InnoTech Lab

The nonprofit Digital Transformation Alliance has launched Innotech Lab, the first high-tech innovation center for technology, industrialization and education in Cameroon, Africa. The aim of InnoTech Lab is to instill an inclusive and sustainable transformation of African society based on an industry and digital technolology. The hope is to achieve this change by creating more access to, understanding of, and experimentation with 3D virtual technologies among young students, teachers, researchers, and their ecosystem. 

New mining sites, investors and young innovators focused on connected health, urban planning, mobility, and smart farming have the potential to usher in an industrial revolution in Africa. However, they lack access to 3D technologies for experimentation as well as educators trained in these technologies that can prepare Africa’s future workforce with the skills it will need.

To develop these skills, volunteers with digital expertise meet regularly with DTA and teachers to ensure that the center is advancing and operating with the correct tools and technology.  In turn, these trained teachers will begin to train a new generation of African engineers to meet local industrial workforce needs.  With the help of this knowledge, InnoTech Lab has already trained five teachers in dedicated workshops. 

Through four hubs, InnoTech Lab will focus on training, development, incubation and acceleration of digital know-how and engineering to build problem-solving skills and jobs, develop new technologies and applications, and create a collective intelligence value chain and center of excellence in areas aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. 

To date, InnoTech Lab has held seminars on innovative learning tools for 60 teachers from the African Institute of Informatics, the Protestant University of Central Africa and hosted a digital farming challenge during the “Digital Transformation Experience & Exhibition (DITREX) – Africa” event.

Despite COVID-19 related challenges, in 2021, InnoTech Lab hopes to begin student training programs, extend its capacity, capabilities and partnerships with industrial and academic organizations, and incubate the two winning groups from the challenge.

Adopted by all United Nations Member States, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. La Fondation Dassault Systèmes supports the InnoTech Lab project and meets three of these goals: Quality education, Industry, innovation and infrastructure, and Partnerships for the goals.