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Tech winners announced today

Winners of a new multimillion-rand technology innovation competition will be revealed today.

Marin'e Jacobs
By Marin'e Jacobs
Johannesburg, 21 Nov 2013
Traction MD Martin Feinstein says R4.5 million worth of prizes will be awarded today.
Traction MD Martin Feinstein says R4.5 million worth of prizes will be awarded today.

Winners of a technology innovation competition, run by government's Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) and Sasol's enterprise development vehicle, Sasol ChemCity, are set to be announced this afternoon.

This is the first year the Step-Up Technology Innovation Competition, run by Traction, is being held and prizes worth R4.5 million are up for grabs. The competition calls for technological innovations from seven industry sectors, namely ICT, chemicals, mining and manufacturing, biotechnology and health, energy, agriculture and green environment.

According to Traction MD Martin Feinstein, the idea for the competition came from a large business plan competition the company ran for the Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) last year. "We got just under 6 000 business plans for that competition and in the process of evaluating all those business plans, it was quite interesting to see there were actually only a few innovation-based businesses and certainly not as many as you would expect," says Feinstein.

After investigating the reason for this, organisers realised people were skittish about submitting their intellectual property to a business competition, and also felt judges in a general business completion will not have the technical expertise to properly adjudicate their innovations, he explains.

"Those insights led us to develop the Step-Up Technology Innovation competition, for people with technology innovation concepts, ideas or existing businesses. And I think we've been proven right in the sense that we got around 400 submissions this year for the first pilot phase of the competition."

Feinstein says entrants submitted their technological concepts online, after which 35 finalists were chosen. Finalists from all over the country presented their innovations to a panel of seven experts yesterday, and 18 winners from the different categories will be announced today.

About R70 000 cash prizes will be awarded, alongside a range of business support prizes, including membership of the Enablis Entrepreneurial Network, business support from SEDA, and six-months' mentorship from an industry expert.

"We will also be identifying out of the finalists [whose concepts] are potentially investment ready, and will be facilitating introduction to venture capital funds for those innovators," says Feinstein. "The TIA has already confirmed their sponsorship for next year, so we will definitely be running the competition again."

Update

The winners of the different categories of the Step-Up Technology Innovation competition are:

ICT: Duran and Alexa de Villiers (Steadidrone), who design aerial vehicles specialising in advanced aerial photography, HD filming and aerial imaging platforms for the commercial, industrial and film industries.

Chemicals: Jeremy Klaasen (Kraalbos Bio-Health Products) is developing a unique, multifunctional cosmetic ingredient that delivers herbal attributes to personal care products as well as a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity.

Mining and manufacturing: Ismael Hassen and Rashaad Musa (CSR-Africa Tank Repairs) designed Bitu-Box, a mobile storage or transport unit for bulk bitumen with an integrated heating system that offers advantages over the conventional drum. This design has a life span of seven years versus drums that can only be used once-off, allows for faster depot turnaround times with less labour, and eliminates environmental air pollution.

Energy: Bryan Anderson and Jacques Verwey (Delta Steam Systems) developed the Delta Venturi Steam Trap, a technologically advanced device that is able to remove water from a steam system, while keeping the high-pressure steam in the system, without the use of moving parts.

Health and biotechnology: Drew van der Riet (Advanced Affordable Prosthetics) and Xoliswa Malinga and Malegola Mohlala (BB Unbraid Spray) were joint winners. Van der Riet presented a concept that brings the latest innovations in research to the field of upper limb electromyography prosthetics, for example restoring the sense of touch to the wearer of the prosthesis. Malinga and Mohlala developed Unbraid Spray that biochemically breaks down the synthetic polymer used to manufacture artificial hair used for braiding of hair, allowing braids to be rapidly detached from natural hair.

Green environment: Michael Suttner (Interloop Global) presented The Lightie, an efficient patent-pending test-tube shaped solar-powered light bulb that has been designed to fit into a standard PET soda bottle, converting the bottle into a multifunctional solar-powered lantern or task light.

Food and agriculture: Amelia Rampersad (Bio Research and Development) presented Flypot, a flytrap equipped with special bio-engineered bait designed to attract fly species common in agricultural areas. The trap has a sealable mechanism for hygienic disposal.

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