‘#ScienceMustFall’ campaign ‒ the highs and lows
Mike Bruton previously wrote a popular column in entitled in which he provided stimulating and witty insights into life in that Middle East country. By popular demand, he has agreed to return with a new column entitled in which he will discuss new ideas and developments in science, technology and innovation.
During a panel discussion at UCT in mid-October a fallist proposed that the university should consider scrapping science. “Science as a whole is a product of western modernity and the whole thing should be scratched off. Especially in Africa‚” she said.
But, as Michelle Obama has said: “When they go low, we go high.” Another campus campaign, ‘#EntrepreneurshipMustRise’, is endeavouring to harness the restless energy of students in very creative ways. The movement is the brainchild of the BeBold Trust, a non-profit organisation with a simple mandate: to provide the spark to foster and grow a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation at university level. The founder of the trust, Charles Maisel, reckons that the next big South African innovation, and serial entrepreneur, will come from the country’s ambitious but restless
student community.
The BeBold Trust has formed over 140 entrepreneurship societies around the country and has also launched informal Popcorn & Pitch events where students can present their innovative ideas to a lively and critical audience of peers. The student with the best idea advances to the national intervarsity pitch event. The competition is split into two sections: Rural and Urban. The Rural Challenge focuses on social innovation whereas the Urban Challenge seeks to find business or social business solutions. The competition focuses on 17- to 28-year-olds, of which 75 percent are representative of the black youth demographic, and the grand prize is R1 million.
Prize winners at the 2015 intervarsity pitch event included Nubrix, an initiative by Elijah Djan from the University of Pretoria to make rain- and fire-resistant bricks from recycled paper; Rikatec by Rivoningo Mhlari and Jesse Matheri from the University of Cape Town, a digital device that enables cars made before 1996 to communicate with their drivers and roadsideassistance call centres after a breakdown; and Kynetic by Kwasi Vinkah of the University of the Free State, that uses the principles of electromagnetic induction to convert mechanical energy, from opening and closing doors, into electricity that can be stored in a battery and used during load shedding.
The BeBold Trust has introduced five groups of entrepreneurship societies to university campuses: General, fashion, publishing, biomimicry and media. It also hosts basic workshops called Seeing the Leaves, which are run by Maisel, a serial entrepreneur in his own right. These workshops help students to identify everyday problems in society and gaps in the market from a problem-solving perspective. Let’s give their positive initiative our fullest support! • Mike Bruton is a retired scientist and a busy writer, mikefishesbruton@gmail.com.