Guest Post by Anthony Wainaina (@kawgwheelz)
Along with celebrating the Android Kit Kat OS upgrade, I’d earlier told you on a blog post that would have an event at Outbox in Uganda.
Well, Intel East Africa @inteleastafrica did indeed hold an Intel Developer Zone #CodeFest at the Outbox hub in Kampala, Uganda. The Intel Codefest is a series of events designed to keep developer senses busy with hands-on technical sessions, debugging and testing, hacking and a generous sprinkle of fun.
The first morning session saw developers involved in a training session on Intel® XDK NEW development system which is designed for developers who want to use their HTML5 expertise to build hybrid HTML5 apps for mobile devices, like phones and tablets that have Intel inside, and other platforms that host HTML5 web apps (such as a Google Chrome extension or a mobile web site which is slowly becoming the norm globally).
The 2nd morning session saw the developers get training for using the Android NDK for Intel Architecture. For Intel® architecture-based Android* platforms, the NDK is a very useful complement to the SDK. It enables the re-usability and under some circumstance increases the performance of the core on which the app is running. With these fundamental goals, the NDK provides a set of tools to build, integrate, test, and debug the native source code embedded in the application. On the other hand, the NDK also increases the coding complexity.
The afternoon session was a developer competition where devs got a chance to develop outstanding apps by using either the Intel XDK or the Android NDK for Intel Architecture.
The grand prize up for grabs was a brand new Acer Ionia two-in-one tablet courtesy of Intel East Africa.
Some of the apps that were developed include:
- My Accounts – a business sales, receipts and reports application.
- Kampala Nightlife – an application that shows hangout destinations in Kampala
- Bitcoin Logs – an application that keeps track of Bitcoin transactions.
- Kubala Ebira – A counting game that teaches children how to count in the Luganda language.
- MamaPhone – An application that provides pregnancy information on different types of pregnancies and defects.
- Buddy – An application that enables users send text messages for free.
- Diamedic – An application that diagnoses blood pressure and diabetes and follows up on patients’ records.
- Kyabaki Notes – An application that enables a user to record notes and voice notes during a meeting.
After the coding sessions, the different pitches were made and Noah Kange, with his Kubala Ebira app, emerged the winner and was awarded the Acer Iconia tablet by Intel East Africa’s Frederick Odhiambo.
There was a separate tweet reach competition under the hashtags #IntelInUganda and #IntelAndroid. The top tweet came from, Mark Lubega (@grandlubs) got to walk away with a Motorola Razr i device courtesy of @IntelEastAfrica.
Intel plans to hold future codefests to empower the developers in Uganda and all over East Africa.
The Intel Codefest Kampala was run by Frederick Odhiambo (@fredryckomondi) from Intel East Africa and Frank Tamre (@tamrefrank), an experienced Ui and Ux developer who develops for a wide range of Intel devices.
