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JICA, in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy and iCog Labs, is carrying out the largest start-up innovation competition in Ethiopia called "Solve IT 2019". Regional competitions have been taking place since May and will continue throughout June.

Here are the top three winners from Jimma city.

The first place winner is a Low-Cost Hearing Device developed by university students led by Behailu Teka. Their device picks up sounds and converts them into electronic signals which are then amplified so the patient can hear better. According to Behailu, their new device cuts the existing price of hearing aids in the Ethiopian market by at least by 30%.

The second place winner is a Digitized Postpartum Hemorrhage Management Device (DPPHMD), developed by and all-female team led by Ababa Getachew. According to Ababa, " blood loss is one of the major reasons for maternal deaths, and this device provides an accurate measurement of blood loss and management of PPH (postpartum hemorrhage)". They believe that it will successfully reduce the maternal mortality rate.

The third place winner is Kokeb Dese and his highly motivated team, who developed the Automatic Early Detection and Classification of Leukemia. "Our image processing method is what makes our device reliable and effective. Doctors can replace the current manual diagnoses method and our device can detect Leukemia from a patient's microscopic blood image".

JICA, US Embassy and iCog would like to deliver a special thanks to Jimma University (Jimma Institute of Technology) for hosting all the training sessions and the regional competition.

#JICAinAfrica #USInvestsinEthiopians #SolveIT2019.

First place

Second place

Third place