Friday is finals day at Strathmore.

Six teams are one pitch away from Ideas Fest glory at Strathmore University's Research & Innovation Week 2026, and they pitch their water innovations on Friday 13 November.

The six finalists are Flow, ClearFlow, WaterSense AI, ICS, Tide & Seek and MAJI+.

They survived the semifinals from a field of 17 teams, all presenting innovative approaches to water conservation, sustainability and resource management.

The finalists' own presentation materials show what they built. MAJI+ presented a Greywater Recycling System with filtration diagrams and a filter model. ClearFlow pitched business-model economics and a cardboard prototype. One team presented a problem statement citing 60% guesswork in irrigation and 327,000 litres of water wasted per hectare daily. One finalist's pitch deck puts the grand prize at KES 350,000.

The week runs 9–13 November under the banner "One Week. Five Ways to Build", hosted by Strathmore University Research & Innovation and the Strathmore University Business School.

Friday is packed beyond Ideas Fest. The Crucible — ambition meets opportunity, backed by Naivas as headline partner — and the Hult Prize Social Impact Competition both hold their finals on Friday too, alongside The 13th 2.0 roundtables and SMEs fair.

The Odoo Business Challenge ran today, Thursday 12 November.