Hardware Things: Back to regular programming
Hello there.
It's good to be back.
There are a number of new subscribers, thanks for joining! This newsletter is primarily to share interesting links from the hardware product development space in Africa. Occasionally, I veer off on tangents - please forgive me in advance.
Things I enjoyed seeing
Still on tomatoes, there's a great documentary on the global tomato market on Vimeo. It covers everything from Gino - the italian company - leasing their tech to Chinese manufacturers to reduce cost, how that tech transfer has led to China's rise in the market, how those companies are now setting up in West African countries (such as Ghana) that have the highest tomato consumers in the world - killing local companies in the process. So it was interesting to read that Tomato Jos - a Nigerian tomato processing company - raised $4.2m in May to improve their processing capacity. The next decade could be very interesting.
Large scale solar energy adoption is still far off on the continent, but it has been mostly seen as endeavor to be supported by some kind of public-private partnership (as has been the case with Rensource). In June, the 'world's largest renewable energy services contract' got awarded by EFFORT Group, a conglomerate of factories mainly based in Ethiopia - all private. It's a $3bn deal that includes solar power, waste-to-energy and storage.
Sidenote: The EFFORT Group has an interesting history. It was set up in order to rehabilitate the Tigray Region after the Ethiopian Civil War and famine of 1983-1985. More, but not much, here.
Interesting things
Locha: send text and audio without cell service or internet. Venezuela
WiPo: wireless charging landing pads for drones. South Africa
Ina Lite: a portable thermoelectric generator for offgrid, rural homes. Nigeria
Elemental Numerics: multiphysics CFD software. South Africa
Company spotlight
Cerebral malaria is the form of severe and complicated malaria with the worst neurological symptoms, it affects the brain and mental state of the infected person. It is also quite difficult to detect, as it can become fatal within 72 hours but initially presents symptoms similar to 'normal' Malaria.
Microfuse Technologies is developing Cipher, a smartphone-based ocular malaria diagnostic tool - a method that's considered to be effective for diagnosing cerebral malaria. Using a proprietary ophthalmoscope powered by lighting from a phone's camera, the device can capture retina images that the app then analyzes for a diagnosis.
A tweet you might have missed
https://twitter.com/BenKrasnow/status/1251262459517665281?s=20
Hope you're doing very well, especially at this time.
I've found solace in online courses. I'm currently auditing the Fundamentals of Manufacturing Processes course on edX. A nice refresher on manufacturing processes, even though I've got a fifth-edition Kalpakjian & Schmid somewhere in my apartment.
Other than courses, I've also written a feature on @Quoted Replies for Rest of World.
If you've enjoyed this consider supporting Hardware Things, thank you!
Chuma.