UJ students to represent SA in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup competition

Analysing social media chatter is getting more important than ever and for brands it’s one of the key ways of measuring sentiment.

A group of young developers from the University of Johannesburg think they have come up with an “innovative tool” that will allow businesses to not only monitor chatter on social platforms but also gain a better understand the data. The young entrepreneurs behind the product, SentiMeter, are finalists in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, a global technology competition in Russia later this year.

At a press round table at TechEd Africa, Microsoft’s technology education conference, the team spoke about the product and why it could compete with the likes of Radian 6 and Brandseye, other sentiment metrics currently in play in the country.

According to the founders Ian Ellefsen, Jan van Niekerk, Lorenzo Boccetti and Merrick Bengis (all postgraduate students at UJ), SentiMeter is a low-cost social media metric that plugs into up to nine different social media platforms.

“We believe our platform will save companies not only in rands, but also in reputation management,” said Van Niekerk. “The award means so much to us. As the tool is currently in Beta phase, we can now continue to grow our start-up even further.”

Van Niekerk argues that the tool combines sentiment analysis derived from an identified location anywhere in the world and various social platforms to provide companies with detailed reports, trends and insights.

According to Microsoft South Africa’s head of developer and platform team, Clifford de Wit, Imagine Cup important to the company’s commitment to “providing opportunities for young people, by providing a platform to inspire and showcase innovation and to encourage entrepreneurship”.

The event saw entries across three categories — Gaming, Innovation and World Citizenship. Microsoft also included an additional App Challenge, where students were challenged to build Apps for the Windows 8, Windows Phone and Windows Azure platforms.

“These students all have one thing in common – a passion for technology and a desire to change the world for the better, starting with their innovations. Students’ work reflects immensely valuable solutions to real problems out there while giving them the opportunity to compete for generous cash prizes and the chance to build their own small business,” says de Wit.

Imagine Cup is currently in its 11th year and the Redmond-based company reckons it challenges the world’s best student programmers to create applications to solve real-world problems.

“More than 1.65-million students across the globe have participated in Imagine Cup during the past decade. Locally, this year’s local Imagine Cup drew 78 entries from universities across the country. Sponsors included the Department of Science and Technology/ CSIR Meraka Institute, BBD and Nokia,” says Microsoft.