APA-Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) Twenty-four young students from a wide range of backgrounds spent three months developing technological solutions around the theme of “Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things: a winning duo to meet the challenges of tomorrow.”
At the end of the competition, the “CocoaShield” Project won the national prize for the 3rd edition of the Orange Summer Challenge 2023 (OSC 2023) in the “Artificial Intelligence of Things” theme.
The Orange Group initiative took place at the Orange Digital Center in Abidjan, in partnership with AWS & EY Tunisia, and with the support of GIZ Côte d’Ivoire, an organisation mandated by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The prize-winning CocoaShield is an ecosystem of connected objects for monitoring plantations, detecting agricultural diseases such as swollen shoot, and triggering related emergency procedures.
Following the public vote, the national winners of OSC 2023 were announced, and the overall winner of this 3rd edition revealed. The CocoaShield team came out on top against FemInnocare, SissiBanan and Oukale, ranked second, third and fourth, respectively.
Voting by the public present was carried out via a mobile application and counted for 40 percent of the overall score, the Orange Digital Center technical teams having previously awarded their scores counting for the remaining 60 percent, for the four technological solutions presented by the teams.
The competition has now crossed national borders. Local finalists will have the unique opportunity to present their innovative projects to an international audience, and compete for the prestigious title of Grand Winner of the Orange Summer Challenge 2023.
These projects will be evaluated jointly by a jury of international experts and Orange Group employees, who have been invited to vote for their favourite project. The closing of the international competition is scheduled for December 6 at the Orange MEA Group headquarters in Paris.
Thanks to tailor-made support, including training and mentoring provided by partners AWS and EY Tunisia, as well as the expertise of coaches from the Orange Digital Center’s Code School and FabLab Solidaire, these teams were able to turn their ideas into reality in record time.
The SissiBanan team presented a fire detection, identification and extinguishing system, equipped with an analysis system. It is capable of interfacing with other similar devices to work in concert with them.
Ranked second, FemInnocare, defended an integrated device in the field of women’s health management, combining a watch and a connected belt to prevent and even relieve menstrual pain. It is also capable of screening for endometriosis.
As for the Oukalê team, it presented an autonomous or radio-controlled first-aid robot capable of seeing through obstacles, detecting movement, measuring oxygen availability, assessing the stability of structures and providing vital support to victims.
The competition took place simultaneously in 11 African and Middle Eastern countries of the Orange footprint through the Orange Digital Centers.
They are Tunisia, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Guinea Conakry, Morocco, Jordan, Botswana, Mali and the DRC.
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