{
  "id": 14898071,
  "title": "Vodacom, AWS extend AI for Africa Hackathon Challenge to UJ students",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/16/vodacom-aws-extend-ai-for-africa-hackathon-challenge-to-uj-students",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-10-16T06:19:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "ITWeb",
    "slug": "itweb",
    "url": "https://www.itweb.co.za/article/vodacom-aws-extend-ai-for-africa-hackathon-challenge-to-uj-students/O2rQGMAEWD3Md1ea"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The AI for Africa Hackathon Challenge, held at Vodacom World in Johannesburg, saw over 150 University of Johannesburg (UJ) students develop AI-driven solutions to tackle real-world issues. This hackathon is part of an extended partnership between Vodacom, UJ, and Amazon Web Services (AWS), providing students with the chance to apply AI in areas like maternal health, community safety, gender-based violence, youth employment, accessibility, water security, and agriculture.\n\nPresenting their ideas to a panel of judges, students showcased how AI could be utilized to address problem statements set for the challenge. Three projects stood out as the top performers. The winning project, Mzansi Farmer AI, tackled climate and production risks, market access, value chain inefficiencies, and digital infrastructure barriers. Its dashboard combines climate and market information, with AI-generated recommendations to help farmers make informed decisions, regardless of their connectivity levels.\n\nAWS supplied students with access to cloud, data, and AI technologies, along with computing resources, enabling them to experiment, build, and test their solutions. Charlotte Kepadisa, Vodacom Group's managing executive of big data, AI, and robotic process automation, emphasized the importance of investing in people alongside technology to build Africa's AI capabilities.\n\nProfessor Stella Bvuma, director of UJ's School of Consumer Intelligence and Information Systems, highlighted how the AI components were designed to offer personalized guidance, identify potential risks, and generate relevant recommendations. This collaboration between industry and academia is crucial as it exposes students to professional technologies and problem-solving approaches, bridging the gap between classroom learning and industry expectations.\n\nFirst-year business IT student Dione Gwara chose to attend the hackathon to gain coding experience and showcase his talent.",
  "summary": "The AI for Africa Hackathon Challenge gave UJ students hands-on experience developing AI solutions to real-world problems.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}