In a significant achievement, Team Handwave from the School of Railways and Infrastructure Development (SRID) at the University of Mines and Technology UMaT has emerged as the 1st Runner-Up at the just ended Disability Inclusive Hackathon (DI-Hack) 2024 held in Accra.
The event, hosted by the Inclusive Tech Group (ITG) in partnership with IEEE and sponsored by Google, PwC, and IEEE Ghana Section, showcased the talents of nine teams working to create life-changing technologies for persons with disabilities.SRID Team, Handwave’s project, “Signify AI,” captivated both judges and attendees with its innovative approach to bridging communication gaps.
Signify AI enables real-time, two-way communication between individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or nonverbal autistic, and those who can hear. Equipped with features that translate speech into sign language and vice versa, this system promotes greater inclusivity and accessibility in everyday interactions.
The team behind Signify AI includes George Kwame Frimpong, Geological Engineering; Foster Delali Nusetor, Computer Science and Engineering; and Percy Flintwood Brace, a second-year Computer Science and Engineering student.
Their impressive work was rewarded with GHS7,000, a plaque, and medals.Since its inception in 2021, DI-Hack has become a key platform for collaboration between tech innovators and persons with disabilities in Ghana.
The competition encourages teams of two to three participants, including at least one person with a disability, to develop practical solutions that improve the quality of life for the over three million Ghanaians living with disabilities.
The 2024 hackathon, held from October 23 to 25 at the Ghana Civil Aviation Training Academy in Accra, marked DI-Hack’s fourth edition.
Under the theme “Leveraging Technology for an Inclusive, Accessible, and Sustainable World,” the event attracted entries from 10 regions across Ghana, including Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Volta, Western, Western North, Ashanti, Greater Accra, and Eastern.
Source: UMaT
