Mobile apps walked away with prize money at the Innovate South Africa Final Showcase over the weekend, which looks to reward innovative young people with the chance to further incubate their projects.
Paragon Protein from the Cape Academy of Maths, Science and Technology in Cape Town won the overall award for its project aimed at combatting child malnutrition with the high protein superfood spirulina.
Two mobile apps also won prizes, with Transport Revolution from COSAT, Khayelitsha, winning the Best Progress Prize of ZAR2,000 (US$180) for their ticketing system that allows users to recharge train cards using their mobile phones, and HushApp from Rustenberg Girls High winning the Best Presentation Prize of ZAR1,000 (US$90) for their Android application to help women cope with physical insecurities.
The eight competing projects were originally chosen after Innovate South Africa reached out to schools to run workshops and invited submissions to the competition. The selected teams – eight from Cape Town and two from Johannesburg – then received up to ZAR5,000 (US$460) in seed funding to develop their prototype over three months.
