Hackathon

Overview

There is need to not only develop data science capacity in Africa but to also harness that capacity to address African Challenges. In this regard DSA is proposing to run a 6 month hackathon to provide the Summer School and Workshop participants with an opportunity to put their skills into practice as well as to establish collaborations across different African countries for Data Science projects. In summary the hackathon is about; African Problems being solved by African Data Scientists using African Data

The Process

Participants will be expected to do the following

1. Identify a problem facing an African country or community
2. Form teams of max 5 members from different African countries
3. Collect existing or new data on the African continent

Step 1 - DSA 2023

1. The data science process
2. Team formation
3. Problem identification

Step 2 - Post DSA: June – November 2023

1. Data Collection
2. Solution Development
3. Two checkpoints – July & September 2023
4. Final Presentations – November 2023

Motivation

1. African problems solved by African Data Scientists with African Data
2. Top 5 teams automatically selected to attend DSA 2024 … travel grants will be considered

FAQ

1. Is there funding for these projects? … Teams are encouraged to also find ways of financing the solution development from grants etc.
2. Can team members be persons who are not at DSA 2023? … Yes, as long as one team member has attended DSA 2023
3. What if we run out of options for team members from other countries? … Be creative, the point is to collaborate across borders and institutions