VidlyIT, a solution that uses IoT smart water meter sensors to assess, aggregated smart reports on the water quantity and quality in circulation, has won the Empire Partner Foundation Hydro Solution Hackathon. The Empire Partner Foundation is a non-profit organisation started by a group of young South Africans. Its goal is to build South Africa, and eventually, the continent of Africa, by solving critical challenges through tech.
The Empire Partner Foundation has committed to mentoring VidlyIT for 6-months.
“This is one example of how the Empire Partner Foundation is uncovering potential, empowering the technology enthusiasts for impact” the Empire Partner Foundation said in a statement.
“We want to make a significant contribution to the future-innovations. Digitisation can play an essential role in this. To this end, it is important to investigate how we can bridge the gap between authorities, governments and society in the fields of artificial Intelligence, blockchain and IoT. The task is to connect these worlds, so that they can reinforce each other in the present and the future thinking. The use of technology can give a boost to this.”
This hackathon was the first of twelve-monthly hackathons that the Foundation has planned for 2021.
This hackathon was aimed at solving challenges in South Africa’s water sector. With water scarcity being a significant driver facing this sector, and the current usage trends include consumer demands are likely to exceed supply and availability of economically usable freshwater resources in the future.
Continuing industrialisation and urbanisation trends are expected to place further pressure on the country’s water supply sources unless appropriate corrective action is taken.
The Hydro Solution Hackathon emphasised design ICT enabled intelligent solutions that measure demand, utilisation, allocation, billing and waste to address this challenge.
The hackathon was a success, attracting several developers, private sector experts and public sector decision-makers. A total of 48 developers participated in the hackathon, attracting talented young, developers of which we have seen a rise amongst attendees.
To supplement the developers’ context around the problem statement, the Water Research Commission and Provincial & Local Government Infrastructure at National Treasury supported the hackathon.
The developers enjoyed a weekend filled with applying their skills and talent to propose smart solutions to advance impact. The bonus was having access to community leaders, mentors and making new friends. Seven teams competed against each other, receiving mentoring from industry leaders, senior academic students and local South African startups.
