Deadline: November 16, 2022
Meta announced that applications for the AR/VR Africa Metathon in partnership with Imisi 3D and BlackRhino VR are now open. The AR/VR Africa Metathon is a series of programmes and activations under the Meta global XR fund aimed at supporting African XR talents to build innovative solutions that demonstrate various use cases of the metaverse in Africa.
The AR/VR Metathon will feature three major components including a training program, an Africa-wide hackathon that takes place across 16 countries in Africa physically and opens to everyone virtually, followed by an intensive Bootcamp to further develop solutions. These components will run from Mid-August to April 2023.
The XR Programs and Research Fund is a two-year $50 million investment into programs and external research focused on building the metaverse responsibly. Through this fund, we are collaborating with industry partners, civil rights groups, governments, non-profits, and academic institutions to determine how to build these technologies responsibly.
Eligibility
The 2022 AR/VR Africa Metathon is a planned program of event which comprises three major events:
AR/VR Africa Pre-hackathon Training:
- Participants will be part of a continent-wide community of learners. The online learning community will have access to learning materials, mentors, masterclasses, and workshops. In addition, there will be instructor-led training sessions to increase your knowledge of extended reality technologies and teach you how to build real-world solutions using this technology.
AR/VR Africa Hackathon
- The 2022 AR/VR Africa Hackathon is a hybrid event where you will use your XR skills to create solutions to everyday problems in Africa. You can participate in the Hackathon online in the one-week Virtual Hackathon, or offline in one of the 16 in-person 48hour Hackathons across Africa (Nigeria, South Africa, Mozambique, Egypt, Kenya, Cameroon, Tunisia, Ghana, Rwanda, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Namibia, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia). The online & offline hackathons will take place in November and December 2022 respectively.
AR/VR Africa Bootcamp
- The bootcamp is an intensive 3-month virtual program that will support the 1st place winners of the AR/VR Africa Hackathon to advance their solutions and create MVPs. It culminates in a Demo day where the teams will present to investors.
Timeline:
- Registrations open: August 22nd, 2022
- Training: September 5th to November 20th, 2022 (Instructor-led training, online learning, mentorship sessions, workshops, masterclasses etc.)
- Registration closes: November 16th, 2022
- Online Hackathon: November 21st to 25th, 2022
- In-person Hackathon: December 2nd to 4th, 2022
- AR/VR Africa Bootcamp 2023: January 16th to April 5th, 2023
Application Procedure
All developers, programmers, UI/UX designers, artists, animators, storytellers, professionals, and students interested in participating in the 12weeks training can register for the opportunity to share their innovative work in AR/VR
