2016 Ms. Geek Rwanda challenge application
Ms. Geek Rwanda is a competition designed to inspire Rwandan girls to be part of problem solving
for the country using technology and encourage them to consider a career in Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math. The competition aims to expand the girls’ innovation and critical thinking
skills. This year we have selected 4 sectors for which competitors can develop solutions.
The 4 sectors are:
•
Health
•
Service delivery
•
Security (community safety)
•
Financial sector.
They will be required to develop a problem statement and its respective solution in one of the
sectors. Solutions must be technology based. The best 5 solutions will be selected by Girls in ICT to
compete on the final day and shall receive training and mentorship to help them prepare for final
presentation.
The competition is organized by Girls in ICT- Rwanda and is open to female high school and
university students.
Girls in ICT Rwanda is a group of women professionals working STEM careers, who have come
together to encourage Rwandan girls to choose careers in STEM fields. We want them to know that
women can pursue careers in STEM, and if we can do it – so can they.
COMPETITION CRITERIA
Female students from any university/TVET institutions/high school in Rwanda are eligible for the
Ms. Geek Rwanda competition. Each candidate must meet the following requirements to compete in
the 2016 Ms. Geek Rwanda:
• Current university/TVET/high school female students
• Contestant should be able to demonstrate the ability to understand what problem they are solving
and deliver a presentation at the final day
• Contestants must be available for a 5-day training prior to event
• Will be available on April 30th 2016 to participate in the final event
ELIGIBILITY
• your solution must utilize technology
• your solution must be unique and innovative
• your solution should clearly state how you are solving the defined problem
Eligible candidates must submit their application through the provided Google form to be considered
or download the word document on www.girlsinict.rw and submit on girlsinict.rw@gmail.com
Deadline for submission is 25th March 2016. There will be no exceptions.
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Five Finalists will:
1. Compete in an online vote for The People’s Choice Award
2. Undergo a one-week mentorship program to help through preparations for the finals
3. Attend the Award Ceremony April
Prizes
Ms. Geek
Cash prize 2,000,000RWF
2. International tech conference
3. Laptop
4. Internship
30th 2016 that will crown the Ms. Geek Rwanda 2016
First runner up
1. 1,000,000RWF
2. Laptop
3. Internship
Second runner up
1. 500,000RWF
2. Laptop
3. Internship
People’s choice 1.
1. Certificate
Applicants Details
First Name: ……………………
Last Name/Surname: ………...…………..
Email address: ……………………………
Phone number: ……………………………
University / Institution of Higher Learning
Choose the name of your university or institution of higher learning from the list below. If it is not
listed, choose "Other" and type out the name.
University of Rwanda
University of Rwanda (UR)
Tumba College of technology (TCT)
Integrated polytechnic Regional Centre Kicukiro (IPRC)
Kigali Independent University (ULK)
Institut d’Agriculture, de Technologie et d’Education de Kibngo (INATEK)
Institut Laique Adventitse de Kigali (INILAK)
Byumba Polytechnic (IPB)
Mount Kenya University Kigali Campus (MKU Kigali)
Adventist University of Central and East Africa (AUCA)
University of Kigali
Others: …………………
High school (Write the name of your high school):
Graduation Year (What year will you graduate from your studies?)
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Faculty or high school section:
Department:
Project details
PROBLEM STATEMENT: Rwanda vision 2020 leverages ICT to be fast forward the economic
development targets set to become a middle-income economy. The Smart Rwanda master plan
identified various sectors crucial to achieve the above goals. For the MsGeek 2016, we have identified
4 sectors that are crucial.
Those sectors are: • Health: lack of educational on health for young girls especially reproductive
health and maternal health, the distance, time and resources to access health services are all
challenges that the health sector is facing which affects costs, number of severe ill patients, etc...
• Service delivery: Optimizing service delivery whether in public or otherwise is essential to enable
the population to easily save time and resources on these services.
• Security (community safety): security is one of the best luxuries that Rwandans enjoy thus to
preserve it, safety in neighborhoods is critical. The involvement of the whole community is also
critical to preserve and enhance security.
• Financial sector: transactions and sending money to each other is one of the most promising
sectors in Rwanda especially with a lot of services being available online as well as on the need to
remotely pay for these services.
CHALLENGE: Choose one sector among the 4 listed above for your challenge. Devise a solution that
will affect a large number of the population or Women and young girls. Here are the parameters of
the challenge:
 The document must describe the solution in detail, including the conceptual design, what
technologies should be used to develop it, the role of various users, how content will be generated,
and ultimately how knowledge is transferred
 The technology solution must be original, but may partially include the integration of existing
technologies
 Please consider that your users will have varying Internet access in terms of how frequently they
can use it and which devices they will use (laptop, tablet, mobile phone)
 A graphical presentation must accompany the concept note, demonstrating how the solution will
work and an example of the user interface
Solution name
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Category:
Health
Service Delivery
Security (Community Safety)
Financial sector
Other
Problem statement: Briefly the problem you are solving (maximum 1000 characters)
Brief description: Briefly describe your project (maximum 1000 characters)
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Full description: Describe your project in more detail (maximum 2000 characters)
N.B:
 After filling the application save it under “MsGeek_YourName” then send it to
girlsinict.rw@gmail.com
 Finalists will be asked to conduct filmed interviews and speak to media during the course of
and/or after the competition.
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