Huawei has some good news to share from one of its skills development initiatives, Seeds of the Future, as its 2021 class was recognised for its innovative anti-poaching solution in the global Tech4Good competition.
The South African project – called SA-Tech – South Africa’s Intrusion Detection System, beat out entries from 79 other countries around the globe and placed in the Top 10, alongside those from Argentina, Thailand, Brazil, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Poland, Vietnam, and Bangladesh.
Additionally, it was placed in the top three in the Tech4Good’s Audience Award, which is voted for by social media users from around the world.
“The project itself aims to bring together cameras and motion sensors feeding information into the cloud via TV whitespaces to help detect poachers, who are the biggest threat to South Africa’s critically endangered rhinos. The system is designed to help assist the rangers protect wildlife and help keep them safe at night and during the day,” adds Huawei in a press release sent to Hypertext.
“South Africa is full of talented and skilled young people, but we lack exposure. It is through programmes and competitions like these that youth skills, knowledge, and talent can be unleashed, and the youth unemployment rate reduced,” noted Siyabonga Thomas Shandu, an SA-Tech team member and current University of Johannesburg student.
With Seeds of the Future designed to better equip learners with the necessary technology skills required to get employed, Huawei is also aiming for initiatives like this to open students up to new experiences and challenges.
“At Huawei South Africa, we have long been committed to developing ICT talent through our various programmes like Seeds for the Future, which exposes learners to courses on the latest technologies like 5G, Cloud, AI and IoT,” highlighted Huawei South Africa CEO Spawn Fan.
“In 2021, we decided to incorporate this competition under our Tech4Good programme which is focused on getting students to think about how to use technology to address social and environmental issues. It’s wonderful to see how the participants rose to the challenge and have produced a project that competes with the best in the world,” he concluded.
It will be interesting to see where the SA Tech team class of 2021 is in the coming years and what impact they can have on the local ICT landscape.
