President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday recognized innovative youth as an inspiration for young Kenyans during this year's Mashujaa Day celebrations.
The head of state in his speech at the Gusii Stadium honoured two engineering students from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).
The students, Michael Mwaisakenyi and Ken Gicira created an automated weeding robot to help farmers do away with the use of herbicides in crop production.
Their innovation embraces the use of artificial intelligence to identify weeds from among crops while using a robotic arm tilling crop rows.
The machine pulls the plough-like weeding tool across the farm ploughing weeds out of a farm as it passes through crop rows.
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"This innovation emerged winner o the 2020 Imagine Cup, beating teams from across nine European, Middle Eastern and African Countries.
"The innovation is scheduled for presentation at the Imagine World Championship in Seattle, Washington State," stated President Kenyatta.
President Kenyatta also identified one Roy Allela, a Microprocessing Technology graduate from the Univerisity of Nairobi, recognizing his innovation.
The 25-year-old Allela innovated a unique glove enabling him to communicate with his 6-year-old deaf niece.
He created smart gloves that have flex sensors that help a deaf wearer, communicate and vocalize messages to a mobile phone through Bluetooth.
These gloves are made to be customized to any client's specifications and have 93% accuracy of vocalizing messaged.
"By solving the problem of his 6-year-old niece, Roy has created a solution that will help thousands of deaf people globally.
"The innovation has worn Hardware Trailblazer Award by American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Roy was also second runner-up for the Royal Academy of Engineering Leaders in Innovation," stated the President.
He appealed to Kenyan youth to find problems and solve them.
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