{"id":1003258,"date":"2026-03-19T11:52:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T08:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/197.137.64.198\/mainsite\/?p=1003258"},"modified":"2026-03-19T12:22:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T09:22:43","slug":"innovation-and-incubation-center-hosts-a-72-hour-innovation-challenge-hackathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/197.137.64.198\/mainsite\/innovation-and-incubation-center-hosts-a-72-hour-innovation-challenge-hackathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovation And Incubation Center Hosts A 72-hour Innovation Challenge Hackathon"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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By Stanley Brooke and Alice Jeremoki<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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On March 12-14, the Innovation and Incubation Center, in partnership with App Factor and the Interledger team, organized a 72-hour Innovation Challenge Hackathon, bringing together student innovators to tackle real-world challenges through technology and entrepreneurship. Over the course of three days, 179 students forming more than 60 teams participated in an intensive hackathon experience that pushed the boundaries of creativity, technical skills, and problem-solving. Participants developed innovative solutions across key thematic areas shaping the future of society, including Artificial Intelligence, Health, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Fintech, Edutech, GreenTech, the Digital Economy, and Business Innovation.<\/p>

The first day began with information sessions and a series of engaging talks by experienced entrepreneurs and industry professionals. These sessions were designed to equip participants with practical insights before they began building their solutions. Speakers shared valuable perspectives on entrepreneurship, business development, innovation methodologies, product design, and startup growth strategies, among other topics. The discussions provided students with a strong foundation for approaching the hackathon not just as a coding competition, but as an opportunity to build viable, scalable solutions that address real societal challenges.<\/p>

Following the kickoff sessions, teams dove into the core hackathon phase, brainstorming, designing, and developing prototypes. For many participants, this meant long hours of collaboration, testing ideas, and refining concepts in pursuit of impactful solutions. After an intense development phase, teams presented their projects to a panel of expert judges. From the initial pool of participants, twelve teams were selected to present their innovations in the final judging round.<\/p>

In this competition, teams showcased impressive technical and entrepreneurial capabilities. Ultimately, three teams distinguished themselves and were awarded a combined prize pool of KES 150,000.\u00a0Terra AI<\/strong>\u00a0claimed the top spot with a sophisticated application of artificial intelligence designed to address real-world challenges.\u00a0Afyaklin<\/strong>\u00a0earned second place through a transformative health technology solution aimed at improving healthcare delivery.\u00a0Sazara<\/strong>\u00a0came in third with a scalable and innovative business solution demonstrating strong market potential.<\/p>

Alongside the main competition, there was a specialized Interledger category focused on building solutions around open payment protocols and financial interoperability. Six teams participated in this track, demonstrating strong technical capabilities in building systems that enable seamless digital payments across platforms. Two teams,\u00a0Muungano<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Nexsuspay<\/strong>, stood out for their innovative approaches and technical execution. Both teams showcased promising solutions that highlight the potential of open financial systems in strengthening the digital economy.<\/p>

While the hackathon concluded with the announcement of winners, the journey for many teams is far from over. Based on their innovation, technical implementation, and potential impact, 20 teams were selected to advance to the semifinal stage of the Innovation Challenge. These teams will reconvene on\u00a0May 19<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>2026<\/strong>, where they will compete for a place among the Top 10 finalists. The finalists will then proceed to the Grand Finale in June, where they will compete for prizes worth\u00a0KES 1,000,000.<\/strong><\/p>

The ideas showcased during the hackathon demonstrated the remarkable potential of student innovators. From GreenTech solutions tackling climate challenges to Fintech platforms strengthening financial inclusion and AI-powered tools addressing healthcare gaps, the diversity and ambition of the projects were truly inspiring. The USIU-Africa Innovation Challenge continues to serve as a powerful platform for nurturing entrepreneurship, fostering collaboration, and transforming bold ideas into impactful solutions. As the top teams refine their prototypes and prepare for the semifinal stage in May, the excitement continues to build toward what promises to be an extraordinary Grand Finale in June. Congratulations to all the participants, and best of luck to the Top 20 teams as they take the next step in their innovation journey.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stanley Brooke and Alice Jeremoki On March 12-14, the Innovation and Incubation Center, in partnership with App Factor and the Interledger team, organized a 72-hour Innovation Challenge Hackathon, bringing together student innovators to tackle real-world challenges through technology and entrepreneurship. Over the course of three days, 179 students forming more than 60 teams participated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1003264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1003258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-updates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/197.137.64.198\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/197.137.64.198\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/197.137.64.198\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/197.137.64.198\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/197.137.64.198\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003258"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/197.137.64.198\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1003267,"href":"http:\/\/197.137.64.198\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003258\/revisions\/1003267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/197.137.64.198\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1003264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/197.137.64.198\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/197.137.64.198\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/197.137.64.198\/mainsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}