The African Engineering Innovation Award is considered the largest African award for engineering innovation. It brings together engineers from sub-Saharan African countries. This is for a period of 7 months of training and mentoring.
Established by the Royal Academy of Engineering, the vision of the African Engineering Innovation Award is to motivate and encourage engineers in sub-Saharan Africa to apply their engineering skills to improve the quality of life and economic development of Africa. All areas of engineering can be exploited. From civil engineering to agricultural technology, from chemical engineering to biotechnology, etc. For the 2022 edition, sixteen entrepreneurs have been selected. They are nationals of South Africa, Kenya, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Uganda, Togo and Ethiopia.
They are nationals of South Africa, Kenya, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Uganda, Togo and Ethiopia.
Fabrice Tueche and Juveline Ngum were selected to represent French-speaking Africa, more specifically Cameroon. This selection was made possible by their respective innovations, TelMi and Bleaglee. Developed by biomedical engineer Fabrice Tueche, TelMi is a set of devices designed to give nurses a helping hand in monitoring patients by responding to alarms. It will also allow them to collect the data while reducing the time they took to respond. This set of equipment is divided into two parts, one part to be used by the patient and the other by the nurse. The patient’s device will allow him/her to inform the medical staff of any problem at his/her level by means of a button. The nurse will use the device to provide visual and/or vibratory alarms in case of emergency. TelMi is designed to work with batteries that can be recharged, due to the electrical instability in most hospitals and clinics. These batteries can last for over a month before being charged. Although the patient’s device only transmits messages over a few metres, the receiver nodes are capable of extending it to several hundred metres. This allows patients to touch their nurse from a distance.
Juveline Ngum’s invention is an intelligent cooking system made from plastic and agricultural waste. It consists of a smokeless cooker made from scrap metal, a platform that can make it easier for cooks to track and offset their carbon footprint. This solution is specially designed for people with disabilities because of its full mobility. However, the cooker can be aided by sensors as well as timers that are powered by artificial intelligence. These sensors are able to automatically switch off the cooker once the food is ready. Bleaglee helps the women to source scrap metal, trains them in stove making. These stoves are much more economical than firewood and allow for faster cooking of meals. Juveline Ngum plans to make Bleaglee familiar to two million customers over the next decade. It is also considering the creation of an application that could help track the supply of scrap metal to informal recyclers.
It should be recalled that to participate in the African Engineering Innovation Awards, one must have the ambition to play a leading role in the creation of a company to commercialise that innovation. Having developed or being in the process of developing a new innovation would also be an asset. These innovations must have the objective of promoting the welfare and economic development of one or more countries in sub-Saharan Africa. They must also be designed to address a development need that this continent would face.
It should also be noted that pre-selected innovators receive comprehensive and personalised business training, engineering mentoring specific to their innovation sector and communication support. They also have the opportunity to access the Academy’s network of experienced engineers and senior business experts in the UK and Africa. In addition, they will receive personalised training and mentoring culminating in a showcase event where one winner is selected to receive £25,000 and three runners-up, who each receive £10,000. It should be noted that researchers and industrial establishments are not eligible.
