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Digital Planet: 4Afrika Scholarship

Factual: Science & Nature

Students hang out on their college compound in Africa

13/08/2013

4Afrika Scholarship

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, 4Afrika Scholarship

Microsoft launches its 4Afrika Scholarship scheme for a thousand African students

Microsoft launches its 4Afrika Scholarship scheme for a thousand African students. Plus, the train app to end French commuter misery. And, how to keep track of 3D printed objects.

The launch of Microsoft’s 4Afrika Scholarship scheme will offer 1000 African students online university tuition and mentoring. With it comes the possibility of future jobs and internships. Click talks to Patrick Onwumere, director of Youth Enablement for Microsoft 4Afrika based in Lagos, Nigeria, about whether the scheme is simply altruistic, an example of enlightened self-interest, or both.

Tranquilien: SNCF
Tranquilien is a new app that has recently been launched in Paris with the aim of alleviating the suffering of its commuters. The national railway, SNCF, has collaborated with Rand Hindi’s company, Snips, to produce the app that can alert the three million daily commuters about overcrowded trains or delays. Colin Grant reports from Paris on the app that aims to take the strain out of commuting and make travelling to work and back more tranquil.

InfraStructs: 3D Printing   
A new type of tag (barcode/RFID) has been developed that can be fabricated inside of an object using standard 3D printers. The technology uses THz Imaging, this is related to (but not the same as) the millimetre wave body scanners used in airports, to see inside of the object and decode the embedded information. The long term use is to make machine-readable 3D printed objects. In the short term there is a huge need for ways to track 3D printed inventory. Researcher, Karl DD Willis joins Click to discuss how this technology could greatly simplify the logistics of tracking thousands of near-identical 3D printed objects.

(Photo: Students hang out on their college compound in Africa. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

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