I love it when stereotypes are thrown out the window. It gives
me a sense of hope for believing in people. Take for example, the ‘Jock’ stereotype
that everyone knows so well. Constantly in the gym forgetting about leg-day and
losing a few brain cells one protein shake at a time. Most girls want them and
despite most guys always cracking jokes and trying to bring the buff guy’s
sexuality into question, you can be sure there is a good chunk of them who
secretly want to be them. It’s one of the most age old stereotypes that have
crossed cultures and leaped over social status.
Needless to say it’s quite a resilient stereotype.
Recently, however, I had the privilege of watching it
flutter out the window myself as a group of young students from the University
of Johannesburg in the Academy of Computer Science and Software Engineering won
1st place for their third year group project at this year’s annual
Projects Day for a very interesting system they created that helped that
stereotype out the window, hell it might have even pushed it!
These 3rd year gym monkeys seem at first your
average jocks. Honestly, you’d probably think they were in the wrong department
if you didn't know any better. But once the team start presenting their system ‘HexaFit’
to you, you’re bound to be blown away by their genius in taking not only today’s
social media driven interactivity, but also everybody’s pesky competitive side
to create a fun platform for exercise.
Their system essentially made personal fitness an on-line
game.
The project was done as part of their curriculum in the
academy which encourages students to approach businesses and build programs
according to their individual requests, utilizing all the knowledge they have
acquired throughout their studies.
This team in particular, Dynamic Overload, approached the University’s
gym and though it’s easy to assume who their initial target market was, I’d
venture to say that these guys have quite a system on their hands that could
definitely interest far more people than they possibly realize.
But still, what I love truly about them is that they really cannon-balled
that stereotype out the window. After all, it’s not often you hear of Jocks with
Brains!
Photo credit: Dr ID Ellefsen
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