Young creatives from across Nigeria met in Abuja recently to design virtual solutions for issues surrounding the Sustainable Development Goals four (SDGs4) that promotes quality education.
Some of the key solutions developed during the hackathon series included a device for reporting cases of abuse in schools and a peer review platform for teachers. Other notable tech solutions were an open-source data map showing the distribution of available infrastructure in public schools. A mobile app to teach visually impaired students on how to read and write in Braille.
Others were Web Database for Unifying Academic Publications from Tertiary Institutions, a solar-powered charger to supply power to small learning devices in schools and social media advocacy campaign against examination malpractice.
The hackathon, which took place two months ago as part of the National Hackathon Series 1.0 themed “Building the Makers’ Movement,” presented a unique opportunity for young Nigerians from diverse backgrounds to collaboratively work together during the event, with each contributing the skills and knowledge required to achieve the desired results.
Participants at this hackathon came from the traditional tech sectors – software and embedded systems design as well as non-traditional sectors including catering, human resources, fashion designing, visual arts, anthropology, and advocacy.
Two previous hackathons have been held as part of the series. A wearables edition held in Ado-Ekiti in July 2018 built hardware solutions to SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being. Shortly after, Kano played host to the Internet of Things (IoT) edition, where participants built six solutions targeting SDG 16: Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions.
Obasegun Ayodele, technical co-founder at Vilsquare, said, “This energy edition presented an opportunity for participants to harness the combined synergy from their individual skills, experiences and the resources available within the Makers’ Hub to produce results.
‘’As organisers of this non-competitive hackathon, it gives us great satisfaction to see the amount of collaboration that goes into the work of our Maker teams, proving again that together we can do more. We look forward to sharing these solutions with relevant organisations within the education sector for scaling.”
Viola Askia-Usoro, acting administrator, Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), who hosted the hackathon, said, “The quality of output from the National Hackathon Series 1.0 goes to show that Nigerian youth have the prerequisite creative abilities. All that is required is to determine an effective programme to hone and channel these exciting skills into productive results.”
DBI is enthusiastic about supporting projects such as the National Hackathon Series that foster unity among Nigerian youth and empower them with the necessary up scaling needed to position them to provide solutions that would move our nation forward.
The National Hackathon Series 1.0 is a 2-year civic engagement programme jointly developed and implemented by Vilsquare Makers’ Hub, the social impact subsidiary of Vilsquare Global Resources Limited, a data science, and analytics firm and Meluibe Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation, which focuses on empowering women and youth through good governance, employment, technology and innovation.
