The 2020 AR/VR Africa Hackathon is here. Another opportunity to showcase African innovation with the extended reality technologies.

 

LAGOS, NIGERIA - Imisi 3D is collaborating with global partners to host an online and offline  Augmented and Virtual Reality Hackathon over 5 months. The 2020 AR/VR Africa Hackathon has been made possible by Facebook.

 

Imisi 3D has announced that the Hackathon will be held from the 1st of August, 2020 to the 6th of December, 2020. It will be held continent wide online, with an offline finale taking place in Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia. Registrations will be open to participants from the 1st of August, 2020 and will close at 11:59 pm on the 1st of November, 2020. The theme for the AR/VR Africa Hackathon is ‘Africa in Sight - Our Future in XR’ with teams tasked with building solutions across 5 verticals: Education, Healthcare (including Covid-19 responses), Tourism, Gaming and Climate. 

 

Judith Okonkwo, AR/VR Africa convener and Imisi 3D’s founder explained “we reimagined the hackathon, in the wake of the pandemic, to provide an experience that furthers our objectives - increasing access to XR resources on the continent, accelerating XR talent, showcasing African XR solutions and creating pathways for careers and industry. We couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity to drive XR innovation at a time when it is most needed.”

 

The 2020 AR/VR Africa Hackathon will hold in two phases. The online learning and virtual challenges and the offline 48-hour grand finale. Upon registration, participants will be admitted to the AR/VR Africa Discord platform. Here, they will have access to online learning materials, mentors, workshops and masterclasses from global experts, and sponsored challenges from organisations. At the end of the online learning process, teams who have applied and qualified for the grand finale will also participate in an offline 48-hour hack. Partners in 11 countries have been critical to the organisation of the hackathon and will be the hosts for the offline events.

 

“We at the African Leadership University are glad to partner with AR/VR Africa as Rwanda Country Partner for the 2020 AR/VR Africa Hackathon”  said ALU Rwanda, Faculty and Digital Economy Programmes Lead, Demilade Oluwasina. “As an institution developing leaders for Africa and the world, we recognize the importance of creating opportunity and incorporating trends shaping the future. AR/VR tech, in particular, holds immense potential for many sectors of life and the economy and we equally see ourselves using AR/VR more to deliver quality education on the continent. We are therefore pleased to be supporting the development of the ecosystem and to be developing talent in this space.”

 

Interested participants are invited to join the AR/VR Facebook networking group and to register here. Participant access to the online learning platform will be made available following registration.

 

Over $20,000 (twenty thousand dollars) worth of prizes will be awarded during the hackathon. There will be additional prizes from sponsored challenges.