Four WSU Students from the Department of Information Technology Systems, in the Faculty of Economics and Information Technology Systems, have secured spots in the Pan African Information Communication Technology Association’s (PAICTA) International Hackathon 2022.
This follows the students’ victory in the recent Eastern Cape Youth Digital Agrisec Hackathon. Lifa Gomomo, Aphiwe Mazwi, Francine Tembo, and Asekhona Xanywa walked away with top prizes, including first place for their solution of an android application, which allows the Agriculture Department to disseminate information to farmers in real-time.
This application also allows illiterate farmers the ability to translate data received from the department into their local languages, through Artificial Intelligence (AI) features such as text to speech and computer vision Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
The hackathon, sponsored by PAICTA, iHub, Business Connection, and Microsoft, is hosted yearly to assist IT students in developing solutions to problems that exist in their communities.
Dean in the Komani Faculty of Economics and Information Technology Systems, Dr. Patrick Bwowe congratulated and expressed great delight in the students’ victory.
“The ITS department is just less than four years since its inception into the faculty. To have even participated in a competition of this calibre and level, let alone win trophies, indicates that hard work does pay. As the faculty, we feel extremely happy and energised to achieve more and we look forward to extending these initiatives across all the departments in the faculty,” said Bwowe.
HoD and lecturer in the ITS department, Mr. Munienge Mbodila, said that this win was a testament to the effectiveness of their teaching.
“This win is significant for us as lecturers in the department. This was our first time entering this type of competition. It motivates us to see that students can apply what we teach in the classroom to real-life situations. We are motivated to explore more avenues in developing ourselves further so that we can continue to impact our students and many others that will be joining the department in years to come,” said Mbodila.
The four walked away with cash prizes, including R20000 towards registering for an AI module that will assist to develop their prototype.
Dr. Bwowe asserted that going forward, his faculty, with the assistance of the University, will ensure that these initiatives are fully strengthened and supported, in line with WSU’s motto: “In pursuit of excellence.”
- Yanga Ziwele