Geekulcha Hackathon
The annual Geekulcha Hackathon, with RS Components and sponsoring components, hardware and prizes, recently saw more than 100 coders, developers and programmers take on each other in a 42-hour online contest.
This year’s winner was Trevor Morethe, who came up with an idea of digitalising street food vendors of South Africa with his Let Me Serve You (LMSY) mobile app. Morethe says that his application will provide a platform where consumers can order food and discover street food vendors in their surroundings.
“With my developed mobile app I want to help street food vendors track orders, streamline their processes and assist customers to save time when ordering food, as well as provide information on nearby vendors,” he says. “This will assist these micro-businesses and their customers step into the digital world.”
Second place went to DeepDoctor.AI, a medical image classification app. Its developer, 16 year-old North West coder Lemogang Matlou, recently won the North West leg of the Nemisa datathon. He was also that hackathon’s youngest participant.
Team Just Dev (Mxolisi Ngcobo and Andile Skosana) won third place for Account, a tool to hold politicians accountable for election promises. With the motto “the Internet never forgets”, the platform relies on user-generated recordings of rallies and a WhatsApp chatbot for reporting service delivery problems.
More information on the Geekulcha Hackathon can be found here
Go to the next page to read about a site to prepare children for surgery, an AI-powered wellness app, new online training tools for agriculture, and how car-tracking technology can help prevent collisions in scholar transport vehicles.
Anaesthesia Web
The Anaesthesia Web offers children and parents help to prepare for hospital stays, anaesthesia and surgery.
The site is developed to be accessible to all children in terms of content, technology and language. It offers information in an age-appropriate, interactive and playful way, including videos, podcasts, blogs and FAQs. Visitors also get the opportunity to meet others with similar experiences.
Family members can find out how to support their child through the website too. All content on the Anaesthesia Web is based on clinical and scientific evidence and has been developed by a multidisciplinary team, all with various experiences in healthcare.
Platform: Any device with an Internet connection and up-to-date Internet browser
Expect to pay: A free service
Stockists: Visit Anaesthesia Web here to get started
Go to the next page to read about an AI-powered wellness app, new online training tools for agriculture, and how car-tracking technology can help prevent collisions in scholar transport vehicles.
Tweak & Eat
PurpleTeal and Mondia have partnered to distribute the Tweak & Eat app to Mondia’s customer base across various regions, including South Africa, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
Tweak & Eat is an AI-powered wellness app focused on healthy eating and weight management. The app is designed to empower health-conscious users with just-in-time meal advice (called ‘Tweaks’) from certified nutritionists, who analyse the nutritional content of the meals, and provide suggestions to make the meals healthier.
The platform allows nutritionists to provide real-time meal advice and information by automating meal modification activities. This includes analysing and generating the nutritional profile of meals. Real-time assistance during meals is available to help users who are trying to follow certain diets to manage various lifestyle-related health conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.
Platform: Android and iOS with plans for it to be released on the Huawei AppGallery later this year.
Expect to pay: Free, but with in-app purchases.
Stockists: Download it for Android here and Apple devices here.
Go to the next page to read about new online training tools for agriculture, and how car-tracking technology can help prevent collisions in scholar transport vehicles.
TonnUp
South African agri-tech startup TonnUp has launched an online trading platform designed to help farmers market and sell their agricultural products within a structured and transparent environment.
Farmers can take control of the pricing, marketing and distribution of their own products at a fraction of the cost of existing marketing options. It brings buyers and sellers together in a way that allows farmers to get maximum value for their products.
Farmers can consult with brokers or silo owners to offer their commodities on the platform at their desired price point. Buyers – like millers and processors – will be able to bid on these consignments, whether there is already stock on offer or not, at all registered delivery points. A further bonus for buyers is that they can also bid for a preferred delivery location from where they can receive their product, if their bid is successful.
“South Africa’s current grain market is between 14-16 million tons, and less than 25% of that is traded in a formal market,” says TonnUp director, Stephen Krüger. “This means that potentially 75% of the grain crop is available to be traded on a formal platform, with full pricing and location transparency. Our value proposition is to bring together buyers and sellers, and to create a spot market where everybody gets a fair deal.”
While TonnUp’s initial focus is on the grain market, it plans to expand into other commodities, including soya, sorghum, oil cake and even fertiliser.
Platform: Most devices with an up-to-date Internet browser
Expect to pay: Free to register
Stockists: Visit TonnUp here to register as either a farmer or a buyer
Go to the next page to read about how car-tracking technology can help prevent collisions in scholar transport vehicles.
Safe to School Safe to Home
Netstar will provide telematic units worth more than R200 000 for scholar transport vehicles in eThekwini as part of the Safe to School Safe to Home school transport project. It is being run in conjunction with Road Safety Partnership (RSP) South Africa, Toyota South Africa and the eThekwini Transport Authority (ETA).
The project will use car-tracking technology to monitor driver behaviour to protect learners on their way to school.
The project aims to reduce death and injury from road crashes between vehicles travelling to and from school. It also aims to educate drivers about road safety, enhance their driving performance, improve the quality of scholar transport, and set a safety example to all school-transport operators.
It is currently being implemented in schools around Durban, and in the next three years is set to reach an estimated 120 taxi drivers and around 10,000 learners.
Click here to find out more on the Safe to School Safe to Home initiative