Three student teams have been named winners of the the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) Student App Challenge, with competitors being judged on the basis of sustainable value creation.
Disrupt Africa reported last month Johannesburg’s Wits University launched the Student App Challenge at its new Digital Innovation Zone (DIZ), in a bid to encourage the creation of student-relative apps.
The challenge culminated with the final pitching event held over the weekend; with the developers asked to pitch their solutions, covering problem definition, validation and MVP demonstration in the allocated five minutes; followed by a Q&A session with the judges.
The organisers said the challenge differed from a traditional Hackathon model due to the significant amount of emphasis placed on idea validation and ensuring that the Apps promise sustainable value creation.
The top three winners of the challenge were named as Gig Guide – a student event listing platform that notifies users of upcoming events depending on their registered interests; I’m Interested, an app connecting students with similar interests and skills; and Wits Locate, which allows Wits students to determine their location based on uploaded photos, and includes a directions feature.
The winners received an Apple iPad Air and membership to the Wits Digital Innovation Zone.
The event also saw a number of category prizes awarded.
The Wits Meal App – which allows students to search for available meals of the day from restaurants in and around Wits campuses – took home the Most Innovative Idea Award; real time revision video on demand platform IQMates won the Ready For Market Award; and the Most Required Idea Award was awarded to Bus Control, which asks students to check-in at bus stations thereby providing bus drivers real-time data to determine the amount of buses to supply at different bus stations.
Three students with the best presentations were also recognised. These were the developers of second hand book trading platform Need A Book; Wits Happening – a planner that aggregates a user’s Wits activities; and 24.
