Maties' students win big with WorkMode app

Jacques Marais and Rijnard van Tonder

Rijnard van Tonder and Jacques Marais, both MSc students in Computer Science at Stellenbosch University, competed against 158 entries from 142 teams in the student category. They developed an app that helps workers collaborate by allowing them to see the real-time work context and tasks of colleagues.

Rijnard, who is in the third week of an internship at Microsoft in Seattle in the USA, says he's really honoured that they received first prize. "Africa as a whole also did great. I think this competition goes a long way to promote our potential here in South Africa and Africa."

Jacques says this is only the beginning: "The award will help us to build our business and allow us to develop not only this app but also some ideas we have around education in South Africa. It will also enable us to purchase hardware so we can expand to different platforms. It's a real boost."