Innovation with purpose

Posted on Tuesday, April 14th, 2026

Algonquin College student Olivier Niyonshima competed this past weekend at the Hult Prize Canadian finals at McGill University inOlivier competing at the Hult Prize competition in Montreal Montreal. He advanced to the national stage and described the experience as both valuable and motivating.

The Hult Prize is one of the world’s largest student entrepreneurship competitions. Each year, it challenges young innovators to build social enterprises that address global issues. The winning team receives one million dollars in seed funding to launch or scale their venture. National finalists, like Niyonshima, competed for the chance to represent their country at the global accelerator.

“I am grateful to have made it to the final stage,” he said. “While we did not win at the national level, the feedback we received was very valuable. The judges noted that our venture is strongly focused on addressing challenges in Africa rather than in Canada, which influenced their decision. Overall, the experience was incredibly rewarding.”

At 24, Niyonshima is already working to address one of the world’s most urgent health challenges: antimicrobial resistance. Born and raised in Kigali, Rwanda, he moved to Canada to study Computer Programming and Analysis at Algonquin College. His mission is rooted in personal loss. In 2022, he lost his grandmother to misdiagnosis and a close friend to sepsis caused by antibiotic resistance.

These experiences led him to create Medikal Africa, a clinical intelligence platform that uses machine learning to predict local antibiotic resistance patterns and recommend effective treatments in under 60 seconds. The platform is designed for low resource settings and aims to support doctors with real time, data driven decisions.

Medikal Africa has already gained momentum. The venture is part of the NVIDIA Inception program, is collaborating with the Africa Centres for Disease Control, and is preparing to launch its first hospital pilot in Rwanda.

Because Algonquin College is not yet part of the Hult Prize network, Niyonshima applied independently. After advancing through the preliminary round, he earned a place among 18 teams competing at the national finals hosted at McGill University.

Although he did not advance further, the connections he made with student entrepreneurs, mentors, and potential investors strengthened his commitment to the work ahead.

For Niyonshima, the goal remains the same: strengthen health systems, support better decisions, and save lives.


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