The Greater Tygerberg Partnership GTP has launched an innovation challenge to surface cutting edge, implementable ideas that will help to enhance the safety of students in the area. The challenge is open to teams of students living in residences in the Bellville central business district CBD and the greater Tygerberg area. The winning residences will receive over R30 000 in prizes and a chance to see their solutions transformed from idea to reality. Warren Hewitt, chief executive officer of the GTP, says: “Students are such an important part of Bellville’s social fabric, with over 5 000 students living here, they bring a buzz and energy to the area and we don’t ever want to lose that. “But the challenge is to keep them safe while they’re living here, and that’s what the innovation challenge is all about.” The Voortrekker Road Corridor Improvement District VRCID and the police are responsible for monitoring and preventing crime in the area, through on the ground patrols and an extensive network of closed circuit television CCTV cameras. However, the GTP’s Student Safety Innovation Challenge was designed to find other innovative ways to support what is already being done. Hewitt continues: “We want Bellville to be a test bed for new ideas, and if we can use those ideas to improve the quality of life here, not only for students but, ultimately, for everyone in the area, then that would be the ultimate expression of urban innovation.” Teams of four from residences in the area need to submit their ideas by 3 May to https://bit.ly/2YZwEp7, accompanied by a 60 second WhatsApp video pitch to 073 870 5039. Shortlisted teams will be notified by 13 May and winners will be chosen at a pitch event held in June.
