If there were enough space to accommodate the 163 computer boffins who applied to take part in an IBM-supported hackathon at the eighth South African Innovation Summit, which opened at the Cape Town stadium on Wednesday, the event would have been the biggest hackathon in Africa.

Unfortunately there is place for just 90 hackers at the event. Still, who knows what records might tumble at the hackathon, which will focus the creative juices of developers and programmers on creating innovations related to early childhood development. The hackathon is being hosted by Innovation Edge, an NGO that provides evidence for early childhood development programmes and works with government on integrating them into government systems and practices, especially those of the Department of Social Development.

IBM has offered the use of their cloud-based app development platform Bluemix (ibm.biz/BluemixZA) to developers taking part, as well as technical support. The hackathon, from 15:00 on Friday, August 28 to 15:00 on Saturday, August 29, provides an opportunity for techies to engage with one of the aims of the summit: to create solutions to challenges faced by entrepreneurs, developers, researchers, thought leaders, inventors and investors. The theme for this year’s summit, Innovation Intelligence, “seeks to address the mystery of creating that elusive competitive edge through new and convergent thinking”.

Coders and programmers will be paired with early childhood development specialists. Each team will have 24 hours to come up with and code a tech solution to a specific challenge.

The Innovation Edge is also a social fund that grants development capital and support to “brave new ideas and projects with the potential to address the early learning challenges faced by children in the most vulnerable sections of our society”. The organisation is sometimes described as an angel investor or an incubator for social good.