A University of Johannesburg team walked away with a R20 000 cash prize at the public sector innovation hackaton last week.
Agr-Ecco connects farmers with potential markets and necessary resources.
The hackaton was hosted by Public Service and Administration minister Ayanda Dlodlo as part of the 19th Public Sector Innovation Awards, which recognise innovators in all spheres of government and public entities and took place in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg last week.
The hackathon was run by the Centre for Public Service Innovation in collaboration with Geekulcha and challenged youth to build solutions that will help accelerate service delivery in the public sector. About 120 young innovators take part and came with healthcare, educational, jobs and agricultural solutions.
“Hackathons are more than just platforms to find solutions but an opportunity to interact with our future generations”, said minister Dlodlo during her hackaton opening address.
She said her address should not be seen as the launch of an event but rather the launch of a 12-month hackathon programme with a support structure towards realisation of the wining solutions.
“Let’s normalize putting projects into the hands of the users after hackathons. Hence, after this speech, I will be writing code and launching an application that will let even the people in rural areas shape the next hackathons,” she said.
Industry leaders, public sector specialists and academia played a role in mentoring the hackathon participants.
The hackathon winners
At the end of the hackathon, deputy minister of Public Service and Administration, Chana Pilane-Majake, announced top three teams.
Winner: Team Hack-A-Ton consisting of students from the University of Johannesburg came first with their agricultural solution, Agr-Ecco. They walked away with a R20 000 cash prize. Ladies of team Hack-A-Ton also collectively won “Best Female Geekstar” award.
First runner-up: With R10 000 cash prize, Array Technologies developed a fire detection system with high alert mechanisms that seek to prevent spread of the fires in the informal communities.
Second runner-up: A Cape Town based team Weza took the second runne-ip place and a R5 000 prize for their Weza solution.
All three teams will be supported through a focused Geekulcha tech and market readiness programme for the next 45-days, with sector guidance from the CPSI. Teams will also be encouraged to further develop their solutions through other hackathons and programmes.
Judging panel
Hackathon judging panel consisted of:4
- Ronny Mabokela, lecturer, University of Johannesburg;
- Rahab Matebane, founder and CEO, Mapitsi Holdings;
- Sina Legong, corporate and program lead, mLab Southern Africa’;
- Gerald O'sullivan, director, Archton; Thandile Stuurman, CIO, Department of Public Service and Administration;
- Bilal Kathrada, founder & CEO of IT Varsity.
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