With the need for innovation at an all-time high, a whole new generation of entrepreneurs exists, a group willing to dive head first into the marketplace and create products that invent, inspire and give back.

And there’s so much scope for entrepreneurs in Africa.

Of course, well-known inventions include Q20 and the CAT Scan, but what has come to light this past year?

Let’s take a look at some of the most interesting, from Afrika News:

Mamaope

Ugandan engineer Brian Turyabagye was pushed to create a biochemical smart jacket that delivers a diagnosis of pneumonia following the death of his friend’s grandmother of pneumonia. Every year nearly half a million children die from the infection and Turyabagye has worked hard to change that.

Lumkani

Cape Town University student Francois Petousis developed a solution for fire detection and, along with five co-founders, created Lumkani, a networked heat-detector adapted for townships:

Lumkani, which stands for “be careful” in Xhosa, is a small box that detects temperature rise. The alarm is triggered, once the device detects a sign of a fire related heat.

The different Lumkani devices are wirelessly connected to each other through radio frequency within a 60-meter radius, and are all triggered, once fire is detected.

The Cardiopad

Coming out of Cameroon, engineer Arthur Zang developed a touch screen medical tablet to perform cardiac tests for those living in distant areas. The cardiopad can be used remotely since results can be sent to specialists for interpretation, diagnosis and treatment.

Drilby

Simple and easy, Drilby is an ingenious fuss-free, dust-free, easy-to-use drill guide that is a must for every toolbox. A 100% South African product, it was designed, developed and produced by three South Africans, two brothers and a friend and is available for purchase online here.

R99, why not?

The malaria urine test

Thanks to biochemist Eddy Agbo, malaria testing will now use urine rather than blood. Dr. Agbo explained that:

Urine is acidic sample, usually when a protein is present in an acidic environment, it unravels, it becomes difficult to detect by conventional approach, so we had to re-engineer the tool so as to be able to fish it out be it even in that unconventional state.

Diagnosed in less than 25 minutes, the test can be easily used at home.

And that’s where we are at.

If you have an idea, get on it and you never know, you could make it onto this list next year.

[source: afrikanews]