Johannesburg - The University of the Witwatersrand on Thursday unveiled its ambitious plan to turn the inner-city district of Braamfontein into South Africa’s “Silicon Valley” through a new digital hub driven by students and young professionals.
The Wits Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, aims to provide incubation to start-ups, deal with commercialisation of research and development of high-level digital skills for students, working professionals and unemployed youths.
The partnership between government, business and industry to build Tshimologong has been three years in the making. Most of the work has been done by the Wits’ Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE).
Barry Dwolatzky, the brains behind Tshimologong and professor of Software Engineering in the Wits School of Electrical and Information Engineering, said the hope was that transforming Braamfontein into Africa’s premier technology hub would inspire new talent, create jobs and lead to an economic renaissance.
Dwolatzky envisions non-stop activity in the new precinct, with events running day and night, as well as a hub where ideas are hatched and creativity has a space to breathe.
He said programmers, designers, developers, entrepreneurs and start-ups would congregate in the half-a-city-block along Juta Street.
“Tshimologong will be a start-up incubator, business accelerator and source of skills,” Dwolatzky said.
“The focus is on digital hardware, software and content. We are creating a hub space where people can get together, brainstorm and work on creative projects.”
The precinct would have, among other facilities, flexible open-plan, co-working areas with broadband connectivity for ICT start-ups, meeting and refreshment zones, computer laboratories, training rooms, maker spaces and administrative support offices.
An important element of the Tshimologong Precinct is the recently launched IBM Research Lab, the first such facility anywhere in the world that is tightly integrated into an innovation hub.
Wits University Vice-Chancellor, professor Adam Habib, said the university aimed to inspire the development of a new generation of digital technology experts, innovators and entrepreneurs and
“Tshimologong will provide an enabling space for our country’s most creative young minds to develop new digital technologies that are crucial to South Africa’s economic growth and international competitiveness,” Habib said.
African News Agency