African Quartet Wins Global Technology Prize

Four Rwandan students enrolled at the African Leadership University beat tough competition from 10,000 other Rising Leaders to emerge winners at the first ever global Make Reality Challenge hosted by the non-profit, professional association and advocacy group for the project management profession Project Management Institute (PMI).

The contestants had to bring creative and strategic solutions to life using no-code/low-code tools while making a social impact. 

Citizen development is on pace to be the most disruptive agent of change in a generation. Gartner predicts that by 2023, citizen developers will be four times as prevalent as professional developers. By using no-code/low-code platforms in the Make Reality Challenge, Rising Leaders developed solutions to help address some of the world’s most pressing issues more quickly and efficiently.

The competition was open to college and university students between 18-24. Nearly 5,900 Make Reality Challenge teams across 65 countries were tasked with identifying a problem and developing a solution related to one of the 17 United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in support of this year’s theme “Disruption for Social Impact.” The United Nations adopted the SDGs in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

Competing as Tech Era, Ms Tuyishime Josiane, Ms Nar Lo Dia, Ms Mukantwari Francoise and Mr Chukwuma Paul, ideated and developed UbuzimaPrivacy, an innovative platform that will help hospitals record patient data online (including testing, results, prescriptions, and illness trajectory). 

Studies show that electronic medical records significantly reduce medication errors that can lead to death or pose a serious health risk to patients.

In Rwanda, just one such platform called IvuliroTech, created by Karisimbi Technical Solutions, helps hospitals record patient data online and serves only 12 hospitals. 

As required by the competition rules, the solution addressed SDG3, Good Health & Well Being. 

Speaking of the win, Chukwuma Paul of Team Tech Era said, “”Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A three-strand rope is not quickly broken. A four-legged hyperstatic system table is stronger than an isostatic system.”

Tech Era won $10,000 and an opportunity to participate in an interactive Q&A session at the PMI’s Virtual Experience Series 2022: PMXPO, on March 24, 2022. PMXPO is a free, interactive event for the project management profession to learn from key players in the industry, network, earn PDUs and gain valuable knowledge.

“At PMI, we believe in the power of Rising Leaders,” said Ashwini Bakshi, Managing Director Europe & Sub-Saharan Africa, Project Management Institute. 

“By empowering and enabling them to drive social change through initiatives like the Make Reality Challenge, we’re providing the young innovative thinkers an opportunity to build useful solutions to help solve some of the world’s biggest challenges. It’s exciting to see four young students from Africa win and it speaks to the potential of other Rising Leaders in the region. UbuzimaPrivacy will not only benefit Rwanda but Africa as a whole.”

The second place was clinched by Team EmEducation from the Emlyon Business School in France, while the third place went to Sport Sharks from the University of Mumbai and the Institute of Chemical Technology in India. A number of regional prizes were also awarded to teams from around the world. 

The top three global winners took home a collective $22,000 in cash prizes. The total prize money was nearly USD40,000. 

Advancing teams used no-code/low-code tools and citizen developer technology to make their solution a reality. Throughout the three phases of the competition, teams were judged on various components including user functionality, presentation, impact and scalability, ideation, and Q&A.

Judging was conducted by senior staff at PMI, PMI Board past-chair Tony Appleby, PMIEF Board past-chair Ram Dokka, members of the Academic Insight Team and PMI® NextGen Insight Team. Collectively, winning teams were rewarded with nearly $40,000 in cash prizes and PMI networking opportunities.