A Mozambican student of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Macau has won first place in the robotics category of the IoT Data Hackathon 2026, recently held in Hong Kong.

The student is Magne Dina Neves, a former pupil of the African Leadership Academy (ALA) in South Africa, where he serves on the Honor Council of former students. He is also President of the International Students' Association at the University of Macau and a member of the institution's Robotics Club.

The third edition of the competition was co-organised by GS1 Hong Kong, Cyberport and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), bringing together more than 160 teams from over ten universities, start-ups and independent professionals. The projects were evaluated in two areas: technology and business innovation, and social impact and sustainability.

The project presented by Magne Dina Neves used the SpiderPi hexapod robot, focusing on autonomous navigation and computer vision. According to Magne, the final robot demonstrates the integration of hardware and artificial intelligence, with the ability to respond autonomously to complex scenarios, highlighting the value of integrating multidisciplinary smart technologies.

(Source: Diário Económico, on 18 May)