LIMPOPO VARSITY HACKATHON (LVH)

Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria North Regional Innovation Networking Platform and partners will host the Tshwane Hackathon in October 2022 as part of support to the National Development Plan (Vision 2030) of the government of the Republic of South Africa by addressing Chapter 9 of the plan that has a focus on “Improving Education, Trainin and Innovation”.

WHY ARE WE DOING IT?

To close the agile and cloud computing system development knowledge gap between the industry and university students.

The 4th annual hackathon will take a different shape in 2022 when compared to the traditional editions as was arranged in the previous years. This is because the TVH Organising Team has prioritised two key factors which include:

1) a need to extend the hackathon into a longer program with build-up sprints. This is to accommodate required training for some of the hackers before implementing their ideas through the recommended technologies and methods.

2) To establish TVH identity that promotes creativity by making a call for a design of the TVH brand for every edition. The organising team hold a view that this will present a balanced level of competition and raise the level of quality and continuity on the digital product to be delivered through the hackathon. This posture will further give a good mileage on marketing the TVH throughout the sprints.

Objectives

• To create a knowledge sharing platform for agile software development and cloud computing practices

• To nurture a playground away from a professional’s work routine

• To grow the agility and cloud computing community in SA’s institutes of higher learning

• To disrupt the university Spring Season recess with a fun, focused learning platform

• To organising young people to find digital solutions for Africa’s problems

• To incubate and commission the digital solutions from the hackathon

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Due to the current situation of Covid-19 and the spikes in virus infections, the hackathon will be organized in a hybrid setup where a mixture of virtual and contact activities will be coordinated. Hacking will begin with project introductions. Participants will not be allowed to bring projects they having working on prior the hackathon. Partner industry, municipality (City of Tshwane), Universities will be requested to present challenges that can be used to develop solutions. A platform will be developed for the registration of challenges from industry. Challenges and ideas will be captured and be added into a backlog. The participants will not know the challenges until the day of the hackathon.

HACKATHON PLATFORM

The following virtual platforms will be considered:

• MS Teams

• Google Meet

• WhatsApp

• GIT Hub

• Amazon Web Services

• And others…

TARGET AUDIENCE/PARTICIPANTS

The target participants for the hackathon are TUT Students from relevant faculties, hackers around Tshwane Universities and townships. Each team will be allocated a mentor/coach to work with during the duration of the hackathon.

PRIZES

Yeah you heard right, there are prizes to be won. Prizes includes:

• Cash
• Gifts
• Vouchers
• Training
• Certificates

POST HACKATHON

The hackathon will not only be a one day event but continuous support will be made available to the winners and other qualifying participants. The following range of support will be provided:

• Incubation
• Mentorship & Support
• Dev Ops Cloud Infrastructure
• Seed Funding
• Solution Commissioning

STAKEHOLDERS

Event Venue