The North-West University's (NWU’s) bhive Enterprise Development Centre, in partnership with Mindworx, recently hosted the 2024 Geekulcha Internal Hackathon on the Vanderbijlpark Campus.

The six-day event, themed "Empowering the Vaal through digital innovation", highlighted the tremendous potential of digital innovation in addressing local community challenges.

According to Jacqui Muller, an organiser from the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, the primary goal of the event was to leverage technology to enhance campus life and tackle broader social and economic issues in the Vaal Triangle area.

Participants from the Kitso Foundation were invited to join the hackathon, which also featured mentorship, workshops, and hands-on experience to further develop their skills for future innovation challenges.

Jacqui says the event was a great success and that the outstanding contributions from various teams, including those from the Kitso Foundation, contributed to the collaborative spirit of the event. She adds that the impact of these projects extends beyond the hackathon, as they provide scalable solutions for pressing community needs in the Vaal Triangle area.

"Participants were tasked with devising solutions in critical areas such as safety, education access, environmental concerns, unemployment and public transportation. These categories were chosen to address urgent issues within the Vaal community," she explains.

The Real Madrid team secured first place in the hackathon. This team, which included two members from the Kitso Foundation, developed a centralised business council platform to validate the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission registration of local businesses. Their solution aims to empower communities by ensuring that the businesses they support are legitimate, thereby fostering trust and transparency in local commerce.

The Eagle Eye Team, securing second place, presented an innovative drone-based crime detection solution. Their system utilises drones to monitor and identify potential criminal activities, with the goal of enhancing public safety by enabling quicker response times and improving crime prevention efforts.

The 2024 Geekulcha Internal Hackathon highlighted the tremendous potential of digital innovation in addressing community challenges.