Tell 15 to 20-year-olds about this Learning Factory hackathon to prevent infant deaths in hot cars

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Staff Writer

Here is a hackathon that you should tell the 15-20-year-olds in your life about. The Learning Factory is calling for the development of a smart system to prevent hot car deaths.

Here are the details:

HACKATHON: Preventing hot car deaths

Develop a smart safety system to prevent heatstroke and suffocation in both human and animal vehicle occupants. This system will issue alerts and trigger alarms when vehicle conditions approach, equal, or exceed pre-set safety thresholds.

A Raspberry Pi Pico should be at the heart of the solution.

How do teams participate in the hackathon?

‱ Click here (or visit https://forms.gle/W6HLrMpJ2AzJQgGv8) before the 5th of April 2024 and complete the form, supplying details about your team. The entry form closes at 2359 hours on the 5th of April 2024, no entries will be accepted after that date.

‱ Entries will be reviewed by a team of independent adjudicators. The top 6 teams will be invited to participate in the hackathon which runs from the 22nd to the 25th of April 2024 at the Academy of Music in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

‱ The top 6 teams will be contacted and advised of their selection. All other entrants will not receive direct communication. Details of the selected teams will be posted on TeXpo’s social media channels.

‱ On the 22nd of April the 6 teams invited to participate in the hackathon will be provided the full specifications for the solution they are to develop, and the equipment, tools and components that they will use to develop their solution.

‱ Participation in the hackathon is free of charge!

Who can participate in the hackathon?

  • Teams of between 3 and 5 members.
  • Teams do not need to have worked together previously.
  • Team members must be aged 15 to 20 years.
  • No prior experience with hackathons is required.
  • Winners of previous TeXpo hackathons are discouraged from participating in this hackathon

For more information

  • WhatsApp: +263718997355 or +263772269737
  • Email: hello@texpoafrica.com
  • Or look for @TeXpoAfrica on YouTube, Facebook or LinkedIn.

Also read:

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  1. Wayne

    😂😂😂😂

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      And the fools shall laugh at life changing opportunities 🌚🌚

      Reply
      1. Dope

        True chaari kunyenama ndechei ipapo

        Reply
      2. HE.

        This happened in Cape Town, University’of Cape Town to be exact. It was sad. Sometimes it’s not a mistake, varoyi variko. A dude in the states was busted for that. Nyaya ye girlfriend or something, but a child died in the most cruel way. #Muroyi

        Reply
    2. Mk

      Do you know that recently we lost 4 kids due to suffocation?💔

      Reply
  2. ff

    đŸ€”

    Reply
  3. Sentinal

    My layman’s recipe:
    – Pi Pico: to run sensors, aircon and enable automatic engine start etc
    – Co2 sensors: to monitor changes in internal carbon dioxide levels and assessing dangerous conditions.
    – Seat occupancy sensors: additional data point, also to alert driver if something/someone is forgotten in the car
    – Thermometer: additional data point and assessing dangerous conditions

    Cherries on top
    – Two 360 cameras, front and back: in case child or pet is not in a seat (they can be tricky little devils. as a kid, I once hid on the floor of our car for hours. Fell asleep in a washing basket doing the same but got taught a lesson after that 😂)
    – 4G/BT/WiFi module: to stream video, access cloud AI object recognition and motion detection, send notifications and receive remote actions from driver
    – IR sensors and illuminators: motion detection and night vision for cameras

    Method
    Utilise the above to create intelligent responses to various scenarios. These can be notifications, remote engine start to run air-conditioning, cracking open the windows, activating hazard lights for attention etc. AI assisted features can provide more dynamic responses like deciding if emergency services are required.

    In America, some states make legal allowances for breaking into locked cars to remove unattended children or pets in situations where they appear to be distressed. There is also encouraging looking into your car windows before entering or after exiting your car. Those can be a low tech solutions to encourage bystander intervention and personal caution in Zim. Afterall, accidents happen.

    Reply
  4. TwuuSx3

    Where can i get Rasp.Pis in Harare || Bulawayo

    Reply
    1. Hot Ice

      Php dev detected

      Reply
    2. Daft..er

      Great idea..
      “Vanenjere havanyimi mazano”

      Reply
  5. Daft..er

    Great idea..
    “Vanenjere havanyimi mazano”

    Reply
  6. HE.

