Samsung Electronics and the University of Cape Town yesterday launched a partnership to develop innovative mobile phone applications in response to unique African needs.

The UCT Samsung Mobile Innovation Laboratory (SMILe) – Samsung’s first innovation unit in Africa – is a multimillion-rand project that aims to increase mobile innovation and skills development. The partners in the joint venture include UCT’s Information Systems Department and the Computer Science Department as well as the Cape IT incubator, Bandwidth Barn. The lab has been launched for an initial period of three years.

Professor Gary Marsden of Computer Science said: “The UCT Samsung Mobile Innovation Lab has been established due to the awareness that the African continent in general, and South Africa in particular, poses unique challenges, constraints and opportunities in respect of innovative mobile applications. There is a need for a creative application development space where innovative ideas responding to these unique opportunities can be explored. Opportunities for innovative African mobile applications have been identified both in the individual user and social development markets..

“This is the first time that a multi-disciplinary laboratory of this nature has been developed and we are committed to exploring how Samsung mobile technology might be used by African students to address technology needs within Africa.”

The laboratory is the brainchild of Professor Jean-Paul Van Belle, head of Information Systems at UCT, who said: “We are very excited at the opportunity to showcase the great innovative talent of our students. The Department of Information Systems at UCT is recognised internationally as an ideal environment for nurturing the innovation professionals of the future and we are delighted that Samsung has selected our campus as its first research partner in Africa.