Update: We did it. An Ethiopian solo-dev just won the Global AWS Innovation Award out of 10,000 teams. 🇪🇹🏆
Hey r/Ethiopia,
A few weeks ago, I posted here asking for your help when my project, Ivy, made the AWS Global Finals.
Today, I can officially share the result: We won.
Out of 10,000+ international submissions, the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Principal Engineering panel officially awarded Ivy the Global Innovation Award.
For those who missed the first post: Ivy is an AI tutoring agent that runs entirely offline on cheap $80 Android phones. It uses a 1-bit quantized LLM to bypass our internet blackouts, proactively calling students to deliver personalized education in Amharic without needing a single byte of data.
I built the architecture on an overheating 8GB laptop, and because of this community’s support, we trended #1 Globally on Amazon's platform for 5 days straight. (This is also my second major Amazon win this month, having just won the global Amazon Nova Hackathon out of 14,000 entries).
What’s next for Ivy:
- Enterprise Pilot: We are currently entering deployment discussions with St. Paul's Hospital to assist medical students on rural clinical rotations.
- Global Press: We are recording features with BBC World Service (Tech Life) and DW this week.
- Global Showcase: The architecture will be showcased at AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas (60k attendees).
I am currently transitioning this from a hackathon project into a scalable enterprise company. If you are an investor (pre-seed/grants), an EdTech/Health-tech operator, or if you have strategic pathways regarding international tech hubs (UK/US Visas), my DMs are open.
Let's build.
LinkedIn for professional connections: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natnael-getenew/
Also on Instagram: natnaelgzeleke