    This happened in Cape Town, University’of Cape Town to be exact. It was sad. Sometimes it’s not a mistake, varoyi variko. A dude in the states was busted for that. Nyaya ye girlfriend or something, but a child died in the most cruel way. #Muroyi

    Reply
  7. HE.

    Chapter 6 – IoT EcosystemOur businesses scale, but our ways of doing business don’t, which is why we have this push for automation and adoption of artificially intelligent systems. Countries and companies that adopt IoT will gain the upper hand, forcing everyone else to do the same. This opens companies and governments to hacking attacks thanks to the concept of the attack surface, wherein the more systems are networked together, the lower their overall security as a remote attacker can breach the weakest link to breach the entire network.The main advantage of IoT, as touted by producers of various robots it consists of, is being able to quickly make tiny decisions based off of data gathered through sensors or fed to it from some external source. For example, Roomba sweeps the floor while relying on its sensors to relieve you of having to stand by with a dustpan. Sounds good but the main disadvantage of Roomba is that it relies on regular maintenance, so now you are standing by with a screwdriver instead of a dustpan. What if we made a second Roomba that fixed the first one and let them work in tandem?We would obviously need a third Roomba with the ability to diagnose malfunctions, capable of overseeing the first one’s sweeping to detect when and why it broke and to send out the second one. The three Roombas would already be an IoT ecosystem that could work on its own without having to wait for sluggish humans’ input. If the three Roombas had to cover a huge area and communicated through a wireless connection, now we could employ a fourth Roomba working as a mobile router that would follow the trio around and position itself for maximum network performance.The problem then becomes that computer systems typically experience an exponential increase in attack surface with a linear increase in complexity. Anyone in the vicinity with the know-how to make and use an antenna could hack into our Roomba quartet and do with it as he pleases. So, now we could employ 55 Roombas with machine guns that gunned down everyone coming, but that wouldn’t solve the inherent weakness in the concept that undercuts any utility such an ecosystem might have. However, if our Roombas are in a closed system, such as a warehouse, that same weakness is largely eliminated.By eliminating human interference, an IoT ecosystem allows robots to cooperate at speeds, coordination, and endurance well beyond what humans are capable of. Any humans present on the location would typically be just passive observers, without even having the ability to manually override the robots, which has so far happened with Google’s Waymo, a self-driving shuttle car that has no steering wheel or brakes. Tech giants envision the future in which homes, schools, and hospitals become the same kind of sterile environment for the AI, with humans showing ultimate respect and obedience. For now, Amazon is the one to be making that vision closest to reality.Amazon warehouses, also called “fulfillment centers”, are places where an IoT ecosystem is already enhancing the human workforce and might soon be replacing it; humans still pick items, sort and pack them, but those work positions are likely to become automated to thanks to robots such as Boston Dynamics’ Handle[12] , an ostrich-like robot that can move boxes on its own.Boasting a hard work tempo and strict conditions that tolerate no tardiness[13] , these gigantic warehouses host robots that cart massive quantities of items by gliding along the special concrete floor and reading QR codes to navigate to their destination. Rollers and conveyor belts shuttle items left and right and it is all due to wanting to deliver that gift or order as soon as possible. The end goal is to have Amazon selling all products in the world to every customer at once; Amazon is actually losing billions of dollars on sales because it’s focused on growth, not making a profit. thanks to robots such as Boston Dynamics’ Handle[12] , an ostrich-like robot that can move boxes on its own.Boasting a hard work tempo and strict conditions that tolerate no tardiness[13] , these gigantic warehouses host robots that cart massive quantities of items by gliding along the special concrete floor and reading QR codes to navigate to their destination. Rollers and conveyor belts shuttle items left and right and it is all due to wanting to deliver that gift or order as soon as possible. The end goal is to have Amazon selling all products in the world to every customer at once; Amazon is actually losing billions of dollars on sales because it’s focused on growth, not making a profit.

    Reply
    1. HE.

