The finalists of this year’s MTN Business IOT Conference and Awards have been announced. The creators of the overall winning solution, from five categories, will walk away with a prize valued at R200 000.
Kholofelo Magagane, head of marketing: MTN Business says the quality of the submissions in this year’s challenge have been extraordinary.
“It was also exciting for us to see that the types of solutions entered into the five categories were varied in the business and societal issues they were designed to address,” he adds.
"They show the maturity and growing sophistication of the IOT development community in South Africa,” he says. “These solutions showcase the infinite possibilities that connectivity can provide and its potential to transform industries for the better."
The categories and their respective finalists are:
Best Enterprise Development Solution
- The MeMeZa Home Policing Alarm
The first public all-in-one emergency system endorsed by the South African Police Services (SAPS) aims to improve the police’s response time. It provides low-income households with affordable, innovative community safety technology. - The Smart City and Water Automation
This solution is already deployed at Carletonville Hospital in Johannesburg. Sensors placed inside the hospital’s water tanks and municipal water mains alert users when the tanks are running low, identifie pumps that are operational, monitor water levels and advise when there is a municipal water outage. - Smart Real Time Hydroponics and Aquaponics Farming System
Currently in its prototype stage, this hydroponics and aquaponics farming solution seeks to improve food security in rural areas. Data from the real-time system is sent directly to farmers, giving instant insight into which plants are thriving, what nutrients are missing, what the water levels are, and other essential information required for optimum growth.
Best Commercial IOT Solution
- Domestic Refuse Collection Management
This solution allows municipalities to effectively monitor and locate their refuse bins. Over 800 000 domestic refuse bins have been fitted with chips that track them. It also uses vehicle telematics such as tag readers, lift sensors and GPS tracking. - Discovery Vitality Drive Sensor
Using vehicle telematics, the Drive Sensor accurately tracks driving behaviour. The device is installed on the car’s windscreen and interacts with Discovery’s smartphone driving application to measure and reward users for good driving behaviour. - The Smart Chicken Weighing Scale
Taking out the human factor completely, this solution is used to monitor the growth of broiler farm chickens throughout their lifecycle. The collated data is analysed and presented to the end-user in a Web-based interface that can run on a mobile device, tablet or browser.
Best Industry Solution
- earlyROM Mining Production System using Industrial IoT
Exxaro’s Belfast Coal Mine has implemented this complete IOT-based production system to manage its mining fleet. It enables Exxaro to monitor performance of its machines, cycle times and allows it to extract machine data of its mining fleet in real-time. - Macrocomm Fleet Analytics
A fully secured cloud-based solution that accurately calculates the running costs of each individual vehicle within a fleet of any size, thus providing a clearer picture of the running costs of the entire fleet. Data such as driver speed, harsh braking and unauthorised trips can be stored.
- Informed Decisions
IOT tracking, monitoring and analysing solutions, all run on Informed Decision’s own private LoRa (long range) network. This hardware technology enables IOT in various industries such as pharmaceuticals, the cold chain and water management, while making it affordable to the mass market.
Innovative Hardware in IOT
- NodeX IoT System
NodeX allows users to regulate any electronic or mechanical system parameter (such as reservoir levels, movement of a vehicle or turning a pump on and off) wirelessly and to their own specifications and infrastructure needs. This solution negates the need for operators to depend on third party internet access. - A modular and advanced IoT-enabled platform by My SmartSystems
Using AI and edge computing to process data, thus enabling real time decisions to be made without an end-user’s presence. My SmartSystems is a universal IoT platform that can be used in a wide range of industries. - Informed Decisions
Provides a multitude of full IOT tracking, monitoring and analysing solutions that enable IOT across various industries. All produced and designed in-house.
Most Disruptive IOT Solution:
- The MeMeZa Home Policing Alarm
- earlyROM Mining Production System using Industrial IOT
- The Intelligent Advertising Board
Placed at robot intersections, these intelligent billboards activate adverts based on the make and model of the vehicle parked at red robots. Marketers can collate a wealth of information and adjust their campaigns based on data collated by this first-in-Africa invention.
The conference and awards event takes place on 24 October at the Sandton Convention Centre.
Share