The Africa Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Challenge 2021 (Africa IoT & AI) was officially launched during the closing ceremony of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things (IEEE GCAIoT) on Tuesday the 25th of May 2021.
Uganda is one of the countries that was selected to participate in the regional challenge of the Africa IoT & AI challenge 2021 with the Challenge Official Local Partnership for Africa IoT & AI Challenge being UTAMU Research and Innovation City (UTAMURIC) and the Challenge Coordinator in Uganda for Africa IoT & AI Challenge being Uganda Technology and Management University (UTAMU). The National Chairperson and Local Lead of the Africa IoT & AI Challenge 2021 in Uganda is Professor Venansius Baryamureeba who is also the Chairman and Managing Director of UTAMURIC, and also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of UTAMU.
UTAMURIC is an umbrella research and innovation non-profit organization whose establishment is to address challenges in research, innovation, and business incubation and startup ecosystems within the African context. UTAMURIC has a mission to nurture the next generation of researchers, innovators and high-tech companies that are globally competitive, thereby creating young billionaires in Sub-Saharan Africa. These young billionaires are trained to drive the economies to effective, efficient and knowledge based success and prosperity that will position the south to a fair level playing field in today’s technologically evolving world.
This year’s Africa IoT & AI Challenge was organized by the IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society (IEEE TEMS). IEEE TEMS is a global society engaged in the oversight of the Africa IoT & AI Challenge regionally in Africa, and internationally. IEEE TEMS engagement is premised on the need to advance, enhance, and improve essential management and leadership knowledge and skills of the IEEE members with more focus on management sciences and practices required for defining, implementing, and managing engineering and technology in specific areas of technology, policy development, assessment and transfer; research; product design and development; entrepreneurship; program and project management; strategy; education and training; organizational development and human behavior; transitioning to management; and the socioeconomic impact of engineering and technology management. This great global vision has been extended to Africa as well.
The Africa IoT & AI Challenge was flagged off in Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia and our very own Uganda on Tuesday the 25th May, 2021 with the aim of building capacity in AI, the IoT, and related fields. The Africa IoT & AI Challenge is focused on university students and young business people in the various countries and aims to create a network to support the digital transformation movement in Africa.
The Challenge is in line with the global trend of attention to and greater utilization of technology in all fields of life. Over the last 30 years, technology has transformed societies in many ways that today the advancing practicality of its application is a global need for all. In this era, societies do not want to be left behind as the 4th industrial revolution continues to envelope nations to stay abreast with global trends and expectations. In this 4th industrial revolution there is urgent need that both developing and less developing nations have no choice but to embrace IT in order to be able to fit and participate in this global economy with identity, recognition and fair placement. Furthermore, technologies based on information and communication technology (ICT) and AI have played a fundamental role in the development of many areas related to applied science, engineering, health, and transportation.
The new wave of technological progress has created new opportunities and put to the test the ability of nations to take advantage of this progress. These innovations provide a large number of opportunities for less developed countries to take advantage of new and changing markets. Thus the Africa IoT & AI Challenge will play a significant role in enabling a fair level of progress and creation of opportunities aimed at reducing the existing inequalities between the North and the South by ensuring that the existing and fast growing digital transformational era is embraced by Africa in a bid to minimize the digital divide between the technology haves and have-nots. To register national success of the Uganda IoT & AI Challenge, UTAMURIC is partnering with highly recognized institutions; Makerere University, Ndejje University, Uganda Technology & Management University (UTAMU), Mbarara University of Science & Technology, Soroti University, Kampala International University, National Information Technology Authority, Uganda (NITA-U), Uganda Industrial Research Institute, Hive Colab, The Innovation Village and the Ministry of Information & Communications Technology & National Guidance, which are nationally and globally acknowledged institutions drawn from the academia, public and private sectors, as well as research, innovation and incubation hubs.
