Speakers

Noluvuyo Gqadu

Founder at CodeNgwana

Nolu Gqadu is an award-winning technology professional. She is a Founder for CodeNgwana, an organisation that is focused on teaching kids how to code. Her main objective is to help the African child go digital through teaching computational thinking and coding to kids. She has 12 Years’ experience in the Information Technology (IT) industry, fulfilling various IT functions and roles within various organizations. She has a huge passion for solving social issues through technology. In her line of work, she has been privileged to contribute and expand her knowledge on disciplines such as the mental health space for children, EdTech (education and technology) communities and social entrepreneurship spaces across the globe to help alleviate poverty in Africa. She holds a Bcom honors degree in Information Systems from the University of Cape Town (UCT) along with various industry certifications and management qualifications.

She is a board member at Waves for Change, an organization that focuses on mental health for kids through surf therapy. Nolu is also a director for Teampact, an attendance tracking platform used by 30 organizations to date, mostly in the Western Cape, as well as in East and West Africa and across South-Central America. She also serves on the board of Edtech Global, The EdTech Global Africa helps to build creative learning experiences that seek to grow the confidence and skills of African educators in the uses of technology for teaching & learning.

She is also heavy involved in the social entrepreneurship space and serves as a mentor for the Miller Centre of Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley. She is a young mom who is passionate about education and a children’s book author. She has written stories about technology for kids and have published three books, including a coding encyclopaedia that has been translated into isiXhosa and Setswana,

Nolu was also named one of the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans for 2021, the young 200 is a list of individuals the Mail & Guardian considers to be the most influential 200 Young South Africans for the year. She is also an Inspiring 50 Winner for 2019 which is an award given to top 50 inspiring women in STEM in South Africa and also have been selected as one of the faces of change for 2020, an initiative by Ackerman’s group to recognize women doing great things in South Africa. She believes children are natural problem solvers as their minds are uncorrupted. When children are empowered a whole new world of possibilities is possible.

Luntu Quntana

LLM in Intellectual Property Law

Luntu was born in East London, bred in Johannesburg, and is currently being buttered in Cape Town.

He is an admitted attorney with experience in technology, media, telecommunications, and intellectual property matters (TMT & IP).

Luntu completed his LLB at the University of the Witwatersrand and moved on to the University of Cape Town where he is still to complete his LLM in Intellectual Property Law. During his time at UCT, he served as a researcher contributing to a paper published by the Southern Africa Labor and Development Research Unit for the national Department of Treasury on youth unemployment. He went on to work with a regional NGO, ARASA, to design an online course teaching activists in 18 different countries how intellectual property impacts access to medicine.  

He completed his articles of clerkship at Webber Wentzel and thereafter entered the startup space. He was selected for an international entrepreneurial accelerator which was a collaboration between Startup Bootcamp Afritech and Bonbillo where he worked on building a legal tech platform to democratise access to legal services. He returned to corporate as he was appointed as an Associate at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Incorporated in its TMT & IP department where he worked on both local and international transactions in the telecommunications and technology space. He has also served as a Senior Contracts Specialist at Old Mutual focusing on technology contracts.

Luntu currently splits his time between his passions technology, law, and property- he serves as the Executive Head: Business Development at Legal Standpoint (a legal tech platform), director at Bizquad and Luntu Quntana Inc (a legal consultancy) as well as a commercial broker at Galetti Corporate. 

When he is not working, Luntu is a typical Capetonian running along the Sea Point promenade, hiking, learning to surf, and reading a good book.”

Velly GM Nkosi

Sernior instrumental Designer

Dedicated Instructional Designer with over 10 plus years of experience in different industries and areas, skilled in designing numerals learning and training materials, while working closely with faculty, subject matter experts, professionals, departments and training team members to design top-quality instructional material. To utilize my instructional design, multimedia development, and project management skill to fulfil the learning and development needs of prospective organizations, clients and shareholders.

Thompho Rambuda

Data Scientist(CSIR)

Thompho Rambuda is a Data Scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). She analyses, designs and develops algorithms to provide insights in various data-driven domains. During the South African Local Government Elections, she was a CSIR delegate working with the IEC and SABC to deliver social media analytics (2021). Her research interests include: Data Science, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), Mathematical Optimisation and Mathematical Modelling. Thompho shares her research outputs on both  local and international platforms. She was a member of the team that investigated Multilingualism in foundation phase mathematics. The work influenced change in the South African Language Policy  on Language and teaching for the Department of Basic education (DBE).

