2019 MTN Business IoT Conference & Awards finalists announced

The shortlist of South Africa's premier machine-to-machine (M2M) app development competition has been revealed. This sees the top innovators moving on to the final round of the 2019 edition of the MTN Business IoT Conference & Awards, where developers of the overall winning solution will walk away with a prize valued at R200 000.

Kholofelo Magagane, Head of Marketing: MTN Business, said: "The quality of the submissions in this year's challenge have been nothing short of extraordinary.

"It was also very exciting for us to see that the types of solutions entered into the five different categories were rather varied in terms of the business and societal issues they were designed to address. They also showed the maturity and growing sophistication of the IOT development community in South Africa."

The finalists in the Best Enterprise Development Solution category are:

• The MeMeZa Home Policing Alarm:The first public, all-in-one emergency system endorsed by the South African Police Services (SAPS) aimed at improving the police's response time. It provides low-income households with affordable, innovative community safety technology.
• The Smart City and Water Automation:Monitors water levels and consumption. Already deployed with success at Carletonville Hospital in Johannesburg. Sensors placed inside the hospital's water tanks and municipal water mains alerts users when the tanks are running low, identifies pumps that are operational, monitors water levels and advises when there is a municipal water outage.
• Smart Real Time Hydroponics and Aquaponics Farming System: This hydroponics and aquaponics farming solution seeks to improve food security in rural areas affected by water shortages and climate change. Currently in prototype stage, data from rural farms is sent directly to the farmers, giving instant insight into which plants are thriving, what nutrients are missing, what are the water levels and other essential information required for optimum growth.

In the Best Commercial IoT Solution category, the finalists are:

• Domestic Refuse Collection Management

Combines vehicle telematics with the electronic identification of assets, allowing municipalities to effectively track, monitor and locate their refuse bins. Over 800 000 domestic refuse bins have been fitted with chips, while 150 waste collection trucks have been equipped with tag readers, lift sensors, GPS tracking and management devices.

• Discovery Vitality Drive Sensor

Uses vehicle telematics to accurately track driving behaviour. The device, which is installed on the car's windscreen, interacts with Discovery's smartphone driving application to measure and reward users for consistently displaying good driving behaviour.

• The Smart Chicken Weighing Scale

A monitoring solution used to weigh and monitor the growth and development of broiler farm chickens throughout their life cycle. Taking out the human factor completely, it is made up of an easily moveable unit and a bin monitoring solution that can monitor the weight of feed in any silo and when it needs to be replaced. The collated data is analysed and presented to the end-user in a Web-based interface that can run on a mobile device, tablet or browser.

In the Best Industry Solution category, the finalists are as follows:

• earlyROM Mining Production System using Industrial IoT

Exxaro's Belfast coal mine has implemented this complete IOT-based production system to manage its mining fleet. earlyROM Mining Production System enables Exxaro to monitor performance of its machines, tempos, cycle times and allows it to extract machine data of its mining fleet in real-time.

• Macrocomm Fleet Analytics

A fully secured cloud-based solution that accurately calculates the running costs of each individual vehicle within a fleet of any size, thus providing a clearer picture of the running costs of the entire fleet. Users of the solution receive ongoing and actionable fleet optimisation insights, such as driver behaviour, including speeding, harsh braking and cornering, excess idle and after hours or unauthorised trips.

• Informed Decisions

Provides a multitude of full IOT tracking, monitoring and analysing solutions, all produced and designed in-house. Its innovative hardware technology enables IOT in various industries such as pharmaceuticals, the cold chain and water management, while making it affordable to the mass market. The solution is completely independent of any public network provider, the hardware runs on Informed Decision's own private LoRa network and can be deployed in both urban and rural areas.

In the Innovative Hardware in IoT category, the finalists are:

• NodeX IoT System

Allows users to regulate any electronic or mechanical system parameter wirelessly, such as monitoring a reservoir level, movement of a vehicle or turning a pump on and off. This solution negates the need for operators to depend on third party internet access - with this solution, users can regulate the system to their own specifications and infrastructure needs.

• A modular and advanced IOT-enabled platform by My SmartSystems

MySmartSystems has developed a universal IOT platform that can be used in a wide range of industries, allowing companies in multiple sectors to set up an IOT solution in an easy and efficient manner. All hardware is designed and assembled at MySmartSystems. Edge computing is used to process data at hardware level instead of at server level. All IOT boards have artificial intelligence functions to enable real-time decisions to be made, without an end-user having to be present.

• Informed Decisions

Provides a multitude of full IOT tracking, monitoring and analysing solutions, all produced and designed in-house. Its innovative hardware technology enables IOT in various industries such as pharmaceuticals, the cold chain and water management, while making it affordable to the mass market.

In the Most Disruptive IoT Solution category, the finalists are:

• The MeMeZa Home Policing Alarm

The first public, all-in-one emergency system endorsed by the South African Police Services (SAPS) that improves the police's response. It provides low-income households with affordable, innovative community safety technology.

• Intelligent Advertising Board

The Intelligent Advertising Board solution adds intelligence to analogue billboards placed at robot intersections. When the robot turns red, image processing technology is used to activate adverts based on the make and model of the vehicle parked in front of it. Using real-time analytics dashboard, a total vehicle count of all passing cars can be collected and vehicle dwell time can also be tracked. Marketers can collate a wealth of information and adjust their campaigns based on data collated by this first in Africa invention.

• earlyROM Mining Production System using industrial IOT

Exxaro's Belfast coal mine has implemented this complete IOT-based production system to manage its mining fleet. earlyROM Mining Production System enables Exxaro to monitor performance of its machines, tempos, cycle times and allows it to extract machine data of its mining fleet in real-time.

"These solutions showcase the infinite possibilities that connectivity can provide and its potential transform industries for the better. Through platforms like this, we are proud to play a major role in enabling solutions that unlock Africa's potential, allowing for new ecosystems to develop. We wish the shortlisted finalists best of luck and look forward to the event when the winners will be announced," Magagane concludes.

The event will be taking place on 24 October.