George Michael

Dear Colleagues,

https://www.ihtc21.org.uk/

The second edition of the IEEE Region 8 SIGHT Hackathon tagged Jordan and Emirate Hackathon 2021 (JEH21) was organized by SIGHT group of American University of Sharjah (AUS) United Arab Emirate student branch, Al-Balqa Applied University Student branch (BAU) Jordan, and supported by the IEEE Region 8 Humanitarian Activities committee. The first edition of the hackathon was organized by the IEEE Egypt Section SIGHT group in April 2020.

The hackathon that lasted 5 weeks from 7^th of April to 16^th of May 2021 witnessed participants from various countries around Region 8 that includes UAE, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Jordan, Sudan, Yemen, Ukraine, Nigeria, Sudan, Kenya, Lebanon, and Kyrgyzstan. Participants were required to come up with a technological idea (software or hardware) to solve the humanitarian problems caused by COVID-19 in the aspect of education, health care, poverty, social issues, and other pandemic-related problems. Seven (7) teams qualified for the final after successfully passing through the conception stage and mentoring stages of the competition that uses virtual platforms such as Zoom, Discord, and WhatsApp to interact with the various teams in the competition.

The top 3 teams were COVID Band – UAE, Bloom – Egypt, and Anovators – UAE that emerged as first and second respectively. Other teams that participated in the final pitch are shown in table 1 below:

Table 1: JEH2021 groups and title

Covid-Band team that emerges winner developed a prototype wearable device to combat Covid-19. It has a temperature sensor to keep track of the body temperature of students throughout the day with the capabilities of alerting school authorities in case of an abnormal rise in temperature. In addition to temperature reading features, pulse measurements features were incorporated in the device to support such cases. Another key feature developed in the device is social distancing monitoring as the device vibrates if the social distancing protocols rule is violated. Less than 200 USD built 2 prototype devices.

Judges that participated in the final includes:

• Engr. Abdullateef Aliyu: Chair of the IEEE Region 8 Humanitarian Activities Committee-2021 who has over 16 years of experience working in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry
• Mohamed Hatem: IEEE Egypt Section Student Representative (SSR) and Member at IEEE Region 8 SAC and Co-founder & CMO at Spero LLC
• Dr. Reema Diab: An entrepreneur, AI expert, youth influencer, popular keynote speaker and Founder of Galaxy Organization to empower women in Technology.
• Fairouz Fattoum: SIGHT Student Branch Groups Coordinator at IEEE R8 SAC and IEEE R8 Humanitarian Activities subcommittee member
• Walid Bin Habib: Corresponding Member of IEEE R8 Humanitarian Activities Committee
• Rawan ElJamal: IEEE Region 8 Young Professionals Sub-Committee

Special appreciation goes to the IEEE Region 8 Opcom for supporting the R8 HuaC and to all partners that ensured the JEH21 was a success as listed

• IEEE R8 Humanitarian Activities Committee 
• IEEE R8 SAC
• IEEE R8 Entrepreneurship initiative 
• Action for Industry (AFI)
• AIESEC – UAE (offer the Winning teams from UAE a 100% off on the global talent program)
• Shamal Start – Jordan (offer free space for winning teams in Jordan to develop their idea)
• IEEE SIGHT BAU Student Branch
• IEEE PES – Jordan (for advertising)
• IEEE Robotics and Automation Society – Jordan (for advertising)
• TKH Roboclub – Egypt (for advertising)
• IEEE CUSB – Egypt (for advertising)

Article Contributed by:

Abdullateef Aliyu

Chair R8 Humanitarian Activities Committee 2021

After a successful application of the IEEE HAC/SIGHT COVID-19 project, ElimuSafe project was approved under IEEE Kenya Section courtesy of the lead applicant Sally Musonye. The project name is from two words “Elimu” meaning Education and “Safe” whose main goal is to promote a safe learning environment for the students. The project was to be implemented in partnership with IEEE Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) SIGHT chapter. The implementation took longer than expected due to COVID-19 restrictions from the Government of Kenya especially when guests are supposed to visit schools. After the ban was lifted, the volunteers finally got the opportunity to implement the project as planned. The funding was supposed to facilitate implementation of foot-operated hand washing stations, reusable face masks and soap. The implementing team decided to partner with other organizations such as AshGold Africa, Safaricom PLC, and African Cotton Industries to implement the project in Kyeni Girls Secondary School in Kitui County, Kenya.

Kyeni Girls was started in the year 2015 with 3 students. It was later renamed from Kathungu Girls Secondary School to Kyeni Girls Secondary School due to communal reservations. The school has a capacity of 157 students. It has a total of 120 currently with an exception of form four who left in March 2021. Form one class is expected to join in August 2021. It has a total of 10 teachers, and 5 non-teaching staff. Kyeni Girls is situated in Kathungu village, Kathungu location, Mulango ward, Katulani sub-county and Kitui county. The school occupies 4.5 acre of land. It has one administration block, five classrooms, one science laboratory, one dormitory, and one dining hall. So far it has done KCSE three times since 2018 to date. The current mean dropped to 3.2 out of 12 points but the school’s target for 2021 is 4.5. Most of the students are boarders but a few cases who are dayscholar. The school has graduated 95 students since its inception.

