North-West University (NWU) students Karabo Makau, Matshepo Soto and Potego Sethwape recently walked away with the spoils in a hackathon hosted by Lelapa AI at the University of Johannesburg that took place from 29 to 30 June 2024.
The team, known as Unitech, was challenged to create a municipality WhatsApp chatbot for the prepaid electricity meter ground team.
They designed their chatbot to seamlessly track logged tickets by verifying meter numbers before creating service tickets. This innovative solution earned them first place and a cash prize of R10 000, along with an additional R10 000 to further develop their idea for launch at the Lelapa AI Conference in September.
Karabo says they used the Vulavula API (application programming interface) to facilitate effective communication and transcription, supporting four African languages – English, isiZulu, Sesotho and Afrikaans. Their goal was to streamline query management for municipal technicians.
"Participating in hackathons is always an honour, but this time it meant a lot more. Learning to use APIs from scratch in just 48 hours and winning first place was an incredible experience," says Karabo.
He adds that it was not all smooth sailing, and that the development phase presented some challenges, particularly when integrating the Vulavula API to enhance the chatbot's functionality. However, teamwork helped them overcome these obstacles.
The chatbot leverages machine learning, utilising the Vulavula API's transcription and translation features to handle verbal and non-verbal communication with users. It efficiently issues tickets to the back-end dashboard for the ground team, ensuring smooth service delivery.
Karabo expresses his gratitude to the Lelapa AI team for their support, emphasising that with continued financial backing, they aim to bring the project to life in the coming months. Updates will be provided as they work towards presenting a fully functional system at the Lelapa AI Conference in September.
From left are Jade Abbott, chief technical officer and co-founder of Lelapa AI), Potego Sethwape, Matshepo Soto, Karabo Makau, and Penelomi Moiloa, CEO and co-founder of Lelapa AI.
