Rudolf Gaiseb
The New Era Publication Corporation (NEPC), in collaboration with the National Commission on Research, Science and Technology (NCRST), on Sunday awarded the winners of the maiden Artificial Intelligence (AI) Innovation Hackathon.
The competition is part of the two corporations’ initiatives to give opportunity to young people to use their knowledge and skills to solve real-world problems.
The competition, which brought together young innovators from various tertiary institutions and other entities, was held under a theme ‘Coding the Future of Media’.
“As the national body for research and science, the NCRST is proud to facilitate this platform for Namibian researchers and students to apply their skills to real-world industrial problems,” said NCRST head of corporate communication and marketing Liz Tashiya.
Out of many applicants, 25 participants were selected.
Meanwhile, NEPC CEO Christof Maletsky outlined that hackathons are powerful because they bring together diverse skills and perspectives.
“Developers, engineers, analysts, designers and innovators all working together in a collaborative environment can produce remarkable ideas in a very short time,” he said.
Participants were adjudicated based on the originality and the power of the AI innovation, its impact and effectiveness on organisations’ needs as well as its usability.
Industry experts were invited as mentors to guide the participants throughout the competition.
Captain of the winning team Alfred Jaftha, an information and technology student at Triumphant College, shared that a lot of hard work went into their prototype.
He said AI is very important in analysing data and predicting patterns in processes.
“There is so much data in our lives every day that most of us think it’s just a bunch of noise. But in this noise, there is some pattern. And these patterns create value, and they create new ways of looking at things. Ways that you probably might have overlooked in the past, but now it’s super streamlined and easy to work with,” he said.