The Clothing and Textile Technology Department will be hosting an Open Day on Thursday 7 August 2008 from 09:30 to 16:30 at the Department of Clothing and Textile Design on the Bellville Campus.

Today’s textile and clothing industry offers exciting and rewarding career opportunities with ever-increasing demands for skilled professionals. The clothing and fashion industry is an extremely dynamic and important sector of the economy, providing enormous scope for well-qualified graduates to make their mark. CPUT’s Clothing and Textile Technology Department provides an excellent academic starting point for careers that use creative and technical skills in this sector of the economy.

Clothing and textile related programmes at CPUT will prepare learners for many exiting careers. Some offer the chance of international travel and others the opportunity to be based in an office or factory.

The purpose of the Open Day is therefore to promote potential career opportunities in the clothing & textile sector to Grade 11 & 12 learners.

Learners and their parents will be able to obtain first-hand information about the department and its facilities through fun demonstrations and activities.

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First year Events Management students recently organised a successful awareness function for the Dream Lab Incubator, a project that aims to develop entrepreneurship among CPUT students.

Tania Petersen, a Marketing lecturer and the initiator of the Dream Lab Incubator approached the Events Management students to organise the function.

CPUT employees, students and former students, attended the function, held at the Granger Bay Hotel School on 22 October 2009.

The guest speakers were two alumni from the former Peninsula and Cape Technikons.

Rhiyaan Cupido completed his Marketing Diploma at the former Peninsula Technikon and worked for six years before deciding to start his own project management business, Anix Consulting.

“As black people, we are always judged as being not good enough until the job is done, so starting my own business and excelling at what I do was key for me,” said Cupido.

He shared how his business had grown from having no salary to employing more than 100 people.

“I started taking a salary home, which was just R5 000 in my sixth year. Many people are good at planning, but very few will implement, so I encourage the students not to fall into that trap,” Cupido added.

Casper de Villiers, who is an alumnus of the former Cape Technikon, as well as Operations Director and a founder member at Clickatell, was the second guest speaker. Clickatell is a world leading communication provider specialising in bulk messaging services and SMS gateway connectivity, situated in Bellville.

Petersen was also one of the speakers at the function.

“Because we want to develop entrepreneurs from CPUT, our target market is third and fourth year students. We decided to use the skills inside and groom the first years. One of the Graphic Design students designed the Dream Lab logo,” she said.

The project will provide students who want to become entrepreneurs with premises and resources, entrepreneurship advice and mentoring, improved business skills, services and networking, assistance with funding and cost saving techniques.

Petersen said: “I learnt about the concept while I was in Sweden through a lecturing exchange programme with Dalarna University.

“Dalarna University introduced me to the entrepreneurship incubator concept and I decided to import the idea. After that, I decided to write a proposal, which was later approved and I started with the work.”

Initially, the programme will be piloted with students from the Business Faculty, but could be extended to all students at a later stage.

In 2009, the Dream Lab Incubator will run a business plan workshop, followed by a competition.

From the business plan competition, the Dream Lab team will select 10 students who will be assisted in becoming entrepreneurs.

“After that, a Needs Analysis will be conducted in order to determine which areas the entrepreneur needs mentoring in,” said Petersen.

The Dream Lab will assist with the registration of the business, patenting and in developing the branding of the business. It will also implement a dual mentoring system. The first part will be offered by a pool of specialists drawn from the Business Faculty.

The second part will attach a student to an industry specific mentor, where the student would spend a month with this particular mentor to familiarise themselves with the industry in which the business will operate.

By Andiswa Dantile

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The Faculty of Informatics and Design’s annual exhibition is growing in leaps and bounds.

This year’s week-long exhibition, which showcases student work in all genres of design, kicked off on 23 November 2009 with an official opening by Dean of the Faculty of Informatics and Design Prof Johannes Cronjé at the Student Centre on Cape Town Campus.