On the D-Day, the team arrived in the afternoon after almost 4 hours of driving from Nairobi. The team of 13 volunteers and mentors were welcomed in the school by the school principal, teachers, and students. The team had a briefing session with the school administration which also involved going round the school to view their facilities and infrastructures. Later, everyone in the school was gathered in the dining hall where students showcased their talents through poems and songs which were very insightful and informative. Finally, volunteers and mentors had a chance to share their motivational and inspirational journey to the students. The session lasted for almost 2 hour.

Through IEEE and other partners, the school received 6 IEEE-branded foot-operated hand-washing stations, 200 IEEE-branded reusable face masks, soap making chemical ingredients and containers for 100 liters liquid soap, 100 Safaricom-branded string bags and pens, 1000 pieces of sanitary towels and Queenengineers magazines highlighting inspirational women engineers from Kenya.

Volunteers left the school at around 6:30 pm and the last person was reported to arrive safely at home at around 11pm due to evening traffic jams in Nairobi. All went on well and the team got great feedback from the teachers and students regarding the impact created by the IEEE and partners. The following are some of the feedback received:

“The whole idea was innovative,and to the student,a game changer!It was so thoughtful of you to think about the Kyeni fraternity,we are immensely grateful!” – Madam Mutegi (HOD Boarding)

“I sincerely appreciate the whole IEEE team for a humble visitation. As Kyeni Girls’ we feel humbled for stretching a generous hand and touching the hearts of this dear ones,your input was so handy and I believe it will impact many towards their academic performance and devotion to service in the society.may the good God grant you providentially to be a blessing to other souls.” – Nyabuto Godfrey – HOD (Guidance and Counseling)

“The event was nice and it will go a long way in impacting the students’ academic work positively.” – Mr Mwanthi

Special thanks to IEEE HAC/SIGHT committee, IEEE Kenya Section, IEEE JKUAT SIGHT Chapter, Safaricom PLC, AshGold Africa, African Cotton Industries, Kyeni Girls, and all volunteers and mentors for making this project, event, and activities of the day a success.

IEEE JKUAT SIGHT Chapter Volunteers: Tony Ngugi (Chair), Ruth Waithera (Vice Chair), Dorcas Litunya (Treasurer), Vivianne Kendi (Secretary), George Kamundia (Webmaster), and Mr Simon Njeru Manegene (Advisor)

Mentors: Vannessa Kawira, Joe Kuria, Winfred Mutinda, and Miriam Woki

Article compiled by: Kithinji Muriungi (Corresponding Member, IEEE R8 Action for Industry Sub-Committee(2021) || IEEE Photonics Society Global Strategy Rep (Africa), Globalization & YPAC (2021/23) || Chair, IEEE YP, Kenya Section (2020/21))

We are currently searching for Associate Editors to join the IEEE Region 8 Sigma Magazine editorial team. If you are looking to be part of a brand new venture in Region 8, our “Spectrum-like” magazine Sigma, and embrace an opportunity to unleash your creative side then we want to talk to you! As an Associate Editor, you would be responsible for the management of articles and stories for our magazine – you will be responsible for a few stories per issue – this includes: commissioning stories from prospective authors, working with authors to create stories, proof-reading and peer review (where appropriate) as well as having the opportunity to contribute to the direction of Sigma with ideas for content and story-lines. We realise that very few of our volunteers will have experience in working for a magazine – so no experience necessary (if you do, great! get in contact asap!) – however any editorial contributions you may have would definitely be a bonus.

So, if you have ideas for content, want to be part of a new and vibrant team, and want to volunteer to contribute to your Region then please do get in touch with us. The roles and responsibilities of an Associate Editor are listed below. We wish to speak to anyone who is interested and will be holding an online information session for anyone who wants to know more – so please do get in contact with the EiC by filling in this quick form here (it will take you 20s at the most) and we will be in contact.

Associate Editors (AEs) shall:

• Liaise with the Editor-in-chief (EiC), assisting in preparing content for multiple issues of IEEE Region 8 Sigma Magazine
• Be responsible for a minimum of three articles of Sigma per year, we envisage a commitment of 2 hours/ week initially* – taking on the role of content-creator/ owner/ lead of these articles
• Liaise with potential authors, article authors, the EiC, and the rest of the board to supply their articles for the issue deadlines
• As part of the editorial board participate in brain-storming sessions for content and other editorial board meetings as may be necessary for the smooth running of the magazine
• Manage the peer review for any content that requires it **

  *This will change as the editorial board grows and the number of issues of Sigma regularise over time. The planned number of issues per year is three to four. **Peer review for magazine articles will vary depending on the article and will not be the same as for technical articles.

Christopher James

Maja Matijasevic