13th AARSE Conference, Kigali : Young African scientists tap into IT and EO for innovative solutions to the continent's development challenges

Having the form of an Hackathon, the event will last from 24 to 27 Oct. and is organized by the GMES and Africa Programme of the African Union Commission, in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University Africa, and the EO for Africa initiative of the European Space Agency (ESA)

Last update 25/10/2022

This Hackathon is designed to catalyze the development of EO services in a virtual computing and collaborative environment. It aims to provide solutions to challenges in monitoring of surface water resources, wetlands management, agriculture as well as marine resources, using earth observation data.

 

At the opening ceremony of the three-day activity, the Coordinator of GMES and Africa, Dr. Tidiane Ouattara, said it is heartening to see young Africans thinking about innovative solutions for the continent. He encouraged the participants to familiarize themselves with the African Agenda 2063 which is a comprehensive blueprint representing the continent's development vision. Dr. Ouattara described the Hackathon as an opportunity for learning and networking, and as an activity contributing to building a critical human capital for Africa.

The Rwanda Space Agency representative Joseph Abakunda, told participants that the Africa We Want should be an Africa of solutions delivered by creative, industrious, and innovative Africans. The President the GMES and Africa Network of Academia, Professor Gayane Faye, underlined the need for collaboration among Africa's earth observation practitioners in harnessing the opportunities provided by GMES and Africa through various initiatives, including the Hackathon.

During the exercise, the young scientists and researchers will work together on projects tailored to solve challenges in the identified areas. The aim is to engage the participants and foster collaboration within a team of people from diverse backgrounds and expertise.

About the EO Hackathon at the Carnegie Mellon University 

Cloud computing has become an integral part of the EO service process chains. The GMES & Africa EO Hackathon activity is to catalyse development of EO services in a virtual computing and collaborative environment provided through the EO Africa Innovation Lab. The activity is designed to generate scalable solutions to the identified few challenges using EO applications. Trainees are working on selected case studies addressing challenges. 

• Spatial Altimetry and Applications for Monitoring of Surface Water Resources
• Wetlands Monitoring and Management using Earth Observation Data
• Agricultural Monitoring Using Earth Observation Data
• Marine resource monitoring 

Objectives 

The aim is to engage students, researchers and foster collaboration between participants of diverse backgrounds and expertise. Each team includes participants with expertise in EO data processing/GIS, thematic expert (agriculture, hydrology, marine, etc.). The innovation lab is a high computing environment equipped with necessary software and input datasets. EO Africa Support include 

• Remote desktop Virtual Machine preinstalled with selected open-source software (SNAP, QGIS, Python (+ selected packages – GDAL, numpy, scipy, Jupiter Lab etc.), Anaconda, R + RStudio) to allow participants to use preferred SW or coding environment. 
• Access to VM via Innovation Lab interface
• EO scientific support – 1-2 Person (Serco)

Target audience

Audience consists of young researchers and scientists, with priority on those supporting consortia in development of services. Participants have skills relevant to software development, e.g.: computer programmers, graphic and interface designers, Geographic Information Systems and Earth Observation thematic experts (agriculture, climate, energy, forestry, hydrology), data analysts..

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GMES and Africa is an Earth Observation programme jointly initiated by the African Union Commission and the European Union, with the aim of contributing to natural resource management and sustainable development through earth observation data, products and services. Implemented through regional and thematic institutions across the five regions of Africa, GMES and Africa is an enabling pillar of the African Outer space flagship created to promote the continent's space agenda. https://gmes.au.int/ 

The Agenda 2063 is Africa’s blueprint and master plan for transforming Africa into the global powerhouse of the future. It is the continent’s strategic framework that aims to deliver on its goal for inclusive and sustainable development and is a concrete manifestation of the pan-African drive for unity, self-determination, freedom, progress and collective prosperity pursued under Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance   https://au.int/en/agenda2063/overview

ESA EO For Africa is an ESA's Programme standing for African Framework for Research, Innovation, Communities and Applications – building an African-European R&D partnership.
EO AFRICA fosters an African-European R&D partnership, facilitating the sustainable adoption of the Earth Observation and related space technology in Africa – following an African user driven approach with a long-term (>10 years) vision for the digital era in Africa. https://eo4society.esa.int/eo-africa/. The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.  

The Carnegie Melon University Africa (CMU-Africa), is located in Kigali Innovation City, is a regional ICT center of excellence educating a diverse composition of future leaders from all over Africa, who will use their hands-on skills and knowledge to advance technology innovation and grow businesses. CMU-Africa’s vision is to educate and empower the next generation of African leaders and innovators by delivering a world-class educational experience. CMU's mission is to produce creative and technically strong engineers, who have been trained in the African context and prepared to make a transformative impact in their communities and the world. https://www.africa.engineering.cmu.edu

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