The official opening was marked by the awarding of certificates to students who fared well in various departments and programs within the faculty, and included a well-organised and colourful fashion show held at the Multipurpose Hall the same evening.

The fashion show drew much interest with the models, who were all CPUT students, strutting their stuff in designs created by third year and BTech Fashion Design students.

This is the first time that a fashion show has been organised on campus as part of the year-end exhibition program. In the past, the CPUT graduate fashion show was held off-campus.

Many designers, students, parents, academic staff and industry representatives braved a sweltering heat wave in order to see what CPUT’s design students had to offer.

The Multipurpose Hall and Design Building on Cape Town Campus showcased works representing a variety of design fields, including Graphic, Fashion, Industrial, and Surface Design. Work from the Departments of Interior Design, Architecture and Town and Regional Planning was presented at the Thomas Pattullo Building on the Foreshore.

Prof Cronjé described this year’s exhibition as: “Amazing creativity coupled with excellent execution.” He said this year’s exhibition was different in that it is bigger than ever before, which made it “vibey”. He also mentioned that this year is the first time that some items are on sale across all genres.

“The most important thing about this exhibition is that it is the celebration of the hard work of students and the launch of their careers,” said Prof Cronjé.

Nick Mills, a third year student specialising in Illustration, said it was a great pleasure and privilege for him to be part of the exhibition. When interviewed, Mills was busy putting the final touches on his illustration on an exhibition wall in the design building.

The Faculty of Informatics and Design year-end exhibition will run until 27 November 2009.

By Thami Nkwanyane

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CPUT has officially launched its Satellite Systems Engineering Programme, which is aimed a developing human capacity in the field of satellite engineering.

The launch event, which took place on 16 November 2009, marks the start of CPUT’s role in ensuring the success of South Africa’s National Space Strategy.

The rollout of the programme comes just months after the National Space Agency Bill, which will drive space-related activities, was passed.

With the Bill in place, the institution saw an opportunity to develop students for the South African space industry.

This venture into space science and technology is being backed by the National Research Foundation (NRF), who approved funding of R21 million for the Satellite Systems Engineering Programme.

It also received a stamp of approval from the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

At the launch, which took place at the Bellville campus, the institution also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with EADS Astrium, a French based consortium that is involved in all spheres of space activity.

Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Derek Hanekom, who delivered the keynote address said: “We attach enormous significance to this programme.”

Hanekom said space science and technology is one of the focus areas identified in the DST’s 10 year plan.

According to the plan, South Africa must grow the local satellite industry and increase research, development and innovation in space science.

Hanekom said they have identified human capacity as one of the factors that will limit development in this area.

“It is not by chance that we are supporting this programme. This programme will help develop human capacity,” he said.

He said CPUT has a strong foundation on which to build this programme, which is based in the French South African Institute of Technology (F’SATI), a specialised unit at CPUT that focuses on Electronic Engineering.

“This is the beginning of something big. We are putting the pieces together systematically,” he said.

The NRF also commended F’SATI for venturing into space engineering.

Director of Institutional Capacity Development Dr Romilla Maharaj, said: “I want to applaud CPUT for putting this programme together.”

She said the NRF is excited when institutions’ take up such challenges.

During the next two years, the first intake of students who will specialise in Satellite Systems Engineering, will build a nano-satellite.

Director of F’SATI, Prof Robert van Zyl, who will drive CPUT’s space activities, said they will develop a CubeSat, which will measure 10 by 10 by 30 centimeters and will weigh three kilograms. The payload of the first mission includes a camera and science experiment in conjunction with the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory.

If all goes as planned, the satellite will be completed in 2011.

Prof van Zyl said it will then be showcased at the International Astronautical Federation Conference, which will be held in Cape Town in October 2011.

Dr Chris Nhlapo, CPUT deputy vice-chancellor for Research, Technology Innovation and Partnerships, said the institution is committed to innovation.

“If we want to improve the technology index in South Africa, then we have to take innovation seriously,” he said.

He said the roll out of the programme is a move in the right direction.

