The National Youth Innovation Award in ICT 2019 conducted by the National Youth Council of Malawi happens to be the most recent one. 

The award giving ceremony took place at the Bingu International Conference Center where the state president Professor Arthur Peter Muthalika was in attendance.

The competition was meant to recognise the outstanding youth in the business sector. Chimole’s startup Lync Systems with project Lync Energy System was recognized as the winner of National Youth Innovation Award in the ICT Category.  

“Lync Energy system is an Internet of things (IoT)-Based Electrical Power Monitoring System that helps in monitoring power usage, configuring power plans, power saving mode and also enable users to control electrical appliances remotely,” Chimole explained.

Director of Micromek Company Dumisani Kaliati described Yusuf Chimole as a student who takes bold ideas and comes out with projects that are beyond IT and mix with engineering which is very outstanding and extraordinary.

A fellow BIT student Francis Ganya who also worked with Chimole described him as a very hardworking person who does not give up until he gets things done. Chimole has also done some robotics apart from the coding system.

“I am a fan of Open-Source, creative and analytical thinking, electronic systems and programming. I am currently learning IoT concepts and how to implement it. Self-taught and driven, bridging IT and Engineering is my aim. I am a limitless person when it comes to knowledge inquiry. I believe that every knowledge that one encounters, just grab it, it will be used somewhere someday in life.” Chimole explained. 

Other awards he has won are: Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Program 2019 which he won $5000, Dubai Expo 2020 – Creative Youth Program Award 2019 the prize money was $4000.

Lync Energy System won two awards at the ICT Association of Malawi Innovation Awards. It was also recognized as the Overall Best project despite categories. Chimole received a prize of 1 Million Kwacha from Spark Systems.

In addition, Yusuf’s project during the Next Einstein Forum – Africa Science Week, won the NEF – Africa Science Week Award 2018 during the coding challenge.

Lync Energy Sys was also recognized with a silver medal in a Sparks Lab Global Tech Startup Challenge, Malawi Institute of Engineers (MIE) Poly Chapter Award for being the best prototype in the whole.

Finally, Chimole and his project won the First Global Challenge 2017 which was a Robotic competition that took place in Washington DC USA (2017).