If you’ve ever wanted a quick and easy way to find out where your public transport has got to, then Devin de Vries and Christopher King may have the answer. Their software, WhereIsMyTransport, is a locally developed system that pulls together mapping, SMSes and databases to provide frustrated commuters with a way of checking when the next bus or taxi will be along.

The idea was born when King missed an exam at UCT because of a shuttle problem. It then grew beyond UCT to encompass the whole country’s transport infrastructure. “With 2010 around the corner, there is a dire need for our software across all transport,” he says. Others recognised the potential of the solution early on. WhereIsMyTransport won a national award from Microsoft before being selected for international innovation accelerator awards at the company’s global student developer competition in Paris in 2008.