Namibia (Namibia University of Science and TechAugmented Reality And Virtual Reality Hackathonnology) HTTPS Hosts Together With Namdeb Together With Namdeb

NUST’s Department of Computer Sciences (DCS) hosted a two-day hackathon aimed at creating
an interactive platform that virtually illustrated the unique Namdeb Diamond Corporation (NDC)
mining process in Oranjemund.

One of Namdeb’s judges testing out one of the competing team’s Virtual Reality design.
One of Namdeb’s judges testing out one of the competing team’s Virtual Reality design.
The Augmented Reality (AR)/Virtual Reality (VR) Hackathon was initiated by NUST’s High–Tech Transfer Plaza Select (HTTPS) and the NDC. The platform afforded students an opportunity to network and get hands- on experience with AR/VR design and development. “Participants were able to develop VR applications in less than 24 hours,” Dr Lameck Amugongo, a lecturer from DCS, said.

The judges, which included two representatives from NDC, selected two winning teams – the Eagles and GEN-I. “The winning teams will have two more weeks to finalise their virtual design. Each team member will then be awarded with ‘tech’ prizes by NUST and NDC,” Delia Maasdorp, a Project Analyst at NUST said. She also added that the winning teams will showcase their final design at the Namibia Mining Expo.

A Hackathon is a co-creation activity that aims at bringing developers and designers together to improve or build a new solution within a short period of time. “Benefits include the exploration of the viability of ideas while strengthening technical and soft skills of participants,” Dr Amugongo added.