Huawei South Africa’s Seeds for the Future class of 2021 has been placed in the top 10 of the organisation’s first global competition under the Tech4Good programme.
The Tech4Good competition was added to Seeds for the Future as a way to encourage the participants to team up and find an ICT solution for a social issue of their choice.
In a statement, Huawei South Africa says the local team received recognition for their project aimed at protecting the country’s endangered rhino population from ongoing poaching.
Called “SA-Tech − South Africa’s Intrusion Detection System”, the South African project brings together cameras and motion sensors feeding information into the cloud via TV whitespaces to help detect poachers. The system is designed to help assist the rangers protect wildlife and help keep them safe at night and during the day.
According to the statement, the local team beat out entries from 79 other countries around the globe and placed in the top 10, alongside those from Argentina, Thailand, Brazil, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Poland, Vietnam and Bangladesh.
Additionally, the team was placed in the top three in the Tech4Good’s Audience Award, which is voted for by social media users from around the world.
“South Africa is full of talented and skilled young people, but we lack exposure,” says Siyabonga Thomas Shandu, from the SA-Tech team and student at the University of Johannesburg. “It is through programmes and competitions like these that youth skills, knowledge and talent can be unleashed, and the youth unemployment rate reduced.
“We learned a lot about new-generation technology from Seeds for the Future 2021. Applied properly, these technologies can help transform South Africa into a smart country.”
Seeds for the Future is Huawei's global social responsibility initiative. In SA, the telecoms company partnered with the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies in 2016, to run the ICT training programme locally.
In 2021, Seeds for the Future attracted more than 200 candidates from 20 universities and TVET colleges from seven South African provinces. Since 2016, 90 students have gone through the programme.
Huawei South Africa CEO Spawn Fan states: “At Huawei South Africa, we have long been committed to developing ICT talent through our various programmes like Seeds for the Future, which exposes learners to courses on the latest technologies like 5G, cloud, AI and IOT.
“In 2021, we decided to incorporate this competition under our Tech4Good programme, which is focused on getting students to think about how to use technology to address social and environmental issues. It’s wonderful to see how the participants rose to the challenge and have produced a project that competes with the best in the world.
“As we celebrate International Day of Education (24 January), it’s heartening to see how equipping South African learners with the right skills can give them exposure to the global stage,” he adds.
Communications and digital technologies minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni comments: “As South Africa looks to capitalise on the fourth industrial revolution, building ICT skills and local innovations will be critical.
“The success of the Seeds for the Future Programme, and the 2021 cohort in particular, shows just how big an impact programmes like this can have, giving youth an opportunity to access the latest technologies. I am very proud of the team’s solution which seeks to protect our very precious rhino population. ”
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