African Youth

The Solve IT Experience

By Heldana Michael

For an outsider, Solve IT is just work for the iCog team and another tech competition for the participants. Yet, Solve IT is a lot more. I want you to imagine a place where you meet new people, spend days and nights with these people, visit mind-blowing sites, and create a tech-savvy network. An environment where you improve on who you are as a person and help others improve as well. A place where laughter and memories are never-ending. Now imagine all of this coming together into one place: that is Solve IT.

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Extra, extra! Solve IT 2019 is Here

By Heldana Michael

Solve IT 2019 is coming to its end, and the Grand Finale is approaching. The Solve IT 2019 team along with its partners– the U.S. Embassy and JICA– is super busy with last-minute preparations for the August 17, 2019 closing. Everyone is looking forward to the finale, yet everyone is shunning it anxiously.

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Coder by age 10, software developer by 19: Meet Ethiopian teen tech entrepreneur Betelhem Dessie

By Tess Thomas

Betelhem is working to equip girls with the skills they need to work in their country’s growing tech industry.

When Betelhem Dessie’s father didn’t have time to celebrate her 9th birthday, she decided to become a tech entrepreneur and pay for a celebration herself.

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The Youngest Tech Pioneer in Ethiopia

Betelhem Dessie’s initiatives have taught 20,000 children how to code, launching Ethiopia’s next generation toward a successful future in tech, writes Thomas Lewton

Ethiopia, despite nearly 20 years of steady economic growth, still has one of the lowest GDPs per capita in the world. While the majority of the country contributes to its agriculture-based economy, growing sectors of tech-savvy youths are forging a new path.

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The city where innovation is driven By necessity

By Thomas Lewton

“I am young, ambitious and ready to transform my country, Ethiopia,” Selam Wondim announces to a conference room packed with high-profile executives and politicians in one of Addis Ababa’s most prestigious hotels. Read More

How Africa is Seizing an AI Opportunity

By Jackie Snow

Despite visa problems and limited resources, African technologists are only accelerating their research. Can they make AI work for the continent?

Tejumade Afonja was interested in artificial intelligence (AI) for years. She just wasn’t sure there was a name for it. “I didn’t know what it was called at the time,” she says.

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In Artificial Intelligence, Young Ethiopians Eye a Fertile Future

By: Thomas Lewton and Alice McCool

I DON’T think Homo sapiens-type people will exist in 10 or 20 years’ time,” Getnet Assefa, 31, speculates as he gazes into the reconstructed eye sockets of Lucy, one of the oldest and most famous hominid skeletons known, at the National Museum of Ethiopia. “Slowly the biological species will disappear and then we will become a fully synthetic species,” Assefa says.

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Ethiopia: U.S. Embassy Announces Solve IT! – A Nationwide Innovation Competition

The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa is sponsoring a nationwide innovation competition, “Solve IT!” for Ethiopian youth. “Solve IT!” promotes STEM, entrepreneurship and encourages a new generation of young Ethiopians to solve problems in their communities using technology, software and hardware. The competition is implemented by the U.S. Embassy in collaboration with partners iCog Labs and Humanity+.

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