In an effort to determine the skills needed for a changing world, the National Electronic Media Institute in South Africa (NEMISA) will host a data science and fourth industrial revolution (4IR) hackathon.
The hybrid hackathon will take place from 19 to 21 November, with the in-person section hosted in three different locations: North West’s Mafikeng Digital Innovation Hub; NEMISA in Parktown, Gauteng; and Free State’s Central University of Technology.
According to NEMISA, the hackathon will be held under the theme “Democratising data science and the future of work in the 4IR”.
It seeks to bring together government, academia, industry, organised labour and civil society to deliberate on how the 4IR and COVID-19 have changed the value of digital skills, and how SA can better prepare for a changed world.
Some of the questions the hackathon will engage in include how susceptible jobs in each sector or industry are to digitisation in the 4IR, how an individual can know how long their skills will remain valuable, how dynamic career pathways can be created so that individuals and groups can begin the journey of upskilling and re-skilling, how domain experts can better participate in the data science movement, and the new jobs in data science that will be required in that sector.
NEMISA is an entity of the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, whose mandate is to be a sustainable skills training provider in digital technologies and creative media spaces. It also targets in-school and out of school youth, women, people with disabilities, SMMEs and communities in general.
It notes the data sets that will be used during the hackathon have been sourced in partnership with the Human Sciences Research Council and SEDA. The data sets will be cleaned to remove any privacy information, it states.
Cash prizes will be up for grabs, with the overall winner walking away with R30 000, R20 000 for the runner-up and R10 000 for the second runner-up. There is also a prize of R150 000 towards the improvement of the winning solution.
To register a team to participate in the hackathon, click here.
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