Ubuntu Hub comprising Patrick Ocheja, Regina Ochonu, Grace Kagho and Panji Gemilang from Asia has won the Japan Hackathon 2021 on February 7, 2021.
The first place team presented an idea called Ubuntu Hub, which would help to give offline access to online education in a near real-time manner. There is an increasing number of edtech solutions that help people learn online in Africa. However, the number of people that have access to broadband in rural communities is still low.
The team hopes its idea will, in due time, help users access online educational content without necessarily requiring a connection to the internet.
The project is not designed to replace the internet, instead, it will bring the internet to underserved/unconnected regions and people.
During the hackathon, all four teammates were mentored by experts in business development, design thinking and innovation and machine learning.
As a result of the mentoring received from the experts, Team Ubuntu Hub were able to transform their idea into a viable product that eventually won the Japan Hackathon.
A total of 12 teams participated in the hackathon while only three emerged winners. All of them pitched ideas that provide solutions ranging from better vaccination and vaccine tracking to fire-fighting robots, helping parents and schools get the right social-distancing layout for kid’s playroom and auto part and car service maintenance platform.
Of all the ideas, Ubuntu Hub took the first place, Miraculous AI came second and Nadi Surya was the third overall-best idea. For coming third, Nadi Surya received a cash prize of 100,000 Yen (₦364,233), Miraculous AI got the Startup Kyoto Award while the Ubuntu Box went home with 500,000 Yen (₦1.8 million).
