Texpo 25 Hackathon Finalists Announced

The organisers of Texpo 25 are pleased to announce the teams selected to participate in this year’s Hackathon.

The calibre of the entries to the Texpo Hackathon this year has been particularly impressive. These eight (8) teams have qualified with exceptional solutions and presentations.

The preselection team took on the difficult task of scoring the teams over the weekend.

They used a pre-designed rubric that took into account Innovation, feasibility, technical execution, potential impact and presentation quality to score the teams and used the final scores to rate the teams that made it through to the Hackathon.

The rubric was designed in such a way that the creativity, potential business application and Technical feasibility of the solutions were the important aspects used to rate the proposed solutions.

Hackathon Challenges
Teams will be working on four innovative challenges:

• MoCap4All (3 teams)
• TuneTrack (3 teams)
• CrowdBeats (1 team)
• Echoes of Africa (1 team)

 The winning team will be taken on a Technology Immersion trip to Cape Town, South Africa.

The Hackathon will take place during Texpo25 from 21-25 April 2025 at the Zimbabwe Academy of Music in Bulawayo.

The final presentations and prize giving for the Hackathon will take place on Thursday 24 April 2025.

Technology Expo (TeXpo) is a showcase of contemporary and emerging technologies.

TeXpo creates a platform for technology stakeholders, educators, and students to share experiences, learn about, and experience the technologies that are transforming life today and re-defining the future.

It brings together technology experts from across sectors to showcase the utility of technologies that are impacting the way we live and work.

In Zimbabwe’s vibrant music industry, artists like Tendai “TeeJay” Nyandoro and Ruvimbo “RuviBeats” Moyo struggle to receive fair royalties for their work. FM stations, online streaming platforms, and bars play their songs, but without an automated tracking system, these artists lack proof of airplay.

Royalties are lost, disputes arise, and many broadcasters underreport usage, either unintentionally or deliberately.

The Challenge:

Design a low-cost, Raspberry Pi-based solution that can:

1. Listen & Recognize – Capture and identify songs playing on FM radio and online streams using audio fingerprinting.
2. Timestamp & Log – Record the date, time, station, and frequency each time a song plays.
3. Automate Reporting – Generate a quarterly statement of airplay and send it to the Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (ZIMURA) and respective stations.

Constraints:

• Use Raspberry Pi 4, Pico, and other affordable components.
• Work in environments with low internet connectivity and still store offline logs.
• Ensure tamper-proof and auditable data logging.