CMU Africa launches demonstration hub for DPI, DPGs

The Carnegie Mellon University Africa (CMU Africa) has announced the launch of a Digital Experience Center (DEC) that will serve as an exploration and testing platform for digital public infrastructure (DPI) and digital public goods (DPG).

In a post on its X account, CMU Africa said the initiative, which has been unveiled through the Upanzi Network, will serve as space for demonstrating innovative technologies capable of catalyzing Africa’s digital transformation efforts.  CMU Africa believes research and innovation are the fulcrum of digital transformation.

Apart from DPI and DPGs, the DEC, which was set up thanks to support from institutions like the Gates Foundation, will also serve as a hub for the development of other technology projects related to cybersecurity, public health, and agriculture, just to cite a few. It will also demonstrate the use of digital solutions like digital identity, digital payments, and secure infrastructure, which are interoperable in real-time situations, for practical use cases.

Upanzi Network said the DEC will serve as a platform to harness ideas and create a collaboration avenue for students, researchers, industry leaders and policymakers on innovative research initiatives capable of proffering solutions to some of the pressing societal challenges of the moment.

The Director of CMU Africa, Conrad Tucker, is quoted by Igihe Network as saying that “rather than Africa being just consumers, we now are creators and contribute to the global ecosystem of open-source products and open-source software.”

Also commenting on the experience center, the Co-Director of Upanzi Network and a lecturer at CMU Africa university, Assane Gueye, said Africa needs the right technologies to fuel its digital transformation ambitions.

“Africa is going digital, there are technologies that we need to support that. Often, people want to see technology in action, go to India, Europe, or China and this is an opportunity for us as African countries to step up,” he said as quoted.

One of the projects showcased during the launch of the center is a Malaria Diagnosis mobile app, which the developers say, is meant to beat the challenges of time and cost in manual testing of the tropical disease.

“We are trying to digitalize the malaria diagnosis process. We are working on this by collecting data from health centers, validating it with RBC, and using machine learning to identify and classify malaria parasites,” the app co-developer, Eric Maniraguha, is quoted as saying.

In a bid to increase digital ID use cases in real-world scenarios in Africa, CMU in collaboration with MicroSave Consulting, launched a hackathon series last year, targeting mostly students in universities around the continent. This is part of Upanzi Network’s broader efforts of supporting the building of effective DPI on the continent.

Article Topics

Africa  |  Carnegie Mellon University  |  digital ID  |  digital public goods  |  digital public infrastructure  |  Gates Foundation  |  research and development  |  Upanzi Network