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ETM Software Hackathon Tackles Africa's Industry Challenges with AI

AI Hackathon

05 / 04 / 2025

ETM Software Hackathon Tackles Africa's Industry Challenges with AI

At ETM Software, we think innovation starts with curiosity and a dash of friendly competition. Our office was alive last week with creativity and collaboration as we hosted an in-house hackathon for AI-powered solutions to some of Africa's most significant problems in the health, education, and tourism sectors.

Why a Hackathon?

The session was within our overall mandate of leveraging emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to generate real value for the marginalized. Our objective was straightforward: to enable our members to think boldly and practically about how AI can improve things in real-life situations. With a low-code and no-code focus, the hackathon allowed for participatory engagement and rapid prototyping.

Team 1: Object Detection in National Museums

Tourism is a valuable means of economic development, and innovations like these modernize cultural experiences while making them more accessible to diverse audiences.

Challenge: Visitors to museums and cultural attractions typically lack available information or multilingual explanations, making the experience less engaging, especially for visitors from abroad.

Solution: The group suggested an AI system that detects objects in museums and delivers real-time audio or text directions in the language a visitor prefers. It utilizes object detection and image recognition to convey educational content, making it an interactive visitor experience.

Key Features

AI-driven image detection
Multilingual tour guiding support
Information regarding distance, object type, and detection time
Centralized object database for ongoing learning

ChallengeNote: The biggest challenge was the volume of data required to effectively and accurately train the AI models.

Team 2: MediTrack – Intelligent Healthcare Companion

The system integrates with mobile health applications, allowing patients to carry their complete medical history digitally.

Challenge: Early medical diagnosis is still out of reach, and patient information gets compartmentalized across health providers, raising the likelihood of misdiagnosis.

Solution: MediTrack is a smart health assistant that identifies early symptoms, manages medication schedules, and maintains unified medical records across institutions.

Core Functionalities

Identify early symptoms for patients who cannot go to clinics
Store and share centralized patient medical histories among institutions
Alert others nearby in the event of a medical condition
Send reminders to take medications on time
Reduce misdiagnoses by having complete patient information on hand

This system is integrable with mobile health applications, and the patient can carry their health history along with them and get personalized care anywhere.

Team 3: AI in Early Education

Targeting Grades 1-4, the platform uses virtual rewards and interactive content to maintain engagement.

Challenge: Education quality is declining, particularly at the lower levels, where the lack of interactive teaching methods hinders learning outcomes.

Solution: An AI-powered digital learning platform that personalizes education through gamification and adaptive learning techniques.

Key Features

Identifies individual student strengths and weaknesses (Grades 1–4)
Employs gamification strategies to render learning more interesting and interactive
Provides reward systems in which children produce and trade virtual goods while learning.

By incorporating data analytics and gamified learning, this solution makes learning fun and tailored to individual learners' needs, especially young learners.

More Than Just Code

While the event had its share of exciting prototypes, what struck most was the energy, collaboration, and creativity between groups. Given just a day to ideate and pitch, the result was a testament to the vision, commitment, and skill of our team. Mentors moved around groups offering feedback and encouragement, as contributors were challenged to consider more deeply the social and ethical implications of their work.

#ETMHackathon #AIforAfrica #TechForGood #DigitalInnovation #HealthTech #EdTech #TourismTech #TeamETM