‘The Rovers’ has emerged as the top app in the NASA Space Apps Challenge held in 76 cities around the world including Nairobi, where a hackathon style event was held in both the iHub and m:lab incubation centres.
The winning app enables students to easily control robots and their chipsets.
In second place was ‘Simiyu the Chicken’, is a game where players learn various theories on the existence and the future of the earth. The game is seen as a Kenyan version of the popular Angry Birds.
Second runner up was ‘55 Ctrix’, a wearable LED display that carries some basic information about the unique qualities of the planet 55 cancri.
The challenge focused on technological development in software and hardware, citizen science and data visualisation using mobile phones to help distribute NASA’s information libraries to citizens.
It is open to talented developers from various fields including engineers, scientists, designers, artists, students and entrepreneurs. 11 entries reached the finals, namely MySpace cal, Roost Manager, 55 Ctrix, The Rovers, Simiyu the Chicken, Elusive Giants, Mwewe, Mars Rovers Coders, Will I Reach, Mission Light Years and Nasa Heartz.
The winning projects each got a Samsung Galaxy SIII and a silver Github membership lasting for a year.
