MAISH is a provincial competition jointly hosted by TUT’s Faculty of Information Communication and Technology at the eMalahleni Campus, and UMP’s Faculty of Science. The event is aimed providing a platform for young budding student hackers, AI enthusiast and engineers to nurture these talents. This is a unique competition, where students work on their innovative ideas and solve real-life industrial problems.
This year’s hackathon theme was titled: ‘We are creating Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions to solve Africa’s problems, which speaks to the economic development and growth of the province. The event also gave students and staff access to some of the best AI talent in the province.
According to Phurutsi Mashitishi, TUT’s ICT Unit Manager for the first year and foundation unit, the hackathon is a great initiative that will equip students with skills that make them employment-ready and future-ready graduates. “Through such inventiveness and creativity, students will contribute to economic development in the society,” he said.
“Although majority of the hackers will be students studying computing courses at TUT eMalahleni Campus and University of Mpumalanga, students from other faculties are more than welcome to participate,” said Senyeki Marebane, FoICT Academic Manager TUT eMalahleni.
Rivalani Hlangwane, a lecturer at UMP, highlighted the importance of participating in the MAISH, “Hackathons are known to be a breeding ground for innovation and their nature pushes participants to think outside the box and come up with solutions that work. Solutions that make a positive societal impact,” he explained.
The event was honoured by staff members and attended by over 300 students from various faculties such as the Faculty of ICT, Engineering and Management Science and esteemed guests from the industry including Nkgwete-IT and Emalahleni Local Municipality.