25-year-old Kenyan engineer Elly Savatia won the £50,000 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation in the UK for creating Terp 360, an AI-powered app that uses 3D avatars to translate speech and text into sign language, bridging communication gaps for the deaf community across Africa.
A 25-year-old Kenyan engineer, Elly Savatia, has made Africa proud after defeating 16 international finalists to win the £50,000 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, presented by the Royal Academy of Engineering in the United Kingdom.
His winning invention, Terp 360, is an AI-powered application that translates speech and text into sign language through 3D avatars—bridging the communication gap between the deaf and hearing communities across Africa.
The Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation honors exceptional engineering solutions that address real-world challenges with sustainability and impact.
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Elly’s Journey: From Curious Kid to Global Innovator
Born in Western Kenya in 2000, Elly’s passion for technology began at an early age. Known for dismantling radios and clocks just to understand how they worked, his curiosity quickly grew into creativity.
By age 12, he built a windmill that tracked wind direction, and by 13, he designed a robotic staircase that flattened into a ramp, inspired by a classmate with a mobility challenge.
“I’ve always believed technology should serve people—not just impress them,” he said.
This philosophy became the foundation of his mission: creating inclusive technologies that empower people with disabilities.
The Innovation: Terp 360
Elly’s breakthrough, Terp 360, was inspired by the lack of sign language interpreters across Africa. Many deaf individuals in Kenya face barriers to education, healthcare, and employment simply because interpreters are scarce.
“Companies can’t always afford interpreters, and most don’t have the tools to integrate deaf people. We wanted to make communication inclusive and affordable,” Elly explained.
He co-founded Signvrse, a Nairobi-based startup focused on AI-powered assistive technologies, where he now serves as CEO. Their flagship product, Terp 360, functions like a “Google Translate for Sign Language.”
Using a dataset of over 2,300 locally recorded signs, the app’s 3D avatars translate real-time speech into Kenyan Sign Language (KSL), ensuring cultural and linguistic accuracy.
Currently, Terp 360 supports English and Swahili-to-KSL translations, with plans to include Rwandan, Ugandan, South African, British, and American Sign Languages by 2027.
“This award is not just about me—it’s a statement of Africa’s growing power in global tech innovation,” said Elly. “I’m honored to represent a continent full of talent and vision.”
The £50,000 prize will be used to expand the project across education, healthcare, and corporate sectors, helping institutions better serve deaf and hard-of-hearing populations.
Learning by Doing: Elly’s Unconventional Education
Although Elly didn’t follow a traditional academic path, his education was shaped by hackathons, innovation challenges, and hands-on problem solving.
His achievements include:
- 2024 Mandela Washington Fellowship
- Presidential Innovation Award (Kenya)
- Commonwealth Secretary-General’s Innovation Award
- UNICEF Generation Unlimited Innovation Challenge Winner
- Kenyan Drone Business Competition Winner (2022)
These experiences helped him refine both technical and leadership skills—key to building Signvrse’s mission of inclusive technology for Africa.
Inspiring the Next Generation
Beyond his company, Elly founded Innovate 4 SDGs, a nonprofit organization that trains young Africans on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and promotes technology-driven social impact.
His vision is clear: to make assistive innovation mainstream and to empower Africa’s youth to create technologies that solve local challenges.
“We see ourselves as enablers,” Elly said. “Terp 360 isn’t just a product—it’s proof that inclusion is possible, and that Africa can lead the world in doing it differently.”
SOURCES: ALLSCHOOL, SCHOLARSHIP REGION
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