CPUT extends its global network of partners

CPUT is extending its global network of partners, thanks to the Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility programme.

Over the next five-years, CPUT and the Yildiz Technical University (YTU) in Turkey will participate in a mobility agreement, which is earmarked to strengthen and expand research and innovation in the fields of Substation Automation and Energy Management Systems and Control Systems Engineering.

The Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility programme facilities and funds short term mobility projects for staff and students from European and selected countries elsewhere in the world. The programme ties in with CPUT’s Internationalization Strategy, by promoting international ties between institutions and creating opportunities for professional development, for both staff and students.

As part of the agreement, CPUT’s Centre for Substation Automation and Energy Management Systems (CSAEMS) and YTU’s Departments of Control and Automation Engineering and Electrical Engineering will embark on a program of student and staff exchange.

CPUT researcher, Carl Kriger, who is the Erasmus+ Credit Mobility Programme coordinator for the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, says they are looking forward to the collaboration with YTU, which is a dedicated engineering sciences institution and one of the most prominent higher educational institutions in Istanbul, Turkey.

Kriger says over the next five years CPUT students following courses in electrical, electronic and computer engineering will have the opportunity to complete courses at YTU, which are not available for offering in South Africa. Researchers will also have the opportunity to spend up to two months at YTU and work alongside their counterparts.

Prof Seref Naci Engin, head of the Control and Automation Engineering Department in the Faculty of Electrical and Electronics at the YTU, says the programme will commence next term with two CPUT doctoral students expected to spend a semester in Turkey, while three doctoral students from YTU will conduct research and training at CPUT.

Engin, who recently visited the Bellville Campus with a delegation from the Turkey based institution, says there are already numerous existing projects the two institutions can collaborate on.

“We would also like to start new research projects, with the goal of producing research publications,” he says.

Engin, who collaborated with CPUT in 2008 on a National Research Foundation-funded research project, says he hopes that they will be able to extend this agreement.

Written by Candes Keating
Email: keatingc@cput.ac.za

Provides coverage for the Engineering and Applied Sciences Faculties; the Bellville and Wellington Campuses, and research and innovation news.