She holds a BSc (Wits), BSc (Hon) in Computational and Applied Mathematics (Wits), and is currently an MSc Candidate in Computational and Applied Mathematics (Wits).

Nqobile Muleya

Rigorous Statistics

After graduating with an Honors Degree in Applied Mathematics from Midlands State University, I joined the Innscor Africa group of companies to explore my passion for computing and create actionable insights. This role spawned my career as a statistician turned data scientist. I pursued an MSc in Applied Mathematics from the University of Venda and a Certificate in Data Science from Coursera to balance the Data Science components, then joined the KZN Department of Health in a Data Science role supported by TBHIVCARE and AHRI. While pursuing a Masters in Applied Mathematics, I ran a data analytics company that provided statistical support services to over 250 postgraduate researchers and 5 institutions in South Africa and beyond. I presented my master’s thesis in Boston, MA and also at the symposium between the University of Venda and the University of Limpopo, I received an excellent paper and a prize money as the best presenter respectively.

Ketro Sithole

Data Analyst & Developer. 5x Hackathon Winner.

My name is Ketro sithole  5 Times Hackathon winner ,I am an IT Technician at the University of Pretoria  where my duties are  IT   lab administration and maintenance including image casting, hardware support and software support, a liaison and point of first contact and support between lab and clients and users of IT labs, assisting with troubleshooting of various problems, keeping the labs tidy, preparing for classes and tests to be done on computers. As well as admin control and monitoring of computers during lessons and tests. Worked in a team to ensure all the labs on campus are running optimally.  I also freelance   as a   Web Developer for Educating the next Gen  and other clients . I am a passionate programmer, and I enjoy using my skills to contribute to the exciting technological advances that happen every day . I completed my  systems development certificate  at college in 2018, currently completing my   computer sciences and information sciences degree   at the university of Pretoria

Nicolene Botha 

Senior researcher in the Data Science(CSIR)

I studied physics at the University of Stellenbosch and did a PhD studentship at the CSIR National Laser Centre. After completion I joined what was then called Modelling and Digital Science at the CSIR and started working in Wind timeseries forecasting. Currently I’m a senior researcher in the Data Science group in Next Generation Enterprises and Institutions.

Lindelweyizizwe Manqele

Research expert in Internet of Things(CSIR)

Lindelweyizizwe Manqele is a research expert in Internet of Things which focuses on creating
platforms and algorithms for better decisions in smart cities. She is a former researcher at the
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in the group of Internet of Things. She
graduated more than 60 B Tech students from Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). She
is currently lecturing at University of Limpopo, Department of Computer Science. She is
tutoring third year students from University of South Africa (Unisa). She is a board member at
Mtheth Software Solutions which aims to provide better services for private and public
organizations.
Lindelweyizizwe is a member of a SOLVE program initiated by Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) in America in collaboration with the Department of Science and Innovation
(DSI). She presented/presents findings of her research in local and international platforms such
Ethiopia. Ghana and America. She participated in ESOF22 which was hosted in Nertherlands,
Leiden University. The ESOF22 is a European forum that works in collaboration with the
Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) which aims to regulate policy around STEMI.
Lindelweyizizwe is a forth industrial revolution (4IR) vocal speaker, she participated in various
discussions hosted by DIRCO, Department of Telecommunications, Youth Indaba and High
schools career guidance offices.
Lindelweyizizwe is involved in community engagement programs which includes; tutor Grade
9-12 in mathematics and physical science at Thandulwazi Saturday school; youth outreach
programs hosted by Izingelosi STEMI, Nkathuto STEMI and Sci-Bono; She shared her
thoughts around STEMI through public appearance such as DRUM Magazine, ScienceScope
magazine, Isolezwe newspaper, SABC 3 news, national and local radio stations. She has been
a judge on science expo (Nkathuto), Innovative Tech (BSTEP & SABC 2), Hackthon (DSI and
UBER) and Datathon (DIRISA). On her spare time, she coaches and play netball, do hike, do
modeling, do radio adverts and work on Indigenoues Knowledge System (IKS) projects led by
Prof Mongane Wally Serote.
Lindelweyizizwe holds BSc Computer Science(Unizul); BSc(Hons)Computer Science
(Unizul); MSc (Eng) Electrical Engineering (UCT) and she is currently completing her PhD
in Electrical Engineering (UCT).