ISSIP Student Innovation Awards 2026

Congratulations to Joiau Mcunu and Sibongile Lukhele, winners of the inaugural ISSIP Student Innovation Award.

Joia Mcunu’s Innovation: Emission Capture Device – reduce carbon emission and resell gases

Sibongile Lukele’s Innovation: Urban Harvest Bloem – sustainable urban agriculture, hyroponics, vertical farming

Frank Melis said, “ISSIP Student Innovation Award ceremony at CUT University (the largest entrepreneurial university in South Africa) demonstrated the powerful role that ISSIP can play in activating, developing, and connecting young innovators globally. 4000 CUT students activated on Al-enabled employability & entrepreneurship platform with 270 Business Model Canvases generated in 9 months. While not all submissions met quality standards, the volume and diversity of ideas clearly demonstrated latent entrepreneurial capacity at scale. From these submissions, two winners were selected, both presenting strong, real-world, impact-driven business concepts. This confirms an important insight: entrepreneurial talent is abundant, but structured activation, guidance, and international exposure are essential. Looking forward to more collaborations between ISSIP and SMRT.BIO platform in the future. Thanks to Prof. Samson Mashele, Nancy de Sousa, Fred Matongo, Tlhokomelo Direko for making the student award ceremony and celebration an outstanding success as well.”

Many thanks to Frank Melis who designed and implemented this ISSIP Student Innovation Award Program. Frank Melis is Founder and CEO of SMRT.BIO and an outstanding contributor the ISSIP community on multiple occasions including: 2025 winner of the ISSIP Excellence in Service Innovation Overall Award, ISSIP Ambassador (Since 2021), and ISSIP Donor and recognized outstanding volunteer.