The TekZone Leadership Development Program is entering its second year in 2021. Participants in the first year achieved tangible results in areas such as communication, presentation, personal finance and business management. One participant, the owner of Chocolaterie NOHI in Douala Cameroon achieved 38% growth during the pandemic thanks to a campaign developed through the program. Here is what he said about these results:
We developed a Social media campaign that reached 1032 people with a 60% conversion rate resulting is 38% growth during the pandemic shutdown period.
Hippolyte N.
While business results such as the one above are example of the outcome of the program, our focus goes beyond business growth. We focus on the whole person, crafting a highly personalized development program that will make each participant a strong leader for Africa. We use a combination of lectures, books, mentorship, hands-on and workshops over a period of 12 to 24 months.
In his own words, here are other skills, abilities and knowledge acquired by Hippolyte during the first 12 months:
I learned personal finance management skills (budget, etc.) which resulted in 17% monthly savings.
I’ve become a reader now reading on average 1 book a month and adding to my knowledge.
Worked with my mentor on the WHY of “ChocoNohi” leading to a clearer strategy and reduced attrition.
Created an advisory board. A member of the board recently introduced me as a young aspiring entrepreneur to the GICAM
I learned so much more that it’s difficult to put in numbers. This includes leadership courses work from the program, from the programs inscription to LinkedIn Learning.
It’s no secret that machines can now detect and measure and study our emotions from parsing text. One of ways this is achieved is through sentiment analysis. Just ask Siri, Google or Alexa. Here is how Wikipedia defines sentiment analysis: “Sentiment analysis (also known as opinion mining or emotion AI) refers to the use of natural language processing, text analysis, computational linguistics, and biometrics to systematically identify, extract, quantify, and study affective states and subjective information. Sentiment analysis is widely applied to voice of the customer materials such as reviews and survey responses, online and social media, and healthcare materials for applications that range from marketing to customer service to clinical medicine.” – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentiment_analysis
With the surge of social media platform, sentiment analysis has really gained in popularity with businesses. Imagine for example being able to comb through comments on a product page, a Facebook page or a YouTube video and understanding if the comments are positive, neutral or negative. Imagine being able to identify within the comments which aspects people view as positive or negative. Equipped with this information, businesses can make improvement. Pre-Natural Text Analysis with machine learning, this would have hours of reading and categorizing by people. Now, a computer program can quickly comb through the text and within a few minutes, output the result. That’s the true power behind sentiment analysis.
How does Python do sentiment analysis?
We have released a series of Python courses to help young people pick up this much needed skill. If you have completed our Python 101, that’s enough skill to do what we are about to show you here. Don’t be intimidated. But first, let’s understand how sentiment analysis works.
For this code, we will use the TextBlob Python module. You can learn about this module here: https://textblob.readthedocs.io/en/dev/index.html. This module has abstracted a lot of the hard work so you can do sentiment analysis with just a couple lines of code. For sentiment, this module outputs 2 values:
Polarity: this is a number between -1.0 and 1.0 which indicates on a scale whether the text expresses a negative sentiment (negative number) or a positive sentiment (positive number). The closer the number is to -1.0 or 1.0, the more negative or positive the text is respectively.
Subjectivity: this is a number between 0.0 and 1.0 where 0.0 is very objective (facts) and 1.0 is very subjective (opinion)
Write your first sentiment analysis in Python
Your ready? Here is the code:
from textblob import TextBlob
text = "I have been taking some Python courses at TekZone Academy and I really like it"
blob = TextBlob(text)
print(blob.sentiment)
#output should give you something like: "Sentiment(polarity=0.2, subjectivity=0.2)"
If you get some errors, just make sure the textblob module is installed. You can easily do this by typing the command “pip3 install textblob” or “pip install textblob.” That’s it. You can play around with various text and see how the output changes. You can explore more functionality of the TextBlob by reading the page provided above.
Now you can start analysis emails and text from your friends. In a future post, we will look at how to use another nice plugin to automatically grab text from web pages. Those two modules combined can be quite powerful.
Nervis Receives his price the Minister Mme Minette LIBOM Li
After nearly a year in the TekZone Leadership Development Program, Nervis Nzometia won 1st place and took home the 10 million Fcfa prize money with his project E-Waste 3D Printer. Built with repurposed material such as DVD player motors, plywood and other recycled electronics components, the 3D printer uses the same type of filaments used by other commercial 3D printers. On the software side, Nervis leverages open source architecture making the device robust while maintaining costs low.
Originally designed and built as the project for his final year of engineering school, this device is an ideal candidate for Cameroon’s newly established ICT Innovation Week (ICT stands for Information and Communications Technology). This innovation-driven competition is organized annually since 2019 by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MINPOSTEL) of Cameroon to boost the development of ICT-driven business projects initiated by youths. 2020’s edition of the ICT Innovation Week Had as theme of focus, “Young Cameroonians amidst the challenges of ICT Innovation in a context of health crisis”. The competition aims at providing long-term support for the emergence of a mature and sound digital ecosystem in Cameroon.
This win is a major victory for Nervis who faced multiple odds. With his mother as the sole provider having suffered hardship due to unrest in the region, Nervis had very limited access to the resources. Despite this challenging situation, Nervis persevered not only to bring this device to life, but also by contributing to his community. One of his main goals is to introduce as many kids as he can to robotics.
This article has an English translation appended below
La population de Douala aura bientôt accès à une formation en robotique particulière délivrée par la startup Master of Art 64 ou MA64. Ulrich Emabou, l’un des fondateurs de MA64 nous fait savoir que startup a pour objectif premier de “conquérir le marché du numérique et d’en être les leaders en Afrique” dans le domaine de la formation et la maîtrise. Pour ce faire, la startup utilise une méthode d’apprentissage mixte combinant la théorie et la pratique pour accomplir des tâches très précises. La vidéo ci-dessous montre un exemple à travers un drone pouvant naviguer de manière autonome son environnement et accomplir des tâches.
