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Nigeria, Best Place to Plant Seeds for Next Wave of African Entrepreneurs -Russ Fisher-Ives

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By Chukwuemeka fred agbata

Any nation that wishes to advance technologically and play big, in the games of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, AI, must invest significantly in Education and make it possible for more students to take up Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, STEM, subjects.

This is exactly what Russ Fisher-Ives, Co-Founder and his fellow Co-Founders are doing, with RoboRaves International. I recently had a chat with Russ on his thoughts on the future of Robotics in Africa.

Russ stated that, Robotics brings technology for the 21st Century. “As we move to make our machines smaller, so, they run more efficiently, they use resources better. We start to take our old machines and we start to bring in computer coding, micro-processors, so, our old machines become smart machines”, he stressed. This, he said is done, by understanding sensors, how to code and how to write the instructions. He explained that, after getting your instructions in, you then, find out whether it does what you want.

Russ stated that, talking about coding, the idea is to engage kids with Robotics, so that, they can get excited. “They take a little bit of knowledge and they get all excited to do something with it and ask to be taught more”, he emphasized.

On why Robotics in Nigeria, Russ is of the opinion that, this is because, Nigeria is the fastest growing country on the African continent and has a very huge young population and it has got the opportunities to bring skills for employment. “And when you plant the seeds in the minds of curious kids, not the adults, although we need the adults, but the curiosity in kids, then,  you have gardens full of ideas”, he stressed. He opined that, with this, Nigeria is the best place to plant the seeds for the next wave of entrepreneurs for Africa.

He stated that, the very first RoboRave was in 2001, carried out with 25 High School kids and it has expanded now to many other countries. On the funding of the RoboRave initiative, Russ stated that the project gets funding from registration and from different events that it carries out and donations from companies and Foundations. He emphasized that RoboRaves is constantly looking for resources. He gave the example of SONY, an international company, that has just signed for sponsorship of RoboRave in China.

Russ is of the opinion that, RoboRave is capable of improving the number of women in technology. He explained the strategy being used at RoboRave in getting the female gender to participate in the early years of RoboRave. He, however, emphasized that, it is not about bringing the girls alone, rather, it is about valuing what they do and listening to what they know. “You can’t stop passion. It’s a fire that burns”, he stressed.

On the reach of RoboRave, Russ stated that it has been able to reach close to about 200,000 kids, so far. He explained that, the Chinese has made RoboRave an official Robotics program for all of China. He stated that China has a lot of kids that play locally, but never come to the full event.

Russ, while demonstrating the workings of a Robot, stated that, it is all about input, processing and output. On the fear that, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics will, eventually, take all the jobs of mankind, Russ is of the opinion that, it is a question with so many dimensions. “The bottom line is that, we are the ones that are coding. We control the information that goes in. The real issue is that, we are now building Robots that are learning from their environment and are writing their own codes”, he stressed.

“So, do we have the possibility of having Robots acquiring more skills than we put into them? Yes”, he declared.

He emphasized that, what we should now be aiming for, is how to effectively control the Robots and how to shut them off. “This is why we need to teach the kids the ethics of Robotics, which is the new challenge that RoboRave is aiming to achieve in 2018”, he concluded.


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Ugo Onwuaso is an ICT enthusiast. He believes technology should be used for general good. He holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the Lagos state University. Dear Reader, Your support matters. But we believe that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. That is why, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and finance and how they affect lives. Our incisive and analytical view of how technology news affects the daily life help individuals and organizations make up their minds. Quality journalism costs money. Today, we're asking that you support us to do more. Kindly support our effort to deliver technology and finance journalism to everyone in the world. Donate as little as N1,000. Bank transfers can be made to: UBA Plc 1017156876 Communication Week Media Ltd

E-Business

Huawei Unveils AI Computing System to Challenge Nvidia’s Flagship Product

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China’s Huawei Technologies unveiled an AI computing system on Saturday that an industry expert said rivals Nvidia’s most advanced product, as the company aims to expand its footprint in the country’s booming AI sector.

Huawei Unveils AI Computing System to Challenge Nvidia’s Flagship Product

The CloudMatrix 384 system made its public debut at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), a three-day event in Shanghai, attracting a large crowd to Huawei’s booth with its showcase of cutting-edge AI innovations.

The system has attracted significant interest from the global AI community since Huawei (HWT.UL) first introduced it in April. Industry analysts see it as a direct challenger to Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72, the most advanced system-level offering currently available from the U.S. chipmaker.

In an April article, Dylan Patel, founder of semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis, stated that Huawei now possesses AI system capabilities that could surpass those of Nvidia.

Huawei staff at its WAIC booth declined to comment when asked to introduce the CloudMatrix 384 system.

A spokesperson for Huawei did not respond to questions.

Huawei has become widely regarded as China’s most promising domestic supplier of chips essential for AI development, even though the company faces U.S. export restrictions.

Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang told Bloomberg in May that Huawei had been “moving quite fast” and named the CloudMatrix as an example.

The CloudMatrix 384 system features 384 of Huawei’s latest 910C chips and, according to SemiAnalysis, surpasses Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 in certain performance metrics, despite the latter using 72 B200 chips.

SemiAnalysis attributes this performance advantage to Huawei’s strong system design, which offsets the lower power of individual chips by leveraging a greater number of them and incorporating system-level innovations.

Huawei describes the system as utilizing a “supernode” architecture that enables ultra-high-speed interconnectivity between chips.

In June, Zhang Pingan, CEO, Huawei Cloud confirmed that the CloudMatrix 384 was already operational on Huawei’s cloud platform.


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E-Business

Transcorp Hotels Delivers Stellar H1 Results, Declares Over ₦1Bn Dividend

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Transcorp Hotels Plc has delivered a stellar performance in the first half of 2025, recording a 60% year-on-year surge in revenue to ₦47.57 billion, up from ₦29.72 billion in H1 2024. Gross profit climbed 71% to ₦36.21 billion, maintaining a strong 76% margin despite inflation and operational headwinds.

The hospitality giant, a subsidiary of Transnational Corporation Plc, also announced an interim dividend payout of ₦1.024 billion — offering ₦0.10 per 50 kobo ordinary share to shareholders.

In a bold move, the company unveiled Nigeria’s largest corporate venue — the 5,000-seat Transcorp Centre — staking its claim as the new leader in event hospitality. Chairman Emmanuel Nnorom described the results as proof of Transcorp Hotels’ transformative strategies and unwavering investor commitment. MD/CEO Uzo Oshogwe attributed the success to relentless execution and a resilient business model.

Transcorp Hotels, renowned for iconic assets like Transcorp Hilton Abuja and its digital platform Aura, says it isn’t just leading Nigeria’s hospitality sector — it’s redefining excellence across Africa.


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Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

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Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.

Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

 

China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.

The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.

“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.

The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.

It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.

Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.

Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.

Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.

A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.

“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.

Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.

Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.

It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.

Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.

 

 

 


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