The SA Innovation Summit will now include a 24-hour Hackathon from 15:00 on Friday, 28 August to 15:00 on Saturday, 29 August at the Cape Town Stadium in Green Point.

Attendees will have the opportunity to meet and work together with programmers, designers, creatives and early childhood development (ECD) practitioners with the aim of creating mobile applications to benefit children most at risk in our society. Entries will be capped so be sure to register soon.

The focus of the Hackathon will be in early childhood development (ECD). Global interest in ECD has been fueled by the overwhelming evidence that quality learning programmes stimulate individual growth and impact positively on national achievement. Early childhood development promotes greater equality, better health, better education, greater economic productivity and more social cohesion.

Challenges to quality early learning, which will be addressed through participation in the hackathon, include limited access to good nutrition for children and pregnant women; lack of responsive care; an absence of early stimulation; a lack of child safety; a lack of parent involvement and training for practitioners; as well as limited meaningful cross-sector collaboration.

The Hackathon will be hosted by the Innovation Edge, IBM, Silicon Cape and the SA Innovation Summit.

“A platform such as the SA Innovation Summit offers many exciting possibilities for addressing challenges within the early learning space.  We hope to harness the creative thinking and technological know-how of the people attending the Summit and encourage them to apply their skills to resolve problems that children in South Africa, and their caregivers, face on a daily basis,” says Sonja Giese, programme leader at the Innovation Edge, a social fund supporting ideas with the potential to revolutionise the early learning opportunities for children.

In order for the hackers to be efficient inside the Hackathon, IBM will host Bluemix training event/s a week before the Hackathon. IBM will be providing access to the IBM Bluemix cloud platform, as well as technical support on the day, to ensure that the day runs smoothly. Bluemix is a cloud application development platform built on open standards.

Solutions emerging from the Hackathon will be judged by a panel of technology and ECD experts and prizes will be awarded based on creativity, feasibility, cost-effectiveness and potential for implementation at scale.

To register for the Hackathon, click here.

For more information, visit www.innovationedge.org.za. Alternatively connect with them onFacebook or Twitter.