About the Competition

The IT Showcase is an initiative aimed at creating a platform for South African Grade 12 IT learners to gain exposure for their matric IT projects. These projects are coded during the matric year and are of an exceptional standard.

The IT Showcase hopes to create a meeting place between Grade 12 IT students, businesses and tertiary institutions.

The IT Showcase is in its eighth year and has had over 20 entries each year. The competition had been judged by judges from the University of Witwatersrand, University of Johannesburg and University of Pretoria, as well as industry leaders such as Microsoft South Africa and the IITPSA and top teachers from private schools.

Winners of three categories have enjoyed prizes ranging from laptops, modems with data, Bluetooth speakers, tablets, portable hard drives, Xboxes, online movie subscriptions and discounts at Universities for computer related degrees. Participants of the competition have all been given goodie bags for attending the competition   The prizes and goodies are donated by companies and members of the school communities. Sponsors are able to exhibit their products and provide information about IT related careers in their industry.  Learners from lower grades are encouraged to attend the IT Showcase in order to see the projects, speak to both competitors and sponsors, and hopefully be inspired to consider IT as a subject.

This year, the competition organisers hope to create more opportunities for learners for future studying in the form of bursaries and scholarships for tertiary level.

The competition was the brainchild of Delia Kench, HOD Information Technology of St Benedict's School for Boys in Bedfordview. Since its inception in 2011 it has developed and grown, to attract students from Independent and Government schools in Gauteng and even further afield. The strategic decision was taken in 2014 to rotate the hosting school, in order to drive interest in the dynamic field of IT.  Crawford College Sandton hosted the 2017 Showcase and will do so again in 2018.

Competitors

• Competitors must provide a complete set of documentation with their Performance Assessment Task submission according their examining body.
• A competitor must enter their Performance Assessment Task into a specific category.
• All code must be finalised before the competition starts and may not be changed during the competition.
• All non-standard classes and libraries must be declared, in particular the use of a game engine.
• Entries will be judged solely on the competitor’s own code and not any included libraries or game engines.
• Competitor’s will be required to explain their own code.
• Performance Assessment Tasks that make use of mobile or alternative devices (such as a bar code reader) are strongly encouraged.

Very important

• The judge’s decision is final and cannot be entered into negotiation.
• Judges may award additional discretionary awards based on the performance they wish to award.
• No competitor or any member of the public may approach the judges.

Download the rules here.

A competitor must enter a specific category

1. Category 1 is for Grade 12 PAT projects that do not include any non-standard classes and libraries.  PAT documentation must be presented.
2. Category 2 is for Grade 12 PAT projects that include non-standard classes and libraries.  All non-standard classes and libraries and game engines must be declared. Entries will be judged solely on the competitor’s own code and not any included libraries or game engines.  PAT documentation must be presented.

• Prizes included a selection of hardware and various sponsored items
• All contestants received a Goodie Bag