes, the hackathon aimed to bridge the gap between concept and real-world application.
Addressing the potential commercialisation of the projects, Djomga highlighted the practical outcomes already emerging.
"Our goal isn't just to award prizes but to create a space where ideas can grow into viable solutions. Take last year's event, for instance. The previous winner joined our team and is already accelerating our internal services," Djomga stated, referring to Cedric, who recently joined the company.
He further encouraged participants to leverage their ideas, networks, and experience gained to launch startups.
Patrick Ndjientcheu, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Irembo, echoed this optimism, emphasising the hackathon's role in showcasing Rwanda's digital potential.
"What I saw made me think, 'If these people keep doing what they're doing, Rwanda will be on the world map for digital innovation,'" Ndjientcheu said.
He praised the participants for transforming ideas into working solutions in just 48 hours, noting that the event provided the right tools and energy to unlock their problem-solving skills.
The Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA) was also represented at the closing ceremony. Odilo Rugamba, a software architect at RISA, praised the projects presented, noting their potential to revolutionise public services and beyond, aligning with the government's National Strategy for Transformation goal of training one million developers by 2030.
"What we saw today was spectacular," Rugamba remarked. "The projects they completed in just 48 hours were truly remarkable. We're thrilled to see the talent and technical capabilities on display and hope this momentum continues to grow into the future."
The hackathon came just days before Rwanda hosts Africa's inaugural two-day summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI), scheduled for 3â€"4 April.
The Global AI Summit on Africa will convene world leaders from governments, businesses, academia, and civil society to accelerate AI innovation, mobilise investment, and promote strategic policy alignment to bolster Africa's AI capabilities for competitiveness and inclusive growth.
Wycliffe Nyamasege
