Vodacom and Meraka have teamed up to bring you the "Education & Training Challenge 2010" ("Improving youngsters' attitude towards Science and Mathematics").




Access to high-quality education and training remains a key obstacle for South Africa’s economy and skills. Although government has identified mathematics and science as key school focus subjects to reach its education development goals – and mathematics has been made a compulsory subject in the general and further education and training bands to increase pass rates in the subject – continuing low pass rates do not augur well for the future. (Source: Engineering News, Aug 2009).

This Education and Training Challenge is to to create a mobile solution that can be delivered via mobile, that will show youngsters that mathematics and science have practical, real world applications and/or show how mathematics and science are exciting subjects. There are many examples of how this is done in the TV world, with series like "Mythbusters", "How stuff works", "Tomorrow's World" and "Extreme Engineering". How would you translate this to the mobile world? One example could be a game in which a learner would need to employ mathematics and/or science in order to progress to new levels/challenges, but there are sure to be many other innovative approaches.

The winning entry will receive R 20,000.00 cash AND the opportunity to discuss options with the Vodacom Innovation team. The overall winner across the three Vodacom Challenges will scoop a further R 20,000.00 cash!


Entry Criteria:

• Entrants must be registered as a developer in the Betavine Community
• Entries need to be submitted in English
• Entries must be designed to be deployable in South Africa (but not restricted to this region)

How to enter:

After signing in you'll be able to click on the "Create a Solution to this Challenge" button at the bottom of this page and start uploading prototypes or application designs to your Solution page.

Once you're logged in, existing Solutions can also be linked to this challenge.

All entries must include the following documentation:

1. Solution description

Which particular issue you are addressing? Why would people use it? What difference will it make to users' lives? What will the user experience be? Include a technical overview or specification.

2. Sustainability plan

How much will the mobile solution cost to develop and operate? How will the mobile solution pay for itself over the long-term? Will it be supported by local governments, businesses or NGOs? Will the end users pay for the service? If this is the case provide budget, cash flow analysis, etc. Will the operational costs of the application be covered in other ways?

3. Pilot testing plan

Where and how do you intend to test the application? How many users will be involved? How long will the pilot run? How will you measure performance?

Who can enter?

You must not be (and none of Your parents, siblings or children can be) a current employee or contractor of Vodafone/Vodacom or the Meraka Institute.


Success criteria

The judging panel, made up of representatives from Vodacom and RLabs, will assess the entries based on the following criteria:

• Value to the potential user – how much impact will it have on the average user?
• Ease of use and deployment – how easy is it for a non-technical user to understand and benefit from the application? How easy is it to quickly deploy the solution?
• Stability and scalability – how easy is it to add increasing amounts of users to the system?
• Innovation – how does the submission use mobile technology to provide creative solutions to existing problems?
• Sustainability – how viable is the long-term plan for meeting and/or exceeding operational costs?
• Viable pilot testing plan – what criteria can be used to judge the success of the pilot test?

Prize:
One cash prize R20,000 with the opportunity for meetings with the Vodacom Innovation team to discuss deployment options.
AND the overall winner across the three Vodacom Challenges will scoop a further R 20,000 cash!


Opening and Closing Dates:
Opening: 8th March 2010
Closing: 31st May 2010


If you are concerned about protecting your intellectual property rights, then you are strongly advised to seek independent professional advice as to the possibility of safeguarding any potentially inventive element contained within your entry by means of a patent application or other form of intellectual property right, before submission of your entry.