The Greater Tygerberg Partnership (GTP) is launching an innovation challenge to surface cutting-edge, implementable ideas that will help to enhance the safety of students in the area. The challenge is open to teams of students living in residences in the Bellville central business district (CBD) and the Greater Tygerberg Area. Over R30 000 in prizes are up for grabs, along with a chance to see their solutions transformed from idea to reality. The competition launches on 3 April, with submission of 3 May.
Warren Hewitt, Chief Executive Officer of the GTP, says: “Students are such an important part of Bellville’s social fabric, with over 5 000 students living here, they bring a buzz and energy to the area and we don’t ever want to lose that. But the challenge is to keep them safe while they’re living here, and that’s what the innovation challenge is all about.”
Bellville is rapidly becoming a student-centric city. It is home to leading tertiary institutions including the University of the Western Cape, Stellenbosch University Business School (located in Tyger Valley), the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Tygerberg Hospital, Boston City Campus, Northlink College and Cape Peninsula University of Technology, among others. Students travel from across the country to participate in the quality education that these institutions offer.
However, as with any city, safety is still a major concern for students as they travel through the area. Through the innovation challenge, the GTP envisages that students will come up with innovative solutions, whether big or small, which will keep them safer on the streets and in public spaces.
The Voortrekker Road Corridor Improvement District and the South African Police Services are responsible for monitoring and preventing crime in the area, through on-the-ground patrols and an extensive network of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras. However, the GTP’s Student Safety Innovation Challenge was designed to find other innovative ways to support what is already being done.
Hewitt continues: “We want Bellville to be a test-bed for new ideas, and if we can use those ideas to improve the quality of life here, not only for students but, ultimately, for everyone in the area, then that would be the ultimate expression of urban innovation.”
Teams of four from residences in the area need to submit their ideas by 3 May to http://bit.ly/SafetyInnovation, accompanied by a 60 second WhatsApp video pitch to 073 870 5039.
Shortlisted teams will be notified by 13 May, and winners will be chosen at a pitch event held in June.
