The shutdown of physical learning in institutions meant that universities had to resort to emergency online learning through digital technologies to deliver education to students. The rapid transition unleashed a future of digital transformation, offering new ways of learning and teaching in the sector. (more…)
Ya Basadi hopes to strengthen women’s role in the technological industry.
A civil engineering student from Wits launches a new social media app. (more…)
The fourth industrial revolution is not only a digital disruption of all industries but also a wave of technological innovation to better the way humans interface with technology
(more…)
Creators at Wits Tshimologong have created an app to help solve service delivery problems.
Final year electrical engineering students are showing support for their female colleagues.
The winners of a travel innovation competition will use their winnings to fund a start-up.
Lungelo Sigudla is a second-year mechanical engineering student who designed a long-range wireless charger last year.
A new web based app is taking the stress out of front seat taxi travel by doing all the calculations for you.
FRONT SEAT FOR DUMMIES: New app Phambili is making taxi travel less stressful for commuters. Photo: Thembisile Dzonzi
If you’ve ever been in a Johannesburg taxi, you would know how daunting the task is of sitting in front and counting the fare. Even with advanced arithmetic skills, calculating change for 15 people can be daunting.
The rule is commuters who sit in front are tasked with calculating the fare for the rest of the passengers. Now, thanks to a new app called Phambili, the front seat pressure is off.
Phambili is giving the taxi industry a much needed digital face lift and making the travel experience less stressful for commuters.
Phambili allows the user to enter the taxi fare for the trip. The app then adds the number of people that have paid and the amount they have paid. Using the details provided, Phambili calculates the change and tells the user how much the driver’s money will be in total.
The app has also recently been improved with a multiple calculation platform that allows it to calculate for trips with two fares.
According to logistics company Afta Robot, the South African minibus taxi industry is serviced by more than 300,000 vehicles transporting more than 14-million daily passengers.
Phambili is also a building a database of routes and their costs.
Access the app on their website www. phambili.co.za.
You can also take their “return change challenge” to see how the app works.
NEW TOOLS: Laura Grant of the Mail&Guardian demonstrated some new applications for producing digital journalism. PHOTO: Katleho Sekhotho.
The 2015 Menell Media Exchange conference started today at Maslow Hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg.
Some of South Africa’s most respected journalists, media practitioners, educators and students joined international visitors and guests for the second Menell Media Exchange conference.
Peter Ndoro, Lester Kiewet and Jeremy Maggs were some of the prominent speakers and guests on the first day of the conference in Sandton, Johannesburg, which focused primarily on training and workshops.
Themed as “innovation, brand and sustainability”, the opening panels focused on brand building by individuals and journalists in particular. Veteran journalist Gus Silber provided key insights into the use of social media for journalism and as a tool for journalists to increase their visibility.
Fascinating workshop at @mmx_za by @gussilber about journos branding their bylines on social media. Your Twitter bio IS your brand. #MMX15
— Andrea van Wyk (@AndyvanWyk) June 12, 2015
The Mail & Guardian’s Laura Grant and SABC’s Tegan Bedser, demonstrated various apps that can be used in digital storytelling.
Free storytelling tools! You know you want them. Here is the link to @LauraJGrant and my presentation at #MMX15 today:http://t.co/z9ldDghDu3 — Tegan Bedser (@TeganBedser) June 12, 2015
Jeremy Maggs joined eNCA’s Patrick Conroy on a panel that explored the difficult subject of funding journalism in ways that does not impede it.
Andrew Phelps, senior product manager for the New York Times, gave the afternoon keynote address and stressed the importance of innovation in newsrooms.
NYT’s @andrewphelps says it’s important for news orgs to take one new risk each year not directly linked to profit. #MMX15
— Alastair Otter (@alastairotter) June 12, 2015
New York Times had an app ready for the launch of Apple iWatch. That’s innovation at the centre of the company culture. #MMX15
— Patrick Conroy (@PatrickConroySA) June 12, 2015
The conference continues tomorrow.
BOILING HOT: Braamfontein’s Boiler Room showcases work by students and up and coming designers and architects.
Photo: provided
A small, dark room in a Braamfontein alley is opening spaces and places for lovers of architecture and design.
The Boiler Room is part of the Alive Architecture initiative, located down an alley just off Melle Street, opposite the Neighbourgoods Market. It serves as a space for architecture students and upcoming architects to showcase their work at no cost.
In the first six weeks of its opening, the room had over 1200 visitors, and is becoming known as a space for innovation according to the owners.
Alive Architecture as an architectural gallery was developed in September 2011 and it now has a home in Braamfontein in as of December 2013. The studio that now houses this innovative space is about 25 square metres is a small dark room. The space has a boiler for the building, which is above it in one corner, hence its name The Boiler Room.
The owner Pieter-Ernst Maré – along with Simon Cretney – says that the room caters specifically for students, upcoming architects and designers because this group does not get the chance to showcase as much as developed designers and architects.
“We felt that the smaller designers don’t get enough exposure to the general public,” said Maré.
Maré says that when the concept was drawn up in 2011 there weren’t many showrooms that were available for these marginalised groups to showcase their work for free.
Maré, who is a blogger and architect, says they look at proposals for the use of the space and choose a variety of ideas so the public can get a range of skills, trades and art exhibited in the space.
“We really don’t mind what our tenants do with the space – as long as we get it back like we gave it to them, so that the next exhibitor can step in and showcase with the minimum of fuss and expense in setting themselves up,” said Maré.
He said that many people do not understand the architecture industry. The Alive Architecture initiatives through The Boiler Room aims to educate the public about the work that goes into designing homes and work spaces.
Maré says the initiative wants to show that “architecture isn’t just about keeping water out of a space, that landscape architecture is not about picking the right petunia colour and that interior architecture is not about scatter cushions and curtains”. It’s an exploration of materials, ideas and philosophies that translate into a space, he says.
Maré says they hope to expand and showcase South African talent in other parts of the country in the near future.
We Should Be Writing podcast