After 3 days of packed coding and training sessions in the 2021 edition of the virtual Hacklab Hackathon, a three-member health tech startup has been declared the winner.
The hackathon was held between the 9th – 11th of April 2021.
The winning team, Zetta consists of three students from Ashesi University, Hannah Lormenyo, Sandra Nettey, and William Akuffo. Hannah and William are Electrical Engineering students and Sandra studies Management Information Systems.
Zetta is a health-tech startup combining the power of artificial intelligence with the richness of healthcare knowledge, data, and experience to detect early autism in children.
This health-tech startup is focused on expediting the early diagnosis of autism in Africa by the use of a portable and low-cost electroencephalography headset with automated diagnosis.
When placed on the scalp of the individual, the headset and its mobile application will be connected to it via Bluetooth and record the signals from the different areas of the scalp.
The team is currently building prototypes for testing but it is uncertain when they will be launched due to a variety of factors such as school.
The team was awarded a scholarship by GIZ , a grant to cover their legal advisory services, ₵3000 seed grant, IBM cloud for a year, SMS credits from Africa's Talking and souvenirs from Vodafone Ghana.
Hacklab 2021 was organized in collaboration with Stanbic Bank, GIZ, Vodafone, IBM, and Twitter. Over 800 participants and 50 coaches took part in this year’s event.
The three-day programme was climaxed by an awards ceremony where the best ideas were awarded cash prizes and internship opportunities to build on their ideas.
They include;
Best AI Solution in Communication - Team Legions
Best AI Solution in FinTech - Team Bernoulli
Best AI Solution in eCommerce - Team ToMame
Best AI Solution in Mobility - Team Dreamcode
Best AI Solution in Education - Team ToMame
Best AI Solution in Big Data - Team Technopreneurs
Best AI Solution in the Internet of Things (IoT) - Team URC
Best AI Solution in eCommerce - Team ToMame
Best AI Solution in Healthcare - Team Binary Wolves
Best AI Solution in Agriculture - Team Concept_X
Hacklab Hackathon 2021 was part of Hacklab Foundation's , to scale their vision and initiatives across the Global South starting from sub-Saharan Africa.
About Hacklab Foundation
The Hacklab Foundation is an international nonprofit organization headquartered in Ghana with a focus on preparing the youth for future digital jobs through technology education and skills development. We achieve this through boot camps, hackathons, mentorship and coaching, internships, digital skills training, and job placement. Our footprints currently span across Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and India.
Since its inception in 2015, it has directly impacted over 10,000 people, organized hackathons, robotics, and coding boot camps for kids between the ages of 7yrs - 13yrs supported 500+ women in tech, 300+ youth were placed in jobs and 250+ youth were placed in internships.
Through their partnership with IBM, the Ghana National Digital Skills Training Program was launched in November 2018, to reach 100,000 people by 2021.
Hacklab Foundation believes that creating an equal platform for everyone, irrespective of race, gender, social class, and physical limitations will allow for a fair chance to compete for the same opportunity. This has been at the core of their initiatives.
The Foundation is known for its annual Hacklab Hackathon hosted in Ghana which brings together 1000+ participants including developers, engineers, designers, entrepreneurs, policymakers, development partners, and other stakeholders in technology to meet and discuss critical issues impacting the Global South, identify opportunities and develop tech-enabled solutions for emerging economies.
With over 800+ developers at one venue, they compete and develop industry-standard solutions to address identified challenges in 36 hours with support from industry professionals and seasoned experts