The Durban University of Technology (DUT), National Youth Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Council and AlgoAtWork Robotics Academy in partnership with Moses Kotane Institute and the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies hosted the second Annual KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) InnovTech Expo 2022 under the theme, “Building local ecosystems for inclusive economic growth”.
The hybrid event took place at the DUT Ritson Campus on Saturday, 08 October 2022.
The KZN InnovTech Expo combines a Hackathon and Makerthon, a 24-hour marathon for innovators to develop robotic solutions and smart technologies for the local economy. This year, 2022, the focus was on solving unemployment and developing solutions for the Transportation and Logistics industry in KwaZulu-Natal, which provides linkages with the South African economy through the N2 and N3, key cargo routes.
In attendance at the event were the Deputy Minister of Communication and Digital Technologies – Honourable Philly Mapulane, Councillor Ntando Khuzwayo from the eThekwini Municipality, other government officials, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning, Professor Suren Singh, Executive Dean: Faculty of Accounting & Informatics, Professor Oludayo Olugbara, CEO of Moses Kotane Institute, Dr Thandeka Ellenson, KZN Chairperson of the Circle of Global Business Women Network, Andile Mqwebu, Director Gender, Disability, Youth and Children, Bhekisisa Ngcobo, Chief Strategy Officer, eThekwini Municipality, Bongumusa Zonda, Chairperson: National Youth ICT Council, Bongekile Filana, Spokesperson: National Youth ICT Council, Aluwani Chokoe, Co-founders: AlgoAtWork Robotics, Langa Zulu and Tshega Mampshika, Engagement Officer: Faculty of Accounting & Informatics at DUT, Ugeshni Moodley, Technical Support: MICTSETA 4IR Centre of Excellence, Fanie Ndlovu, Faculty Staff, Students, Parents, Industry Partners & participating delegates, who have contributed towards this successful event and all other special guests present.
Giving the official welcome address was the Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning, Professor Suren Singh. He warmly greeted everyone on behalf of DUTs Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Thandwa Mthembu to the 2nd annual InnovTech Expo 2022 first time hosted at DUT.
“The Durban University of Technology (DUT) is extremely grateful to you, to grace us with your presence to showcase our contribution to innovation, technology, entrepreneurship in KZN and beyond the province and globally.
As part of proceedings, Prof Singh highlighted the space within which DUT operates regionally, nationally and internationally, further relaying that the Research Centre – MICT SETA 4IR Centre of Excellence, funded by the Media, Information and Communication Technologies Sector Education and Training Authority (MICT SETA) under the leadership of Prof Oludayo Olugbara, focuses on The Application of Machine Learning and Internet of Things to Society.
“This centre has multiple international partnerships with the Tianjin Vocational Institute in China; University of Jalgaon in India, SAP, AWS Academy, Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM, Oxford University and the British Council, to name a few. Our infrastructure plan which is funded by DHET and is moving at a rapid pace to make us DIFFERENT UPENDED AND TRANSFORMED,” he said.
He commented that despite the pandemic challenges last year, DUT was ranked in the Top five of all South African universities in the 2021 World University Rankings and rated in the Top 500 globally and is the leading UoT in SA.
“DUT was also named as one of the Top six universities in Africa according to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Our total graduates for 2022 was a record breaking 10 213 graduates. DUT was also the awarded the entrepreneurial development in Higher Education Award in 2019 and 2021. This was in recognition of facilitating exceptional institutional support for entrepreneurial development. This was due to the huge impact the university had made in student entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship development through teaching and learning and research, and advancing the university’s position as an entrepreneurial university,” he stressed.
Prof Singh expressed how grateful and proud DUT is of their students and staff who continue to lead and succeed, who create and innovate – as they strive to live the values and principles as enshrined in the DUT ENVISION2030 strategy.
He relayed that he is aware that this key event agglomerates major players from public and private sectors, including academia, and research institutions to explore unique opportunities for enhancing the innovation, digital, and technology ecosystem in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Divulging on unlocking economic development and transformation through innovation was the Chief Executive Officer, Moses Kotane Institute, Dr Thandeka Ellenson.
“The two main struggles faced by youth are-the struggle for digitisation, which leads to the second challenge, which is the struggle for economic liberation, then leads to economic transformation,” she said.
She further relayed what economic liberation means which is to have government policies that promote innovation and the use of local innovative products, something that is still not happening, as pointed out by Dr Ellenson.
