Saifuddin Ahmed Abdelgadir speaking into a microphone

SaifuddinAhmedAbdelgadir

Pronounced Saif-ud-deen Ah-med

Engineer & digital product developer

Kampala, Uganda

Email me Save contact

From a complex problem to a product people depend on. I design and build software and digital systems, and I stay with them after launch.

About

I design and develop software and digital systems, and I turn complex requirements into technical solutions that are usable and built to grow.

My work sits where software engineering, application development and artificial intelligence meet. It spans digital products and enterprise systems, and it reaches into language technology: what it can do for Arabic, its dialects, and the cultures that digital tools still represent poorly.

I care about the whole life of a product: understanding the problem and defining the requirements, then designing, building, testing and evolving the solution. Along the way I document ideas and technical decisions, and share what each project teaches me.

I build software, develop systems, and look for new horizons in technology.

What I do

  • Product engineering, end to end

    For founders and teams whose idea has to hold up in front of users. I take it from discovery and requirements through design, build and testing to a release that can keep evolving, and I document the decisions so no one is left guessing.

    Where it shows: Ishraqa Daily, Kwegatta

  • Mobile and cross-platform apps

    One Flutter codebase for phones and desktop, designed for Arabic and English, right to left and left to right, and taken through store review to people’s hands.

    Where it shows: Ishraqa Daily on Google Play and the Microsoft Store

  • Business systems

    Systems that replace paper and scattered spreadsheets with dependable digital workflows for operations, records, learning and reporting, shaped around how an organisation already works.

    Where it shows: OtwoX Digital Solutions

  • Applied AI and language technology

    AI that earns its place in a product: assistants, automation and agent workflows, and speech and language data for Arabic, its dialects and the languages tools still overlook, built with the people who speak them.

    Where it shows: Birtal Lab, the AI Agents Intensive with Google and Kaggle

Selected work

Ishraqa Daily

App · I designed and built it

Problem
Good reading rarely survives a busy day, and people who read alone rarely keep going.
Approach
A calm daily space: something new to wonder at each day, reading clubs and developer clubs to read and build together, and a voice archive that keeps oral heritage in its speakers’ own voices. Designed and engineered end to end in Flutter, in Arabic and English.
Outcome
Public on Google Play and the Microsoft Store, with no ads and no noise.
Get it on Google Play Get it from Microsoft
ishraqa.app

OtwoX Digital Solutions

Company · Founder

Problem
Many organisations still run on paper, spreadsheets and goodwill, and outgrow all three.
Approach
We map how the work flows today, then build business systems, learning platforms and AI products around it: from need to service, and from service to impact.
Outcome
A digital solutions company that I founded and lead.
otwox.com

Birtal Lab

Research initiative · Founder

Problem
Today’s speech technology barely hears Sudan’s languages, and language data is too often gathered from communities rather than with them.
Approach
Speech and language data built together with the communities who speak each language, on terms that keep the data theirs.
Outcome
A research initiative I founded and dedicated to this work.
birtallab.org

Kwegatta

Web app · First place, Hacktoberfest 2026 Hack Day Kampala × MUBS

Problem
At hackathons and in communities, the right collaborator is often in the room and never found.
Approach
A web app that matches people on what they need and what they can offer, so building and learning start with the right person.
Outcome
First place at Hacktoberfest 2026 Hack Day Kampala × MUBS.
Open KwegattaSource

Research

I work on speech and language technology for languages that today’s AI barely hears, starting with Sudan’s, and on keeping that data owned and governed by the communities it comes from.

Speech recognition, low-resource and Sudanese languages, community-owned data, and responsible AI.

ORCID 0009-0007-9719-7258

Journey

  1. B.Sc.Control Engineering (Honours)Al-Neelain University
  2. Google Developer Student Clubs, University of KhartoumAn app development programme where I built a book-reading app. It was the seed of Ishraqa.
  3. Google Africa Developer ScholarshipAssociate Android Developer track
  4. Android with Kotlin AcademyBambooGeeks
  5. Candle Book ClubA reader in the circle that read Man’s Search for Meaning together
  6. Ishraqa Daily, publicOn Google Play and the Microsoft Store
  7. First place, Hacktoberfest Hack Day KampalaWith Kwegatta

Certifications

Programmes and service

  • IEEE Region 8 Young Professionals LEAD ProgrammeGraduate · 2025 · co-authored the “Flow & Grow” Young Professionals group roadmap as its treasurer
  • IEEE EAB EPICSGrant reviewer · 2024–2026
  • IEEE Region 8 Entrepreneurship JourneyCompleted · 2024

Conferences and events

  1. Hacktoberfest 2026 Hack Day, with MUBSKampala · First place, with Kwegatta
  2. AI Agents on Arc with USDC, lablab.ai hackathonOnline · Built and submitted an agent with Arc and ElevenLabs
  3. Deep Learning Indaba 2025Kigali · Participant

Elsewhere

Work with me.

A product to build, a system to modernise, or a language-technology idea to explore? Tell me about it.

hello@ishraqa.app
Save contact