LIMPOPO – Five learners from Risinga Secondary School in Giyani have won the top award at a national competition for young innovators.
The learners from Centronix invented the ‘Cell Switch’, an electricity saving device which can be used to switch most household appliances on and off via SMS, said BusinessDayLive in a report on Tuesday.
The students competed against high school entrepreneurs from across South Africa to win the award for the ‘best socially responsible business’ during the national stage of the Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (Sage) competition.
In their presentation, the students explained: “an SMS sent by the homeowner to a number embedded in the device will enable the homeowner to switch the power supply on or off”.
As an example, they further explained that “an SMS sent from Cape Town would switch on the lights in a home in Johannesburg”.
According to the report, the Cell Switch has been approved by the Independent Communications Authority of SA and the South African Bureau of Standards and a local manufacturer will manufacturing the device at a larger scale.
The University of the Free State and the Small Enterprise Development Agency have also volunteered to help the learners register a patent for the device.
The learners will go to South Korea next month for the global finals.
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