Stellenbosch University
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SU hackathon promoting entrepreneurship
Author: Corporate Communication/Korporatiewe Kommunikasie (Rozanne Engel)
Published: 14/08/2018

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Ever wondered how life would be if you could order your food at the Neelsie while you're still elsewhere?

Imagine student life improved with great new on-the-go capabilities using your mobile phone to help you and your friends get more done, more quickly and more securely.

Creating seamless payments or information-sharing experiences for consumers has become a key differentiating factor for many businesses and institutions.

Innovus is therefore challenging you and your team to show us what you can do in the fintech-themed hackathon to be held from 17 to 19 August at the LaunchLab on Stellenbosch Campus.

The hackathon is sponsored by Entersekt and Capitec and is organised by Innovus in partnership with the LaunchLab and Stellenbosch University (SU).

Innovus is looking for 40 talented student programmers, designers, builders and engineers to come together to learn and, from there, to develop and share creative ideas to solve industry-relevant problems in innovative ways. The two industry sponsors will set and introduce various problem statements at the beginning of the event and at the end of the event the teams pitch their solutions. The most innovative team with the best solution will win a grand prize to the value of R25 000.

According to Nolene Singh, Manager: Technology Transfer, Innovus and Commercialisation, the aim of the hackathon is to foster an entrepreneurial spirit on campus and to create entrepreneurial awareness. “It is Innovus and the LaunchLab's goal to increase the number of quality ideas entering their business development and support programmes by providing entrepreneurship support and creating an innovation culture among the students across all faculties at Stellenbosch University. Increasing the entrepreneurial and innovation culture across Stellenbosch University campus is of great importance to create and sustain a successful innovation knowledge region in the greater Stellenbosch area."

Besides the participants being mentored by SU industry partners and sponsors Entersekt and Capitec during the hackathon, the event may also lead to job opportunities for graduates, parallel career development for young researchers and a positive impact on the local developer community through the sharing of innovative ideas and through networking within the community.

Students who are interested in applying for the hackathon will need the following skills:

  • Mobile programming (iOS, Android or Cordova)
  • A basic understanding of how to use SDKs and APIs (SOAP)
  • The creativity to design simple and rewarding experiences

Students will also be able to use the following technologies:

  • Alexa speech API
  • Bluetooth beacons
  • QR code or barcode scanners
  • NFC tokens

Entries are open to SU students only and closes this afternoon (14 Tuesday 2018).

Visit http://bit.ly/SUFintechathon to enter.