Drone Autonome controlle par l’intelligence artificielle
Les expériences de Ulrich dans sa formation académiques et les diverses stages académiques ont exposé les limites du système éducatif au Cameroun principalement dans le domaine du numérique. Comme il l’explique ci-dessous, beaucoup d’ingénieurs sont réduits aux tâches généralement réservées à des techniciens non-ingénieurs dans d’autres pays. Avec des formations en majorité théoriques et pas adaptées aux attentes de l’industrie, la plupart des entreprises préfèrent porter leur confiance aux ingénieurs d’ailleurs. Face a cette situation, Ulrich s’est lancé en autodidacte et a acquis en 3 mois les connaissances équivalentes a 2 ans d’études dans son établissement local. C’est pour cette raison qu’il s’est associé à d’autre jeunes enthousiastes tels que le fondateur de LabRED pour lancer le project MA64.
“Au niveau 4 j’ai eu à effectuer un stage ou je me rendais alors pour apprendre l’automatique dans une sociétée d’ascenseurs. Je me suis rendu compte qu’en fait rien n’est fabriqué mais que tout le dispositif était importé. Le personnel travaillant dans cet entreprise n’avait aucune orientation dans le design comme je m’attendais. Ils se contentaient de manœuvrer lors du montage. Au niveau 5, j’étais dans une autre entreprise qui était meilleure mais nous manquions cruellement de savoir pratique à l’école. C’est la que j’ai compris que les diplômes de l’ecole doivent être supplémentées par des connaissances pratiques que chaque personne peut acquérir en accéléré. C’est pour cette raison que nous nous sommes lancé dans la formation.“
Ulrich Emabou
Depuis son lancement, MA64 a déjà déployé 2 modules très pratiques axés sur la modélisation et la programmation. Utilisant la plateforme TekZone Academy et les outils disponible en location sur place tels que des kits EV3 de LEGO, MA64 est capable de déployer ces cours à des prix très abordables pour la population locale. Les deux vidéos ci-dessous sont des extraits du cours. La première est une vidéo directement délivrée dans le cours a travers la plateforme TekZone Academy et la deuxième est une interrogation en direct à travers une vidéo conférence.
Extrait du coursExtrait d’une interro en live
Cette initiative de MA64 est à saluer et rentre en ligne avec notre vision a TekZone de faciliter l’accès à la technologie avec pour objectif de résoudre les problèmes locaux localement. Tu peux bénéficier de cette formation en contactant M464 au +237 673 66 49 48 our par email a contact@themasterofarts.com.
English Version
The population of Douala will soon have access to special robotics training delivered by the startup Master of Art 64 or MA64. Ulrich Emabou, one of the founders of MA64, lets us know that the startup’s primary objective is to “conquer the digital market and be the leaders in Africa” in the field of training and mastery. To do this, the startup uses a blended learning method combining theory and practice to accomplish very specific tasks. The video below shows an example through a drone that can autonomously navigate its environment and accomplish tasks.
Ulrich’s experiences in his academic training and the various academic internships exposed the limits of the education system in Cameroon mainly in the digital field. As he explains below, many engineers are reduced to tasks typically reserved for non-engineer technicians in other countries. With training mainly theoretical and not adapted to the expectations of the industry, most companies prefer to put their trust in engineers elsewhere. Faced with this situation, Ulrich embarked on the autodidact where he acquired in 3 months the knowledge equivalent to 2 years of studies in his local establishment. It is for this reason that he joined forces with other young enthusiasts such as the founder of LabRED to launch the MA64 project.
At level 4 I had to do an internship where I would then go to learn automatic control in a company of elevators. I realized that in fact nothing is manufactured but that the whole device was imported. The staff working in this company had no orientation in design as I expected. They were content to maneuver during assembly. At level 5, I was in another company which was better but we were sorely lacking in practical knowledge at school. It was there that I understood that the school’s diplomas must be supplemented by practical knowledge that each person can acquire quickly. It is for this reason that we embarked on training.
Since its launch, MA64 has already deployed 2 very practical modules focused on modeling and programming. Using the TekZone Academy platform and locally available rental tools such as EV3 kits from LEGO, MA64 is able to deploy these courses at very affordable prices for the local population. The two videos below are excerpts from the course. The first is a video delivered directly in the course through the TekZone Academy platform and the second is a live questioning through a video conference.
This initiative of MA64 is to be welcomed and is in line with our vision at TekZone to facilitate access to technology with the aim of solving local problems locally. You can benefit from this training by contacting M464 at +237 673 66 49 48 or by email at contact@themasterofarts.com.
We started TekZone Academy to deliver rich content to young Africans in urban and rural areas. But we are also aware that the Internet is not always available. When it is, it might not be as reliable. To help with this challenge, we have designed TekZone Academy so that you can connect, download your courses to your phone or tablet, then go through the course offline including taking the quizzes. The next time you connect to the Internet, it will synchronize with your account.
To get started with your mobile app, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Install the Moodle app from the play store. See the screenshot below.
Step 2: Connect the app to TekZone Academy. When you open the app, it will ask you for the URL to the web site. put it www.tek.zone/academy
Step 3: Login to the App. When the app connects successfully to the TekZone Academy platform, you’ll see the logo and name appear. You will also be prompted to login. Put in your username and password and click “Log In”
Step 4: You’re all done. If you followed these steps, you should now be logged in to the app (see image below). You will only be asked to login this once. The next time you launch the app, it will directly open in your dashboard.
Watch the video below to see how easy it is to interact with the application.
