The East London Industrial Development Zone (ELIDZ) in collaboration with Propella Business Incubator, other Eastern Cape-based incubators and several universities successfully hosted the first regional hackathon for the province which was designed to bring together the creative minds of the youth within the province.
The specific objective of this competition was to address and find solutions to some of the key issues faced by the province currently, such as unemployment, service delivery, education, and upskilling. These solutions would then be taken, refined and implemented within the province.
The hackathon took place from the 4th – 6th of June 2021 when participants were split into teams of 3 – 5 members and given 48-hours to come up with new solutions that could be used to solve problems within the Eastern Cape.
On 04 June 2021, the opening session of the hackathon took place simultaneously in multiple locations at the various innovation hubs and universities campuses within Gqeberha, Mthatha, East London, Alice, and Grahamstown.
Aphelele Jonas from Propella Business Incubator said, “The participants had a full weekend that was filled with hacking and creating a solution for their chosen problem sector.
“Teams were tasked with choosing a single sector, whether it be unemployment, service delivery, education, and upskilling before analyzing the needs or the current constraints within that sector and providing a feasible solution that could be implemented.”
Once the 48-hours were up, the judging panel took over and began evaluations of the proposed solutions. The top 3 winning teams were awarded their prizes on Sunday, 6 June by Ludwe Macingwane, Operations Manager at ELIDZ.
First place was awarded to Umrhwebo, an agricultural and farming solution making use of blockchain technology followed by Vergo Tech, who made use of augmented reality (AR) to develop a system that could be used to improve the learning experience and quality of education within schools.
Cybernetics, who were hosted at the Propella hub, received third place for their crowdfunding-based platform to assist underprivileged matric learners with funding for university fees.
Anda Mchako a participant in the hackathon said, “The Eastern Cape has no shortage of youth with great ideas and skills that can move the province into the 4th Industrial Revolution. One of the major issues holding us back is that we live in bubbles isolated from each other.
“It is through experiences like this that we can grow the tech community in the Eastern Cape and take our place in a field where we are underdogs. I look forward to participating in more of these competitions and playing my part in creating a network of like-minded individuals that are driven by the same desire to bring about digital transformation.”
The ELIDZ together with it eco-system partners aims to host two more hackathons of this nature within the next 12 months.
Pictured: Team Cybernetics who came in 3rd place at the ELIDZ regional hackathon. (From left to right: Bukho Mtikitiki; Somila Damba; Sibaphiwe Dlova; Hlela Bunn; Anda Mchako)