Two Ugandans set to win top innovation award worth 112million
Mr Turyabagye (R) demonstrates how the biomedical smart jacket helps doctors to identify pneumonia.
What you need to know:
Mr Turyabagye‘s biomedical smart jacket helps doctors to identify pneumonia faster and more accurately. Fitted to the patient, the device measures temperature and breathing rates and listens to the sound of the patient’s lungs, and then compares its results to a database of parameters.
Ms Nabulumba designed The Yaaka Digital Learning Network, an online platform which allows students and teachers to share academic materials and knowledge through a tablet.
Two Ugandan innovators are set to win the prestigious Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation.
Ms Hindu Nabulumba, the innovator of Yaaka Network and Mr Brian Turyabagye, the creator of Mama-Ope which diagnoses pneumonia in children are among 16 Africans who have been shortlisted for the top award.
The Africa Prize is organised by the Royal Academy of Engineering and aims to recognise, reward innovative African engineers, and also raise the profile of engineering in Africa.
Now in its third year, the Africa Prize equips talented engineers with tools and expert advice to develop their innovations into a business.
According to a statement posted on the website of Royal Academy of Engineering, the shortlisted innovators will undergo an intensive six months of training and mentorship in business and entrepreneurial skills before a winner is announced to receive the first prize of £25,000 (Shs112million).
Ms Nabulumba designed The Yaaka Digital Learning Network, an online platform which allows students and teachers to share academic materials and knowledge through a tablet. The innovation helps people who are eager to learn but can’t physically go to learning institutions.
Mr Turyabagye‘s biomedical smart jacket helps doctors to identify pneumonia faster and more accurately. Fitted to the patient, the device measures temperature and breathing rates and listens to the sound of the patient’s lungs, and then compares its results to a database of parameters. The jacket, currently a prototype, can diagnose pneumonia three times faster than a doctor and reduce human error.
The smart jacket, currently in a prototype stage, will help to tame a deadly disease which kills about 27,000 Ugandan children under the age of five every year. Most of these cases are due to pneumonia being misdiagnosed as malaria.
The shortlisted 16 entrepreneurs hail from Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Mozambique and Uganda.
