By: Natasha Archary
Kutlwano Tshatiwa from the North West has developed a mobile app that diagnoses pneumonia and skin cancer.
The 17-year old who participated in the Eskom Expo For Young Scientists ISF 2019, built the app using his cellphone.
Tshatiwa, who is currently in matric at Gabonewe High School, says the idea to build the app came during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“When Covid-19 struck, I saw how a lot of cancer cases were diagnosed late, which led to delayed treatment, reducing the patients chances of survival.
My application gives you a diagnosis within seconds, which means you can get treated much earlier.”
Kutlwano Tshatiwa says his application allows people to get quick pnemonia and skin cancer diagnosis
The app is fairly easy to use and users just need to upload an X-ray of their chest to see if they have pneumonia.
To get a skin cancer diagnosis, the user will upload an image of their skin and the app will determine if there’s a possibility of cancer or not.
The youngster started developing apps from the age of 13, when he watched videos online and at just 14-years he created his first app.
Kutlwano Tshatiwa did not let his lack of equipment stop him, and although he didn’t have a laptop to work with, he finished the app on his phone.
Using IDE for Android called AIDE, Kutlwano also created an app that helps learners who struggle with maths.
“It is simply not about what you have but about what you can do with your keyboard, with that being said worry less about qualification but worry more about skills.
In order to be a great programmer and use all of this super powers with just finger tips on your keyboard you just have to dedicate yourself to life time learning and always live by the qoute ‘Stay Hungry, stay foolish’ by Steve Job.”
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