The Makerthon

March 16-20, 2026

7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. CAT

Hybrid (both in-person at the University of Nairobi and online attendance)

Organizing university

University of Nairobi

Participants

It is only open to Afretec Network members

Event description

Akin to the conventional hackathon, the uniqueness of the Makerthon is that the multidisciplinary team is given a real-life challenge / problem and they are mentored in the journey to identify the real problem, ideate for solutions, design and prototype for a solution through human centered design techniques. The industry partners help us to identify and write a brief on the problem / need. Where possible the partners could also share relevant articles, papers, cases, and policy documents that assist the students quickly find their feet in their discovery journey. The partners also avail one or two persons to have some engagement sessions with the student teams as they learn and identify underlying issues and interrelationships, thus enabling them define the problem and ideate for solutions. The industry contact person(s) shall possess the knowledge and experience needed for exploring and investigating the issues.

The teams are also coached to develop a workable business model through the lean canvas and they are taken through pitching. They are supported by faculty and technical mentors. The teams begin with the users and are encouraged to test their solutions with the user, do market research and materials research and design a workable product. The teams are mentored by subject experts, industry technical experts and business leaders, IP experts, etc. The purpose is to come up with solutions (product / service) and startups that will join a pre-incubator. The teams are multidisciplinary and are constituted from all the partner universities.

To make sure maximization of the results in the short one-week physical workshops, the teams are constituted four weeks before the solution boot camp at UON, introduced to the challenges and connected to the users. They go through empathy, defining of the problem and ideating for solutions.

The participants will exit with skills in team working, problem solving, creativity, innovation, prototyping and idea pitching. They will also be able to establish a venture and work towards joining a pre-incubator or raising support.

Pillar

Entrepreneurship

Contact Samuel Ruhiu:

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