Cape Town - A University of the Western Cape (UWC) computer science Master’s student is making use of Twitter data to develop an app for mapping and pinpointing hijacking hot spots.
Although it’s still in the developmental stage, the Strand resident, Taahir Patel, 23, is hopeful that the information shared through the app will assist in reducing the number of hijackings and attempted hijackings on South African roads.
“This is an idea that goes all the way back to my first year at university. We had to think of a new type of application and statistics show hijackings are only getting worse. I was hoping that by means of my research, I would one day be successful in identifying these hot spots and hopefully make this information usable to the general public,” Patel said.
The initial idea had been of a visual map. Once he reached the Honours programme, Patel pitched the idea to his supervisor to find a way of incorporating it into his research, which extended into his Master’s degree.
“There’s a constant flow of information at all times and we are currently in this world of social media and communications whereby people are discussing every aspect of their lives and every event that occurs to them,” Patel said.
“So, for example, if you see someone on the road getting hijacked, you’d send out the tweet and then others know to be aware of it. With all this information available, why not actually use it? Because unless you actually go search on Twitter, you may never know when hijackings take place.”
Cape Town was used as the target area for research, but Patel said the goal is to incorporate the entire country and expand to use other data sources.
“We expect the app to be used within the next couple of months, but obviously there are a lot of areas that we have to take into account because we also have issues of, for example, possibly being fed misinformation, and this we have to address.”