Name: Buhle Pikoli
Company: S4 Integration
Website: www.s4.co.za
Contact: +27 41 451 1250
Email: https://www.s4.co.za/automation/contact-us
The course of Buhle Pikoli's entire life changed one July afternoon, on Mandela Day in 2018, when he played TANKS for the first time at Cowan High School in New Brighton.
Within three days he completed all 35 levels.
"To acknowledge this, we took him for a visit to S4 Integration," said Prof Jean Greyling, Tangible Africa founder and associate professor at the Nelson Mandela University computing sciences department.
S4 Integration is an awardwinning international technology company, based in Nelson Mandela Bay, specialising in software development and industrial automation solutions.
After matric Pikoli enrolled for the diploma in software development at NMU, which he completed last year.
And on Tuesday he started as a software developer at S4.
Coming full circle, Pikoli, now 21, is evidence of the impact Tangible Africa is having on the youth countrywide.
In less than five years, offline coding games spearheaded by Tangible Africa, with its head office in Gqeberha, have opened up an entire new world to young people across the continent.
The success of this engagement project by the NMU computing sciences department and the Leva Foundation is that it requires very few resources to introduce coding concepts to the youth.
"Our coding project started in 2017 with Byron Batteson's honours project at the computing sciences department.
"Buhle is the first person we know of who completed the whole journey. May there be thousands more," said an excited Greyling.
Batteson developed both the TANKS and RANGERS coding apps, which have become Tangible Africa's flagship apps played offline at schools and coding tournaments across the continent.
Speaking during his first week on the job as a junior software developer, Pikoli said it was a great feeling to achieve one of his goals and return to the facility that impressed him so much in grade 11 with its sophisticated technology and robotics.
