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New frontiers are in the spotlight at Satnac 2021. Picture: SUPPLIED/SATNAC
New frontiers are in the spotlight at Satnac 2021. Picture: SUPPLIED/SATNAC

This November, information and communications technology (ICT) executives from SA and around the world are coming together at the 2021 Southern Africa Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (Satnac).

The event, hosted by Telkom with the theme “Accelerated digitalisation: current and future ways of working”, lets ICT professionals mingle with academics and students who hope to solve many of the seemingly impossible challenges that humanity faces, much like Elon Musk is trying to achieve in several industries.

These research projects are presented at the conference, in order to explore the challenges and opportunities for Africa as such new technologies reshape the workplace.

“The main objectives are to showcase the latest developments in the ICT sector worldwide; to host a peer-review and publishing platform for students; and to develop the next generation of innovative technology leaders,” says Telkom head of innovation and transformation Mmaki Jantjies.

Satnac partners include global firms such as Accenture, Huawei, Amdocs, ZTE, TCS, CSG. YahClick and Nokia, and locally SGT, CBI, Aria Technologies, Telkom Consumer and Openserve.

Research papers presented at this year’s conference will cover areas such as healthcare, rural connectivity, education, sustainable energy, precision agriculture and digital payments.

Jantjies says Satnac is a parallel development to the Telkom Centres of Excellence programme. There are 15 of these centres at SA universities, making it the largest co-ordinated ICT research effort in the country.

“Satnac is an excellent talent pipeline in key critical areas such as engineering, data sciences and communication,” he says. “It also gives us opportunities to collaborate with established researchers at tertiary institutions to solve critical issues for SA.”

​​An example of such innovation is research into language and artificial intelligence that gave birth to Telkom’s Izwe.ai natural-language processing technology, which translates voice to text in SA’s local languages.

Satnac 2021 will be broadcast live on Business Day TV, DStv channel 412, or right here on this page (see below).

The details

  • Date: Monday November 22 and Tuesday November 23 2021
  • Time: From 8.30am

WATCH LIVE | Satnac 2021 – day one

WATCH LIVE | Satnac 2021 – day two

This article was paid for by Telkom.

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