The 100x Challenge: Compression-First Research Pipeline for Bandwidth-Constrained Regions

Rather than treating limited computing infrastructure as an obstacle, this program treats it as a design constraint worth building around. Researchers across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Ethiopia will learn to compress AI models to run on basic smartphones and low-cost hardware, then apply those skills in small research teams tackling problems in medical imaging, agriculture, and efficient ML theory, with mentorship from Stanford, Oxford, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University guiding teams toward publication-ready work.