Johannesburg, 21 Jan 2005
Following last year's success, Software AG South Africa this year again provided financial and allied support to the University of Pretoria's Software Engineering programme.
The assistance took the form of a sponsorship of the monetary prizes awarded at the annual Project Day, staged by the third-year students and attended by business executives, industry representatives, judges and students. Software AG SA also made available Tamino XML Server software and support, while one of its technical specialists, Frikkie Bosch, served as one of the three judges.
Students were required to propose a concept and develop it through the entire software engineering process, from requirements, analysis, architecture and design phases to implementation. According to Prof Jan Eloff, Head of the university's Computer Science department, students had to produce comprehensive documentation at each stage of the process.
Thereafter they had to demonstrate the prototype on three separate occasions, as well as on Project Day. The students' presentation skills were evaluated, and marks were awarded for all phases and demonstrations. All projects had to incorporate some connectivity as well as a measure of intelligence.
The first prize went to a team calling itself AgriIT, for a comprehensive software package which allows farmers to schedule irrigation programmes from the comfort of their home PC. Traditionally farmers rely on manual methods to switch on/off their watering apparatus. The winning project incorporates a scheduling application which works in tandem with moisture meters in the field to enable optimal management of the farm's irrigation.
Second prize was awarded to the Silver Salamander Technologies team (who also landed the prize for best stand on Project Day). Their package, Ringforge, facilitates communication between jewellery designers and their clients, minimising frustration and disappointing results. Ringforge also optimises the design process by providing an environment in which ideas are shared and synergised, as well as an easy to use perspective in which designed models are represented.
Software AG SA's operations manager, Frank Kelly, comments: "The standard of the projects was again extremely high, in line with the ever greater sophistication of the IT market. We are impressed with the students' work, and privileged to be involved with this aspect of the university's excellent Computer Science programme."
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