Awards for SA young scientists

29 February 2024 News

Two young scientists hailing from South Africa have each won an award at the 2024 Taiwan International Science Fair after showcasing their research projects to judges and their peers at the National Taiwan Science Education Center in Taipei.

Johannes Deysel, a grade 11 learner at Hoërskool Jim Fouché was awarded fourth prize in the Computer Science and Information Engineering category. Lethabo Molobi, a grade 12 learner at Zinniaville Secondary School was awarded the fourth prize and the Viewer’s Choice Award in the Behavioural and Social Sciences category.

Deysel showcased his research project entitled ‘Breaking a Caesar Cipher/Vigenère Cipher Encryption for secure data communication’. This project aimed to identify vulnerabilities in ciphers and explore the factors influencing the strength of an encryption system by breaking both Caesar and Vigenère Ciphers.

Molobi’s research project, entitled ‘From Human Intelligence to Artificial Intelligence Chatbots: Modern Day Writing’, looked at whether it is easy to differentiate between artificial intelligence (AI)-generated text and human-generated text, in a school setting.

Registration to take part in Eskom Expo 2024 is now open. Learners in grades 4 to 12, along with NC2 to NC4 learners from TVET colleges, can register their projects by visiting www.exposcience.co.za

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