Congratulations to the ten teams of students who took part in the design challenge, Impact Week Kenya, 2nd – 5th October 2023! The teams’ diverse strengths were on full display during the final pitches held last Thursday, where they each pitched a solution falling within one of the four tracks of the competition this year: Clean water and Sanitation; No Poverty; Good Health and Well-being, and Zero Hunger.
From step one – understanding, to the final step – prototype and testing, the teams worked with a team of coaches who helped them master the step-by-step design-thinking process and ultimately create exciting prototypes that have the potential to be scaled up into real-world businesses with positive social impact.
The team of coaches comprised Lead coach Stephen Githii, the School of Business chairman; Jane Nteere, Simiyu, Maureen Nkiro, and co-lead John Obuhuma who provided support to all teams and coaches, and the organizer of this eighth edition of Impact Week, John Ngila.
On pitch day, they were joined by a team of experts drawn from an array of industries – Tech, Education, Wellness, Banking, and Startup Accelerators to evaluate the prototypes and provide technical feedback to the teams. Whilst the panel commended all the teams for their gallant effort, there could only be one winner. Congratulations Team Alpha, the winners of Impact Week Kenya 2023! Their winning innovation is a portable water purification system that allows vegetable vendors to use and reuse treated water, enabling them to minimize their water consumption and related costs. Other innovations that were pitched include smart farming solutions; domestic waste recycling; organic manure production and a reimagined agricultural fair.
As participants were aptly reminded by John Ngila, “The real winners are the ones who will take all they’ve learned in this program and create at least a Minimum Viable Product.” Walking through the next steps, the teams can count on the coaches and ANU partners’ continued support to incubate their ideas and accelerate their models into MVPs!