      Chapter 5 – Basic ConceptsThe concept of machines that can evolve by learning from the environment has been discussed in the scientific community for nearly a century. As with all advanced paradigms, machine learning was first mocked, then considered, and then wholeheartedly embraced. The problem with machine learning is that computers don’t have a filtering mechanism to sort out information like living brains do, and they can’t create organizations of higher order like humans. We can quickly assess if something is unworthy of our attention to save our energy for actual tasks under the guidance of a smarter, more efficient person, but computers can’t handle the actual world in either way. Smart machines are thus fed filtered data arranged in sets, with their learning environment being kept completely sterile, so to speak.Exposing smart machines to the outside world usually ends in disaster as their frail brains become clogged with useless information.
      For example, there is a smart machine watching what you type into Google Search, and by being hooked into your personal profile,assembled courtesy of Gmail, YouTube, and other Google services, can recommend personalized search results.

      You are not meant to know about this smart machine because you might want to feed it false information, corrupting the results it provides. If enough users did this, Google Search would essentially be rendered worthless.The structure of a smart computer is like the Congress in that it is made out of small, independent units that can vote on any given thing. When additional layers are built on top of this arrangement, we can think of it as creating the Senate, which can also add input on matters. Think about the prolonged political discussions that eventually have to boil down to a Yay or Nay vote; that is essentially how a smart machine works. Note that a smart machine takes in binary data but outputs probability, meaning it can be more or less certain about the result and thus we can rate any neural network’s quality by estimating how correctly it guessed what we wanted it to do, but it is never certain .With enough layers, we can start talking about a neural network,

      assembled courtesy of Gmail, YouTube, and other Google services, can recommend personalized search results. You are not meant to know about this smart machine because you might want to feed it false information, corrupting the results it provides. If enough users did this, Google Search would essentially be rendered worthless.The structure of a smart computer is like the Congress in that it is made out of small, independent units that can vote on any given thing. When additional layers are built on top of this arrangement, we can think of it as creating the Senate, which can also add input on matters. Think about the prolonged political discussions that eventually have to boil down to a Yay or Nay vote; that is essentially how a smart machine works. Note that a smart machine takes in binary data but outputs probability, meaning it can be more or less certain about the result and thus we can rate any neural network’s quality by estimating how correctly it guessed what we wanted it to do, but it is never certain .With enough layers, we can start talking about a neural network,

      sources.When a neural network is attached to a specific piece of hardware, we can start talking about robotics, which is essentially giving a neural network a body. The robot can have different levels of mobility or just be stationary, like Alexa’s speaker that is meant to be put on the table and listen to occupants. Some advances have been made in letting the neural network decide where and how it wants to move in the world, but again, it is all workable while it’s in a safe, controlled environment; any interference by humans or animals usually wrecks the robot. When there are so many robots around us that they form their own neural network, but with hardware instead of software units, is when we can start talking about the internet of things (IoT).

      Reply
      1. Anonymous

        HE. Will this work, can we do such things, ini I’m just concerned about my next meal.

        Reply
        1. HE.

          I will work, we are also humans. If we spent almost half our lives in school, and we cannot build ecosystems, then close the schools, close them all…kkkk

          Reply
          1. Kobr∆ Kommander

            Kkkk, I hear you. Sharing is caring. It all starts with an idea, a vision a belief.

            #DataMustFall

            Reply
            1. HE.

              Chapter 4 – Motivation for Creating AIThe idea of having a brainless, unthinking, unfeeling but completely obedient automaton at our command has been fascinating humans for millennia. Jewish folklore gave us the golem, a creature made out of mud or clay and animated by inscribing a magical word on its forehead. This act mimicked the very creation of Adam by God, as described in Genesis 2:7[11] : “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” This is also why burial rites in Christians include the words “dust to dust”, that being a reminder that the ineffable Divine is what gave us our life but we ultimately have to admit subordination and subservience to the natural order of things. We can create life but can’t endow inanimate objects with it.This concept of making a golem, taking inanimate matter and giving it life, thus encapsulates the notions of challenging God himself,

