Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity-not as a threat. After a grueling 3 months that involved making applications, selection process, coming up with ideas, implementing the ideas into solutions and the final pitch, team Jazia emerged the first runners up for the Equity hackathon. The CEO of Equity Dr. James Mwangi invited Meru University of Science and Technology and The University of Nairobi to compete in the Equity hacking competition. Many teams were formed but few lived up to the intensity of the challenge.

Team Jazia members are Allan Mutai, Michael Ng’ang’a and David Mtundi. Together they have developed the following projects:

• Intern Study Guide – an intern study guide tool for equity bank during their internship period.
• MT940 development – an mt940 statements converter, this system converts mt940 statements from the swift bank format to human readable formats such as word, pdf, and excel
• Digital Identity System – a digital identity system that enables financial institutions provide identification to marginalized, disabled and illiterate persons for easier extension of financial services.

Allan Mutai

Allan is a is a God-fearing fourth year student studying a  Bachelors course in Computer Technology at the University.  While in first year, he enrolled for Front-end web development and Native android development through scholarships. Through the skills gained, he started coding in *small scale* that later plummeted to full time coding. Through his concerted efforts, he has managed to protect one of his co-innovations EATZ. His consistency in coding, he has stood out as one of the best innovators in the University.

Some of the projects he has implemented since setting his eyes to become a software developer are:

• A mobile application that uses Bluetooth low energy to track COVID cases and notify users within proximity.
• Games-Clan, a Point-of-Sale system designed for gaming centers (PS zones).
• co-developed MUST E-DOS Chap Chap (Electronic Dean of Students).
• Upgraded Eatz to a virtual shop.
• An e-commerce mobile application for unsafe loans that linked with users’ bank accounts, came up with credit appraisal, and made financial recommendations based on what can be borrowed and a repayment plan or a savings plan.
• An algorithm that uses location and google-maps API to come up with a pace note technology that will significantly reduce lives lost due to road carnages.

 Major accomplishments:

• Won MUST innovation Week 2021(Tourism and Hospitality Technologies)
• Won Equity-Microsoft Hackathon 2022(KYC- Digital Identity)
• Joining Equity Bank as a Software Engineer upon completion of my studies

In all these, Allan says, “my greatest achievement has been living a life of purity at the university-saying no to drugs & no to women”. Allan has been able to achieve much as a student through Christ who strengthens him. Indeed, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

Michael Ng’ang’a

Michael is a BSc in Computer Technology student currently in his second semester year 4. His desire to solve complex problems through technology persuaded him to pursue programming as a passion. Michael began his programming journey from his first year. He started with learning front end web development using boostrap and back end development using Laravel framework for PHP. After settling into programming, he added Java programming skills to diversify his development journey. When COVID struck, he did take advantage of the opportunity to hone his skills through taking courses on mobile development birthing his first mobile app in the process. He is reenergized anytime he gets to write a program.

Projects he has implemented so far are:

• “A road safety assistant”
• Client application for “Eatz”, a cafeteria management system for cashless payments in cafeterias.
• Added more features to Eatz, i.e. electronic wallets, on-map meal delivery services, real-time monitoring and accounting technologies, and automated system maintenance and reporting.
• Payment module for Games-Clan, a Point-of-Sale system designed for gaming centers (PS zones).
• Co-developed MUST E-DOS Chap Chap (Electronic Dean of Students).
• An API for calculating a person’s credit score based on their transaction history and make autonomous decisions on how much money the borrower is eligible for and the payback period as well as the interest rates.
• Final fourth year project, a real estate cross platform. The project focuses on assisting people acquire affordable property as well as get alerts when listings nearest to them are uploaded. The application features Google maps which not only show directions and listing location but also highlight nearest social amenities and infrastructure to minimize false advertising.

Major accomplishments:

• Won MUST innovation Week 2021(Tourism and Hospitality technologies)
• Won Equity-Microsoft Hackathon 2022(KYC- Digital Identity)
• Joining Equity Bank as a Software Engineer upon completion of my studies

A highlight of his best experiences are; when with his collaborators won the innovation week and emerging first runners up in the Equity hackathon. “Finally, none of these would have been possible without God’s favor.  God favors those who are obedient to him. Living a life of righteousness brings forth blessings and opportunities.”

 

David Mtundi

An Innovative software engineer with 5 years of experience managing all aspects of the development process from the ideation phase to the implementation. His desire to solve technical challenges though the knowledge he was gaining ushered him into programming. He accelerated his coding skills during the COVID period.  Part of his learning entailed taking about two (2) months to work on his typing speed. He would later add to the programming languages he desired to learn.

Innovations he has developed and implemented are:

• My-Doctor Advanced Hospital System -> Implemented machine learning into creating a software that will make it easy for doctors to issue correct prescriptions and medications.
• Broadcaster Me -> A cross-platform application which was meant to be used by officials when there is need for sending an emergency or alert to a large group at once.
• Pima+ -> A cross-platform application to be integrated with hardware that is meant to help in the hospital industry (confidential-still under development

Major accomplishments:

• Won Karu Startup Innovation 2021(Karatina-dekut).
• Won Equity-Microsoft Hackathon 2022(KYC- Digital Identity)

His best moments as he says, “ is the day he made the decision to become a programmer.” Focus and dedication to learning and implementing has seen David rise from a boy who had never seen a computer to using it to solve a wide range of problems. His life motto is “we will rest in the grave when it will be known we can’t do anything.”