Five of CUT's Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology students recently took part in the South African Breweries (SAB) KickStart Ignite programme, a youth entrepreneurship development programme aimed at investing and supporting young entrepreneurs in building sustainable and economically viable enterprises, which will enable them to make a high impact contribution towards reducing poverty through job creation.  The programme started in October 2015 and ended in March 2016 where 20 young participants were selected across the country of which five of them are from CUT. 

As a university of technology, CUT’s drive is to promote innovation and entrepreneurship among students and staff to discover and develop their full potential and create wealth not just by knowledge and skills, but also, how they can exploit the knowledge and skills for their own livelihood, as well as of their families, communities, the city and ultimately the region. The SAB is making a meaningful contribution towards increased economic inclusion by promoting industrialisation and driving access to the market for youth owned businesses. Out of the 20 selected young entrepreneurs, only five winners walked away with a R1.2 million share seed grant capital to launch their start-ups for their individual businesses. To participate, candidates had to come up with a commercially viable product concept that is in line with Manufacturing or ICT Industry, be prepared to commit to the six months process of incubation and be willing to invest their efforts in developing the prototype into a commercially viable product. 

 

The students who participated in the programme are: Tshepo Kukuni, MTech -Computer Systems, Siyavuya Ngudle, NDip- Information Technology,Mbangiso Mabaso, N Dip- Electrical Engineering and 3^rd Prize winner, Africa Dintwe, BTech – Electronics Engineering and Pontsho Moletsane, B Tech- Civil Engineering, specialising in Water Engineering and the 1^st prize winner. Winners walked away with 3^rd Prize winner: R200 000 and 1^st prize winner: R400 000. 

Other innovative ideas are:

• Mbangiso Mabaso, third prize winner, created EED- an energy saving game and a fun way of how to save electricity,
• Tshepo Kukuni created a Biometric Humidity Sensor, a device that can be used as a high-security measures. When programmed, the device can detect the users’ fingerprints and match it with their face,
• Siyavuya Ngudle created a Website for students to easily access textbooks. The project is called Varsity Text books,
• Africa Dintwe’s creation-Arduino Cool is an electronic and programming fun game for kids that aims to bring fun to the computer whizz kids. It makes learning easy for computer crazy  kids as well as bringing the fun in technology.
• Pontsho Moletsane, the 1^st prizewinner who created a device that monitors and saves water usage of water irrigation. The project is called Nosetsa.

Images 

1: Five CUT’s Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology participants showing off some of their prizes, from left: Tshepo Kukuni, MTech: Computer Systems, Siyavuya Ngudle, NDip: Information Technology, Mbangiso Mabaso, N Dip: Electrical Engineering and 3rd Prize winner, Africa Dintwe, BTech: Electrical Engineering and Pontsho Moletsane, B Tech: Civil Engineering, specialising in Water Engineering and the 1st prize winner. 

2: The winning project: Nosetsa. Pontsho Moletsane’s creation that saw him walking away with R400 000 for his business idea development. The product is a device that is aimed at saving water. The device senses humidity in the soil and monitors usage of water irrigation.