Tartans Innovate Hackathon 2024
A six-day campus hackathon with 120 CMU-Africa students building tech-enabled solutions to challenges around mental wellness, transportation, housing, and academic life.
What happened
From September 6-12, 2024, AIS supported the Tartans Innovate Hackathon, a six-day campus hackathon with 120 CMU-Africa students forming multidisciplinary teams to build tech-enabled solutions to real campus challenges. The event was co-organised with CMU-Africa's Industry Innovation Lab (IIL).
Top 5 projects
Out of 23 submissions, the top five solutions were:
- OLGA, AI-based academic planning assistant (1st place)
- Casacol, Housing platform for non-residential students (2nd place)
- Tartan Ride, Real-time bus shuttle service (3rd place)
- Rafiki, Mental health management tool
- SafeSpeak, Anonymous reporting platform
Prizes
Winners received international conference tickets, tech gadgets, and vouchers.
Impact
Beyond the prizes, the hackathon gave 120 students hands-on experience in market validation, prototyping, and pitching, and reinforced CMU-Africa's culture of multidisciplinary, solution-oriented collaboration.