Mashitishi Phurutsi, Manager at ICT’s First year and Foundation Unit.
The TVH is an annual hacking competition, introduced by Mashitishi Phurutsi, Manager at ICT’s First year and Foundation Unit and Chief Organiser of the TVH in 2019.
Partners from industry, the City of Tshwane, and other universities will be invited to present 21st century challenges that could be used to develop technology-based solutions. These challenges and ideas will then be captured and put in a backlog. The hackers participating in the competition, will not know the challenges until the day of the official launch of the Hackathon.
During the Hackathon TUT, the University of Pretoria and University of South Africa students will convene at a central point to collaborate and solve these problems.
“This competition gives students an opportunity to significantly contribute in making a positive societal impact, through the use of technology, to solve complex challenges global citizens currently face, thus ensuring that we produce future-ready graduates who will already be able to solve these problems once industry employs them,” said Mashitishi.
Last year, the winning teams, who referred to themselves as Tech Optics, developed an App to resolve the lack of prompt municipal ser¬vice delivery. The App allows residents to log their complaints, especially water leakages while the Council would be able to see where the water leakage problem was reported, as well as track the progress in resolving the problem and how long it took. The App integrates technologies such as live location, ma¬chine learning, and a real time database.
“We look forward to the Hackathon and are excited to see what our innovative thinking students will come up with this year,” concluded Mashitishi.