MTN is inviting enthusiastic problem-solvers to register to participate in the Telecom Application Developer Hackathon (TADHack) challenge, which will take place from 13 to 14 October 2018 at MTN head office in Johannesburg.
“As the host of TADHack Johannesburg, MTN is proud to host some of South Africa’s most promising creative talent in South Africa. The inaugural TADHack Johannesburg was held in 2016, in which over 100 participants participated, and this year’s event is expected to have a larger turnout due to an increase in public interest,” says Yusuf Kaka, GM: digital innovation at MTN.
The winner of this year’s TADHack will walk away with $1000 in prize money and participants can enter as a team or individuals.
TADHack Johannesburg forms part of TADHack Global, which will run across 20 to 30 cities around the world on 13 and 14 October 2018.
“The essence of the challenge is about bringing people together over a weekend to collaborate on solving real-world problems,” Kaka says.
TADHack Johannesburg is open to everyone – from web developers, coders, to non-coders (students, graphic designers, interface designers, project managers, product managers, IT managers, and other interested individuals).
Past hackathons brought up impressive ideas and solutions in various tech spaces, including programmable telecoms (voice, video, messaging), internet of things (IoT), cloud computing and robotics. This year we hope to add more exponential technologies into the mix including AI, blockchain and VR.
Over the years, most of collaborations at TADHack Global were software-related, but occasionally participants have come up with hardware hacks, the most noteworthy of which was a dancing robot.
“The biggest takeout from TADHack Johannesburg 2016 was that the South African developer community is well versed in the latest technologies and leading the way to a brighter digital world for ordinary South Africans by applying these to real-world challenges,” Kaka says.
“This indicates that we don’t always have to import ideas from other countries. We have the ability to produce local ideas that can be monetised and exported internationally. Since the challenge is global, South African participants will receive global exposure, which could help them break into international markets,” he adds.
The overall winner of TADHack Johannesburg 2016 was the Mobi Moola app, which aimed to assist cellphone users to pay for public transport using airtime instead of cash.