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26 August 2022 | Story Anthony Mthembu | Photo Supplied
Katleho Nkosi
Katleho Nkosi’s design, which won him second place in the national design competition during the Student Entrepreneurship Week 2022.

Katleho Nkosi, a fourth-year Education student at the University of the Free State (UFS), obtained second place in a national design competition hosted virtually by Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE). 

The national design competition formed part of the launch of the Student Entrepreneurship Week 2022, which took place at the University of Venda on 18 August 2022. As such, students from many of the universities in the country, including Nkosi, took part in designing a poster that would be used to advertise the event. 

Nkosi is delighted and excited about this accomplishment. “This win was really surprising and unbelievable for me, because obtaining the second-place position means that my work is good,” said Nkosi.

The participants were allowed to conceptualise and submit their final product between 28 June and 15 July 2022. “I had no experience in this space, I only designed content for fun, and I participated in this competition because I was motivated by a friend,” Nkosi highlighted. 

Click to view document  Click here to view poster in full size.


The motivation behind the design

Since the Student Entrepreneurship Week was held at the University of Venda, Nkosi used the vibrancy and colourfulness of Venda as inspiration for his design. “When I was designing the poster, the only thing on my mind was making sure that I put something together that was related to Venda,” he explained. In addition, the theme for the Entrepreneurship Week was ‘Move to Market’, and Nkosi asserts that he tried to integrate the theme with Venda, and this is how the design came about.

The outcome of the competition and future plans

Although Nkosi did not win the competition, he did receive a cash prize for being among the top three. Furthermore, given his accomplishment, Nkosi would like to take part in many more design competitions moving forward. “Now that I have realised that I have the potential to win, I think I can take this as a career path in the future,” he said. Nkosi is also looking at merging his love of teaching with his newfound love for design. “I’m going to try and find the connection between design and education, because I really love to teach, so I could perhaps become a design teacher,” Nkosi expressed

News Archive

UFS Department of Computer Science and Informatics motivates programming success among learners
2015-04-23

From Sentraal High School are from the left: Albert Dreyer (full marks, Grade 9); Corlé van der Walt (full marks, Grade 10); Janco Venter (full marks, Grade 10); Soné du Pisanie (full marks, Grade 10) en Handré Venter (Grade 9).

A group of learners from the Free State, who are taught at and by the University of the Free State’s Department of Computer Science and Informatics (under the Python project), came first in the Talent Search round of the South African Computer Olympiad (SACO).

According to Dr Anelize van Biljon, senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Informatics, the Olympiad is presented in three main rounds: the Talent Search, the Application Olympiad, and the Programming Olympiad.

At the UFS’s Department of Computer Science and Informatics’ Python project, pupils from various schools in Bloemfontein attend programming classes where they are taught by staff and students of the department. These students are benefitted by the opportunity to transfer their knowledge to others. All the classes are free of charge.

Anelize explains: “The name was chosen because we use the Python programming language. It is a language with considerable appeal – not one of the fastest – which can be learnt relatively quickly, and which conforms to SACO requirements. The purpose of this programming is to implement algorithms (the learner is given a problem, makes a plan to solve it, and does the necessary programming). Thus, it is not about the looks of the programme, but about its effectiveness and speed.”
Anelize is the initialiser and co-ordinator of the Python project. "I started this project in 2010 in the Department of Computer Science and Informatics for learners from Grades 6 to 12 to encourage them to take the subject. These classes exposed them to something more than school work. I enjoy this kind of competitions and am also very involved with Maths Olympiads.

Achievements such as these are good advertisements for the Department of Computer Science and Informatics,” she said.

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