Through Signvrse and its award-winning Terp 360 platform, Kenyan technologist Elly Savatia is using artificial intelligence and lifelike digital avatars to make information more accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
For Elly Savatia, innovation has always meant more than building impressive technology. It means using technology to solve a problem experienced by real people.
That purpose became especially clear during a robotics class in Northern Kenya.
Among approximately 300 deaf students, Elly noticed there was only one sign-language interpreter. The shortage limited how easily students could follow lessons and communicate within the learning environment.
He began asking whether technology could help close that gap.
The question eventually inspired Signvrse, a Kenyan accessibility-technology company, and Terp 360, an artificial-intelligence platform that converts speech and text into sign language using three-dimensional digital avatars.
A Childhood Fascination Becomes a Purpose
Elly grew up in Western Kenya with a strong curiosity about how technology worked.
As a child, he dismantled radios and clocks to study what was inside them. At the age of 10, he discovered the concept of innovation and began connecting his interest in electronics with the possibility of solving community problems.
While still in high school, he developed an assistive-technology concept involving a robotic staircase that could transform into a ramp for people with physical disabilities.
That early project introduced a theme that would continue throughout his career: technology should help more people participate.
Years later, the interpreter shortage he witnessed among deaf students gave that mission a new direction.
How Terp 360 Works
Terp 360 uses artificial intelligence and animated 3D avatars to translate spoken or written information into sign language.
A user can provide speech or text, and the platform generates a digital character that communicates the message through signs.
Signvrse initially developed a simpler application capable of translating the sign-language alphabet and a limited vocabulary. Feedback revealed that the avatar’s movements appeared too mechanical.
Elly and his team responded by incorporating motion-capture technology.
They worked with deaf and hard-of-hearing Kenyans to record more than 2,300 signs, phrases and commonly used words. This helped the avatars communicate with more natural and relatable movement.
The collaboration is important because sign language involves more than replacing a spoken word with a hand gesture. Movement, expression, timing and context all contribute to meaning.
By involving members of the community, Signvrse is developing its technology around the people it is intended to serve.
Centering Kenyan Sign Language
Many widely available accessibility tools are developed around languages and signing systems used outside Africa.
That creates a serious gap for Kenyan users.
A translation platform may be technologically advanced, but it will have limited local value if it does not understand Kenyan Sign Language, familiar expressions and the communication needs of its intended audience.
Signvrse is helping address that shortage by developing an African-centered solution.
This local focus gives Terp 360 potential applications in schools, hospitals, workplaces and customer-service environments.
A student could receive lesson content in a more accessible form. A patient could better understand important health information. A company could communicate more inclusively with deaf employees and customers.
The technology is designed to support interpreters and expand access where qualified professionals are limited—not to replace the human expertise and cultural understanding interpreters provide.
Winning the 2025 Africa Prize
Elly’s innovation received major recognition when Terp 360 won the 2025 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation from the Royal Academy of Engineering.
The recognition placed him among a growing generation of African engineers developing locally relevant solutions with wider global potential.
The Royal Academy reported that Terp 360 had already interacted with more than 2,000 members of the deaf community during its testing and development. Signvrse is preparing to expand its work into education, healthcare and corporate environments.
Elly also envisions a platform with a broader vocabulary, dialects and colloquial expressions, as well as future expansion into Uganda and Rwanda.
That vision recognizes that accessibility technology must continue learning and adapting to the communities it serves.
Gen Z Innovation With Social Purpose
Elly represents a generation of young Kenyan entrepreneurs building with artificial intelligence while remaining focused on human needs.
The most important part of Terp 360 is not the sophistication of the avatar or the novelty of the AI. It is the student trying to understand a lesson, the patient seeking information or the customer wanting to communicate independently.
Signvrse demonstrates what becomes possible when technology is designed with inclusion at its center.
It also challenges the assumption that African innovators must wait for locally relevant tools to be created elsewhere.
Elly and his team are building from Kenya, working with Kenyan users and developing technology around Kenyan Sign Language.
Why Elly Savatia’s Story Matters
At Sisi Kenya Spotlight, we celebrate innovators who use their skills to create greater opportunity for others.
Elly Savatia’s story matters because he recognized that access to information should not depend on whether an interpreter happens to be available.
Through Signvrse and Terp 360, he is bringing together artificial intelligence, motion capture and community knowledge to create a more inclusive communication tool.
His journey began with childhood curiosity, grew through assistive-technology experiments and gained direction after witnessing hundreds of deaf students sharing access to a single interpreter.
Today, that experience is helping shape an award-winning Kenyan innovation.
Elly is not simply teaching artificial intelligence how to move its hands. He is helping technology understand that communication should include everyone.
