Computer Science researchers win SIMagine competition

Dr Hannah Thinyane and Dr Mamello Thinyane won the award for the mobile telecom applications category in the 2010 SIMagine developer contest.  The prize was presented at the SIMagine awards ceremony, held in Rome.

Their application, called mKratos, is a cellphone-based voting and polling service that allows citizens to influence decisions that impact on them.  This opens up participation in government decision-making to almost all citizens of any nation, no where they are located.  This is particularly relevant in the rural areas of South Africa where cellphones are often the only form of technology that is available in disadvantaged communities.

As part of the prize money, they will receive access to a business incubator, based in the South of France for a year, in order to allow them to develop their prototype into a commercially-viable product.