This past weekend saw 45 South African y0uth take part in a STEM Hackathon organized by Accenture over the weekend.
The Hackathon was organized with the aim of stimulating youth’s interest in taking on STEM careers in preparation for the 4TH Industrial Revolution economy.
Head of Corporate Citizenship and Inclusion and Diversity Lead for Accenture in Africa, Khethiwe Nkuna said, “We wanted to honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela by hosting an event that is not only a fun and enjoyable day out for learners from disadvantaged communities, but also impart useful, practical skills in order to prepare them for the 4th Industrial Revolution and boost their employability.”
“Our hope is that Accenture’s STEM Activity Hackathon will go some way towards instilling a love of math and science in young learners, who will one day go on to be the leaders of tomorrow.”
“It is often said that a large percentage of learners starting school today will one day fill jobs that do not yet exist. We believe that by imparting greater technical skills on learners and instilling the desire of learning math and science skills, we can better prepare our youth for an increasingly digital future.”
At the Hackathon, one batch of learners had to build a telegraph out of everyday objects to reinforce their understanding of electrical energy and its role in communications.
Using a customized workbook, they then had to send and receive information in Morse code using their telegraph.
The other batch of learners had to build robotic models from cardboard and straws to understand the anatomy and bio-mechanics of the human hand.
They conducted trials visualizing data in Excel to generate new ideas for improving the performance of their robotic models.
At the end of it all the winners were selected and awarded medals during the prize-giving at the end of the day.
