Latest News

RISA and ACEIoT discussed the implementation mechanisms of the AI and IoT based applied research incubator project

On 11th January 2023, delegates from Research and Innovation Systems for Africa (RISA) Fund paid a visit to the African Center of Excellence in Internet of Things (ACEIoT) to discuss with the project team the overall vision, work plan, and implementation of the project that the Centre won from RISA.

The Research and Innovation Systems for Africa (RISA) Fund is a multi-country project, funded by the UK, through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), to support research and innovation systems strengthening in Africa.

The won project is entitled “IoT and AI Applied Research Results Commercialization Through Incubation hub”.

The project aims at establishing an IoT and AI based applied research incubator/accelerator, which will facilitate the transfer of applied research prototypes and knowledge from IoT lab to market through academia-industry collaboration.

This is a one year period and expected to be completed by December 2023.

The project is headed by Associate Prof. Damien Hanyurwimfura and will be implemented through collaboration with NARADA Electronic( https://naradaelectronics.rw/), FabLab( https://www.fablabs.io/labs/FabLabRwanda) and KEEP from KNUST (https://keep.knust.edu.gh/) and stakeholders.

Discussions with the project team focused on how this project would be successfully implemented, singling out some key activities like providing trainings on prototyping, Entrepreneurship, commercialization of the products among others and the role of each party to ensure the project success.

“The budget for this project will be spent by UR-ACEIoT itself and RISA will make all payments depending on the achieved activities or milestone”, stated Michelle Branford, the Fund Advisor. She requested that all the challenges which will occur during the implementation process be reported to RISA for early intervention to facilitate the smooth implementation. It was an interactive session with questions and answers on both sides.

The project team was very happy with the visit and committed its effort to have the project successfully implemented with other stakeholders.

Towards the end of discussions, the guests toured the recently acquired IoT laboratory and got insight into some innovative projects being developed by the Center students.

Guests from RISA Toured the IoT lab
ACEIoT Acting Director, University of Rwanda speaks at the meeting
Members of Project
Guest from RISA speaks at the meeting