              coming creators of life, finding a shortcut to maturity, lust for power, pride, and desire to stave off death, the inevitable return to the dust from which we all came. There is a good reason stories such as those involving golems have survived in our collective consciousness—they show us the underlying, background thought processes running in our minds and constantly affecting our daily lives, just like it would happen on a computer.We all want to have more power, whether that means more energy, more muscles, or just more control over how specific things pan out. The reason for this is that our ancestors who craved power were usually the ones to get it and continue the lineage; those who were meek got swept aside by natural forces and died out. The genetic code we carry is a compilation of behaviors that led to the survival and procreation of our ancestors, and so our genes force us to do the same. It is a completely involuntary drive that we can try to curb up to a point, but we will have to yield sooner or later. So, we’ll want to create a golem of some sort, though we might call it a different name and

              attach fanciful explanations to the act to appease the rational part of the mind, but the raw truth is that we want more power to survive.Just a quick note: if Adam was a golem created by God, how did that story turn out? Spoilers—God gives Adam a highly specific command, Adam disobeys and is thus disowned and cast out of paradise by his creator. The snake that prompted the tasting of the forbidden fruit can be said to represent a small, unexpected variable or influence, such as a computer virus or a bug. Whoever wrote the Genesis story shrewdly noticed that there are behavior patterns that seem to be repeating themselves with or without technology and left a reminder to all future generations, admittedly shrouded as religious teaching. By the looks of it, we will go through the same Genesis story with AI as we try to make an obedient servant that is supposed to empower us but will inadvertently betray us due to some random corrupting influence.To be fair, it is not our fault—the brain we are using is both the most modern biological machine and the most outdated one at the same time.

              We’re capable! absorbing untold amounts of information and connecting it in completely novel ways, but we’re also running these outdated survival instructions that originate from the caveman era and can override every other thought.For example, our brain is telling us to eat all the food in our vicinity because cavemen who gorged on food survived through scarcity; the problem is that we are on average living in such caloric abundance that obesity is a huge health risk, but we still crave food. It is like using a computer that hasn’t been updated in 20,000 years that constantly launches an application we have to keep shutting down just to do the most basic daily tasks.Human behavior is what is known as emergent property, a spontaneous appearance of a heretofore unknown function. We have very little idea of how and why human behavior appears, but we can speculate. The brain is made up of neurons, which are highly conductive bioelectrical components wrapped in layers of fat that serve as insulation. On their own, neurons can’t do much of anything, but when billions of them are crammed,

              together inside a skull, fed, kept cozy, and allowed to network, they can produce the human consciousness, culture, and self-awareness. There is a good reason why we say “brain surgery” for anything excessively complex; we use the brain daily but know very little about how it works, why it fails, and how to fix it.How does this relate to AI? Well, machine learning is about giving digital devices the adaptability of a living brain or, to be more specific, of a single neuron that can process individual bits of data and provide some utility to the owner. When these digital neurons are strung together in massive arrays, they exponentially increase each other’s processing power in a way living neurons do. Since we now possess an environment peppered with tiny IoT devices, each of which can process individual bits of data to provide some utility to the owner, we might get a monumental digital brain the size of a continent and a spontaneously emerging AI. What other emergent properties will this kind of digital brain develop? We don’t know, which is for scientists the best possible introduction to,

              let’s find out”.What we do know is that other living beings can organize themselves in intelligent ways to make up for their lack of individual strength. Volvox is a species of freshwater algae that form colonies of up to 50,000 units. Each of them is a separate cell and may survive on its own, but together they move, feed, and reproduce in unison. With hardened cells on the outskirts, primitive eyes that can sense light, and tiny tentacles serving as oars that move the entire colony towards the light, i.e., the power source, Volvox is an example of how a group of simple organisms can work together to create something bigger and more prosperous.Why do algae band together? They don’t have any capability for reasoning or abstract planning but somehow appear to sense power in one another and understand their chance of survival is much higher if they cooperate. We know that lions and hyenas hunt in packs to increase their chances of taking down big game, while birds migrate in massive flocks to easily cut through wind resistance and allow the weakest members to coast along.

              Reply
        2. HE.

