Call for youth to participate in 4IR, data science hackathon
DATE: 9 November 2021
AUTHOR: Business Live
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. 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.