“Currently, we are selling almost 100% of import, and we have an issue that jobs are not being created, yes, they are not going to be as long as we are not liberating ourselves. This is a radical and controversial view I have just tabled. We should start believing our own people, our own products and our own innovations,” she elaborated.
Further into her discussion, Dr Ellenson conveyed on digital liberation, a political struggle that fights for the digital rights and freedoms – this affects everyone.
She then spoke on the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) cabinet which passed a Digital Transformation strategy that focuses on 10 priorities, indicating that one of the priorities being digital skilling.
“We have not even begun to make a dent in the society in as far as digital skilling is concerned. We are talking over 11 million citizens, and everybody must take part in this digi-skills struggle,” she emphasized.
Further on she spoke on the role of the Moses Kotane Institute which is in the space of research and innovation.
She explained that they are in the process of establishing the digital centres to provide access to ICT infrastructure.
“So far, we only have 10 in the province, we are requesting companies with CSI budget or a deliberate developmental budget to consider establishing more digital centres, we will help you throughout the process so that the citizens can benefit from such a wonderful project.
She stressed that she is confident that these hackathons will give the Moses Kotane Institute opportunities to discover technological talent as South Africa is now in the 5th industrial revolution.
“KZN officially launched its 5IR era on 30 March 2022 and all 5IR dimensions are led by the Moses Kotane Institute,” she said proudly.
Giving his perspective on the KZN InnovTech Expo 2022 was Councillor Ntando Khuzwayo who is from the eThekwini Municipality. He explained that the KZN InnovTech Expo 2022 is an important initiative that builds on the vision of the municipality of being a most liveable and caring city by 2030; through strengthening smart digital governance, improving service provision and management of infrastructure through the use of latest technological advancement such Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence (AI), to mention but a few.
He expressed that this Expo is a significant milestone for the municipality; and it strengthens their resolution to create a conducive environment for investment and develop technological capabilities.
“Our purpose is to develop relevant skills matched with relevant ICT infrastructure which shall become our comparative and competitive advantage,” he said.
Further on, he remarked that one of the hallmarks of a developmental state is to be proactive in meeting the needs of the people – thus becoming an anticipatory government.
“We are therefore confident that working together with you, other spheres of government in a true ‘all of government’ and ‘all of society approach’ as driven by DDM, we are conquerors. Remember, we are not victims of circumstances but product of our choices,” said Cllr Khuzwayo.
The exciting dimension of the second day was the dynamic keynote address presented by the Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital technologies, Hon. Philly Mapulane.
The Honourable Mapulane added his pleasure to once again participate in the second leg of what is becoming a successful installations annual KwaZulu-Natal InnovTech Expo 2022.
He relayed that the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies last year participated in the 1st KZN InnovTech Expo under the theme, “Reviving local Innovations for inclusive economic growth”, and witnessed how the youth across communities used technology to develop solutions in addressing various challenges which ranged from livestock theft to other areas of ordinary people’s lives.
“Under the theme “Building Local Ecosystems for Inclusive Economic Growth” we are back again in this year’s exciting Expo. Driven by the spirit of innovation and disruption, KZN InnovTech Expo 2022, is a platform for KZN young innovators to develop and showcase their innovations, demo technologies and prototypes for further research and development. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Youth ICT Council for the invitation and for, working with the different partners like the Moses Kotane Institute, the Durban University of Technology (DUT) and others, putting together such an innovative concept.
He commented that this Expo must indeed stimulate research and development for inclusive economic growth; facilitate skills development programmes in line with the demands of the changing economy, which is becoming more and more digital.
“In line with the National Development Plan (NDP) 2030, which articulates an ambition that visualises an estimated 90% of the expected 11 million new jobs by 2030 being unlocked by the SMMEs, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies late last year launched a technology platform which is hosted by the Department called the DIGITECH PLATFORM,” he said.
He relayed that they further showcased this platform at last months’ GovTech which was hosted in Durban.
“This is part of our contribution to unlocking opportunities for real and sustainable jobs for the SMMEs. Through this portal, we seek to promote South Africa’s own developed products in the domestic and other markets whilst facilitating partnerships with other organisations on co-promotion of local technologies,” he said.
