Sinaye Sotatshe, a third-year Computer Science student from the University of
Zululand (UNIZULU), has been placed
in the top 10 of the international Cloud
DevJam Hackathon.
Organised by Zaio in Cape Town, the
coding gameshow aimed to find the best
Mern stack (JavaScript/React) developer
team in the world. Upon successfully
qualifying to participate in the hackathon,
Sotatshe was paired with Durban-
based software developer Ronica
Singh for the challenge.
There were more than 200 applications
received from about twenty-three
countries all over the world. Sixty-four
teams were selected and Sotatshe’s team
went through. “We had to hack our way
through a series of challenges during a
six-week period, with each week providing
more obstacles than the last. Each
team was given five days to complete
the solution.
The solutions were then compared with one another, with the best solution winning the round. My team
was able to pull through. Losing teams
were eliminated from the challenge,”
explained an ecstatic Sotatshe.
The team with the best solution wins
the round and moves along into the next
week where they face their opponents.
“The series went on, my team made it to
the fifth week of the challenge. We were
given some prizes for making it to the top
10 in the challenge. My prize includes an
ASUS VivoBook, which was delivered to
me.” Sotatshe said.
Sotatshe admitted that he is a novice
when it comes to participating in hackathons.
He said he has always been eager
to put his skills into practice, as JavaScript
is his hobby language. Even though he
was never taught this at UNIZULU, from
learning Introduction to Software Engineering,
he is now able to pick up any
language of his choice. Sotatshe has also
recently attended the MTN Business App
of the Year Hackathon, where he used
Flutter as a solution. It took him two
days to switch from JavaScript to Flutter.
The Deputy Dean of the Faculty of
Science and Agriculture, Dr Pragasen
Mudali, in his congratulatory message,
said: “Sinaye has shown great initiative
in entering hackathons so that he can
exercise the skills and knowledge that
he has gained in his Computer Science
classes. His achievements reflect very
well on the relevance of the Computer
Science curriculum and the commitment
of our lecturers towards the development
of our students. As his Introduction to
Software Engineering lecturer, I am very
proud of Sinaye’s achievements thus far.
He has followed in the footsteps of previous
cohorts of students and is now an
inspiration for our current students. I
have every confidence that Sinaye will
continue to fly the flag for Computer
Science at UNIZULU.”
By Precious Shamase