First, I should admit that I was part of a group of people who held strong objections to allowing AI to be part of our daily work and social life. My argument and belief were always populated and framed by a single storytelling style of media that often and still concentrates on the bad side of it.
Media stories like the online distribution of Taylor Swift’s deep fake explicit images or the use of AI-generated content by political actors in some countries to sway public political opinions in their favor frequented my eyes and ears.
Not acknowledging their influence on my view of AI, I would be an outlier.
Meanwhile, thanks to the ICT Chamber and the Ministry of Education and their fund partners like the Global Learning Council, their Initiative gave me access to the other side of the coin. I would say that the AI Hackathon Competition for Secondary school students enabled me to overcome my anxiety and ill-held bias.
This is because the competition not only enabled 30 students from 10 secondary schools: ES Kayonza Modern, Hope Haven Christian School, Rwanda Coding Academy, Glory Academy Secondary School, Runda TSS, and Msgr. Mubiligi Catholic TSS, APEKI TUMBA TSS, Ecole des Sciences de Musanze, Kigali International Technical School, and GS MATER DEI NYANZA to apply their intuition and explore the practically applicable possibilities of AI and its uniqueness as an enabler in solving societal challenges but also allowed the learners to unleash and showcase their innovativeness.
Anchored on experiential learning championed by teachers and voluntary coaches, young minds demonstrated that given the right mentorship and access to tools innovation addressing real challenges neither bound by age nor education level.
To understand what I am describing here are some of the schools and their students’
AI-inspired solutions.
ES KAYONZA MODERN-AI for Inclusive Education (Winner).
Driven to make education more accessible to blind people, the team of one female and two males was able to convince judges with their famous statement that 90 percent of people born blind are uneducated and that their AI-enabled solution ticked all boxes to make education more accessible to this still marginalized population group.
Simplicity was at the core of the team’s solution design as they demonstrated to the panel of judges that the blind person is only required to click the space button for him or her to speak and get feedback from the system. Not satisfied with the first response, again he or she will have to place the same button for another feedback. According to them, this allows blind people to study and use digital devices with ease.
Rwanda Coding Academy-Personalized AI Tutor CLAIRE.
Inspired by the shortage of teachers and the time it takes to train one, the team of three male students held a belief that their AI-powered Tutor CLAIRE would democratize access to education making it easy for students to learn anytime and anywhere at their own pace. According to them, this could solve the high student-teacher ratio and as a result, improve learners’ performance.
Glory Academy Secondary School My AI friend.
Anchored on solving increasing cases of depression and anxiety among young people. The three female innovators were convinced that with their My AI friend, everyone with access to the internet would need to go to a medical personal for simple mental health status thus preventing people from committing suicide and engaging in anti-social behaviors like drug abuse.
GS MATER DEI NYANZA-AI powered soil detector.
Motivated to improve farming and enable farmers to double or even triple their farm produce from the same land size, the team of three male students had a conviction that their product would make farming smart for bumper harvest thus solving the food insecurity challenge. According to the team, given access to funds for further research and development, their device would be able to collect and analyze soil data like moisture, temperature, and PH level and send to the farmer the analyzed data summarized in the form of a text.