Honourable Mapulane said that this portal is the first of its kind. A government application portal, which markets home-grown, indigenous local applications. He conveyed that as a Department, they pride themselves for carrying this portal which they will use to promote local applications for use by government; and equally introduce and market them to the public.
In terms of digital technologies, the Honourable Mapulane said that digital technologies such as digital automation, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, augmented reality, 3D printing, and a range of other digital technologies are changing the nature of jobs that were routinely performed by humans.
“As various sectors of the economy continue to use and depend on these new digital technologies, the legacy skills as well as existing ICT skills are becoming obsolete and this increases the demand for new digital skills. This changing nature of the jobs in the market as a result of the rapid changes in digital technologies has necessitated the need to skill, reskill and upskill South Africans in order to equip them with the relevant and necessary skills to perform new jobs and to actively participate in the digital economy,” he added.
He further spoke on the adopted Digital and Future Skills Strategy to ensure that the youth are equipped with the necessary levels of digital skills that will enable them to function in a 21st Century world that is increasingly pervaded by and dependent upon digital technologies.
“The results of 2022 Quarter 2 labour force survey by Stats SA indicate that the unemployment rate is currently sitting at 33,9%, with the youth unemployment estimated at 4,8 million and a rate of 46.5 %. It is therefore crucial that the youth make use of the technology to learn and equip themselves with digital skills and future proof their careers. It is for this reason that we would like to urge young people to be at the forefront of shaping their economic emancipation; and this event is a sterling example of this,” he said.
He explained that the role of youth in the digital economy is vital, as the African population is the youngest and most youthful and that the KZN InnovTech Expo 2022 will further serve as a vehicle to assess the local innovation ecosystem for the revival of the township economy and provide necessary intervention support through information, collaborations, and networking. All these demands of people to move to online platforms. However, if these online platforms cannot guarantee safety of use, then people will be discouraged to adopt online platforms. It is for this reason that as a Department, we would like to raise Cybersecurity Awareness in all platforms we grace.
Deputy Minister of Communication and Digital Technologies – Honourable Philly Mapulane
He made mention that a call was made two weeks ago during the recent Digital Council Africa CONEXT Conference 2022 that mobile data must fall. This was done in recognition of how vital data is in unleashing the creativity and innovation by especially young people as it gives them access to the internet.
“I would to urge you to work collaboratively with government and the private sector to ensure that we use technologies such as AI, robotics, internet of things, cloud computing and other emerging technologies to elevate the human experience and radically transform innovation, service delivery and economic recovery. Young people are the future and no one can stop them. Seize all the opportunities availed to you as created by our democracy. The future is limitless,” he said.
He also announced the winners in the various categories of challenges happening across four tracks, ranging from the Hackathon and Makerthon, to the Kids’ Robotics Fest and the e-Sports Gaming Fest.
Under the Hackathon the winners were:
- Pluto Africa
- Web Pro
- Mission impossible
Under the Makerthon category we had:
- The Battalions
- Robo crew
- Undertech
The winning team: The Battalions consists of Leah Williams, Jadean Wright and Langalakhe Makhathini who won R20 000 Rands in prizes which is going to assist them with their projects.
Williams was elated that they had won as this was the first time she had won anything.
“We made a smart container which consists of a GPS tracking device that will be located on the cargo itself. We installed a motion sensor that will detect and alert the truck driver, company and the person receiving the cargo,” she said.
She indicated that although IT has never been a consideration for her choice of study since she is on a gap year, she is considering studying it at DUT.
For E-gaming with GoDigital run by Teboho Semmelink, first place we had Radebe Ntokozo, second place was Dlamini Sifiso, and third place was Mtobela Mava. For Kids Robotics fest with The LaGrange Academy run by Trisha Govender, first place was Eureka Mashukana, second place was Thato Moloi, and third place was Makamba.
The Executive Dean, Prof Olugbara, commended the organising team for a well-planned and successful event. He thanked all dignitaries, including the Deputy Minister and the Acting DVC: Teaching and Learning for gracing the event. He indicated that he looks forward to a long standing and fruitful relationship with the partners for the benefit of the Faculty and DUT at large.
Pictured: Faculty of Accounting & Informatics, Professor Oludayo Olugbara, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning, Professor Suren Singh, CEO of Moses Kotane Institute, Dr Thandeka Ellenson, and the Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital technologies, Hon. Philly Mapulane, at the InnovTech Expo 2022
Siphokazi Dlamini/Waheeda Peters