          @Anonymous. We have been programmed, conditioned to fear ourselves and the west. Biggest PSYOPS in history, we can make and do things ourselves. Just study Asia; Japan, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Singapore, India…It’s now Africa’s turn, if we do not get rid of those mental blocks and the gate keepers, we will forever be in the dark, literally and figuratively speaking.

          How does $20 for 10Mbps unlimited data for a month sound. Or $10 for 5Mbps or $5 for 1.5Mbps sound?

          I will put a lot of effort and energy into making this a reality because the pipe has already been paid for.

          We will also undertake a big project when the coffers runneth over to have a Submarine cable laid in the Save River basin with a POP in Mozambique. As we grow, this cable will run to India, China and Japan. Those of the African costs can share in our cable ZimX and will pay us for it’s use so we can receive return on investment faster, and goodwill from our African brothers and sisters because we use the SPQR concept in selling. Small profit, quick returns.

          #TheRiseofKobr∆

          Reply
      2. CitizenX

        I have an idea HE.

        What if out Telcos came together and had a data center, that’s host local websites, zero rated. These will be schools, hospitals, civil organisations, tech blogs, entertainment, education, DIY, HowTos, Cities and Towns, streaming, torrent mirrors, shareware mirrows.

        There would be no need to break out to the international internet saving on cost, faster because the data doesn’t breakout to the public internet, it would be our own LAN party.

        Reply
        1. HE.

          Great idea. My friends can call me ‘Dzidzai’ 😉

          Reply
        2. Alderman

          Build it yourself. There’s a country with that sort of thing run by street boys.

          Reply
  8. beryl bruse

    It’s incredible! We can really benefit from your excellent and helpful post! We really appreciate you taking the time to share with us. Have a great time and enjoy yourselves with uno online free.

    Reply
  9. Cook Cpt. Lovejoy, Ecology Corps

    Food Standards Australia and New Zealand require that all wheat-flour that’s used to make bread have folic acid (vitamin B9) added. This gives us a reliable source of the vitamin in our diets. Breadmakers will often add other B vitamins, or vitamin E or other minerals, to their bread as well.

    Reply
    1. Sausage Eater

      Food tech is also tech😜

      “Much like us, microbes don’t like drinking straight vinegar – the lower the pH, the fewer that survive. This is why you see vinegar on a lot of bread package labels.”

      Now for the Sausage. Must be at least 50%, please do not cheat the customer by adding meat that has 50%, making the overall sausage 25% meat. 50% 50% at least up to of this, no more than 25% Meat Fat Other fats, starches like rice or wheat flour, salts, various flavours and preservatives The sausage casing is often formed from collagen, the most abundant protein in mammals, which is comprised of three long, rope-like proteins twisting together in a helix.
      The resulting fibre makes for strong and flexible connective tissue.

      Reply
      1. Sausage Eater

        *Meat that has 50% Fat is not 50%meat but 25% meat.

        Reply
      2. Cook Cpt. Lovejoy, Ecology Corps

        ambiguous meat of any description – but Australia has some of the strictest food regulations in the world. Food Standards Australia and New Zealand has rules about what’s allowed to call itself a sausage.
        A sausage must be at least 50% meat – or 500 grams per kilogram, to be precise.
        The other 50% can be whatever improves the f l avour of the sausage. Fats, starches like rice or wheat f l our, salts, various f l avours and preservatives are all common.
        Manufacturers also need to specify the meat content of a sausage. The packaging, or the butcher, should always be able to tell you about the amount of meat in the snag – even in the cheapest ones, it often goes well above that bottom line to numbers around 75%.
        But there’s an added complication. That meat content doesn’t haveto belean:infact, it can be 50% fat itself. So theoretically, the sausageyoubuycouldbeonlyhalfmeat,half of which is fat.
        Manufacturers don’t need to specify how much fat is in the meaty part of their sausage, but they do have to explain how muchfatisinthesausageintotal.Soyoucan get a read of the fattiness of a sausage when you buy it, too.
        If you’re squeamish about eating other bits of the animal, you don’t need to worry too much in Australia. Anything that has of f al (things like brain, heart, kidney, liver, …etc) has to be labeled as such.

        The science of the sausage sizzle

        Reply

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