Hackathon gets record response

Two hackers, sitting on a sofa 16km away, managed to cut a Jeep’s engine and apply the brakes, sending it into a spin. File photo: Kacper Pempel/Reuters.

Two hackers, sitting on a sofa 16km away, managed to cut a Jeep’s engine and apply the brakes, sending it into a spin. File photo: Kacper Pempel/Reuters.

Published Aug 26, 2015

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Cape Town - If there was enough space to accommodate the 163 computer boffins who applied to take part in an IBM-supported hackathon at the 8th SA Innovation Summit, which opened at the Cape Town stadium on Wednesday, the event would have been the biggest hackathon in Africa.

Unfortunately there is place for just 90 hackers at the event. Still, who knows what records might tumble at the hackathon, which will focus the creative juices of developers and programmers on creating innovations related to early childhood development.

The hackathon is being hosted by Innovation Edge, an NGO that provides evidence for early childhood development programmes and works with government on integrating them into government systems and practices, especially those of the Department of Social Development.

IBM has offered the use of their cloud-based app development platform Bluemix (ibm.biz/BluemixZA) to developers taking part, as well as technical support. The hackathon, from 3pm on Friday August 28 to 3pm on Saturday August 29, provides an opportunity for techies to engage with one of the aims of the summit: to create solutions to challenges faced by entrepreneurs, developers, researchers, thought leaders, inventors and investors.

The theme for this year’s summit, Innovation Intelligence, “seeks to address the mystery of creating that elusive competitive edge through new and convergent thinking”.

Coders and programmers will be paired with early childhood development specialists. Each team will have 24 hours to come up with and code a tech solution to a specific challenge.

The Innovation Edge is also a social fund that grants development capital and support to “brave new ideas and projects with the potential to address the early learning challenges faced by children in the most vulnerable sections of our society”. The organisation is sometimes described as an angel investor or an incubator for social good.

ANA

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