By Candes Keating

Photograph: Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic Prof Anthony Staak and Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Derek Hanekom unveil a plaque at the official launch of the Satellite Systems Engineering Programme.

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The Fundani Centre for Higher Education Development recently hosted a delegation from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), who conducted a review of two CPUT projects.

The review, which took place from 10 to 13 May, is part of the international Supporting Quality Teaching study that has been undertaken by the OECD, which is based in Paris, since 2007.

The study forms part of the organisations Institutional Management for Higher Education (IMHE) programme, which is aimed at helping higher education institutions explore their institutional engagement into quality teaching.

According to the OECD the goal of the Supporting Quality Teaching is to “highlight effective quality initiatives and mechanisms and to push forward reflection or practices that may in turn help other institutions to improve the quality of their teaching and thereby, the quality of their graduates.”

In participating in the project, higher education institutions take part in an international review that collects information and benchmarks that would be of benefit to them.

The project is being implemented in two phases. The first phase, which is already completed, involved an overview of institutional initiatives and policies that enhanced the quality of teaching.

The second phase, in which CPUT is participating is exploring institutional experiences and approaches to quality teaching.

Prof Terry Volbrecht, Director of The Fundani Centre for Higher Education Development said CPUT was invited by the OECD to participate in phase two of the study.

“They asked us to submit two particular institutional initiatives that have a wide impact on teaching and learning at the institution,” said Prof Volbrecht.

The OECD review visit focused on two key teaching initiatives at CPUT, namely the Curriculum Officer Project and the Extended Curriculum Project.

The Curriculum Officer Project is an advocacy project to empower academic staff members, nominated by their faculties, to improve teaching and learning practices within their respective faculties and academic departments.

The Extended Curriculum Project involves an extension of teaching and learning activities at first year level over two years with extensive academic support.

Prof Volbrecht said the review process involved a three-day site visit, interviews with staff members and students, documentary analysis and questionnaires.

He said this review will benefit CPUT as the institution will get an external opinion on the quality of the two programmes.

Fabrice Henard, an analyst at the OECD programme said there are ten institutions participating in the second phase of the study, which is earmarked to be completed in 2011.

He said the reviews will produce a reflective paper for each higher education institution. These reflective papers will then be cross-analysed by IMHE/OECD, which will result in an international transversal report.

Henard said the review is not meant to explore the whole educational process or to reveal the educational impacts. According to the OECD the reviews are intended to complement earlier evaluations and foster internal reflection for further work.

OECD review team member, Dr Outi Kallioinen, who is also the Development Director of Laurea University of Applied Sciences in Finland, said the reviews will also enrich the reflections of the OECD on the quality of education at institutions worldwide.

By Candes Keating

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Building work has begun on an advanced Food Technology Complex that will play a crucial role in increasing human capacity and research in the national food industry.

The state of the art building, which will house the Food Technology Department and Agrifood Technology Station, comes at a price tag of R40.6 million. The funds have been made available by the CPUT management.

Dr Jessy van Wyk, Head of the Food Technology Department said the facility will be the only education and training facility of this nature in South Africa.

Based at the Bellville campus, it will house a research and development laboratory, a functional food research unit, an instrument laboratory, a food chemistry laboratory, a microbiology laboratory and a sensory analysis facility.

However, the main feature of the facility will be the 1 500sqm multi-functional pilot plant.

Dr van Wyk said these facilities will enable the department to train world class food technologists.

She said in order to properly train food technologists, institutions need to expose students to facilities that are on par with that they would use in the food industry.

“With the advance of technology in the food industry, the gaps are starting to show. This factory is going to bridge the gap in enabling us to train a food technologist to be job ready when they go into the industry,” she said.

Meanwhile, Larry Dolley, Head of the Agrifood Technology Station said the facility will allow them to expand and improve industry related activities.

Earmarked to open its doors in November 2010, Mr Dolley said: “The added space implies safer equipment operation and also the capacity to obtain more equipment to increase the diversity and capacity of the things we can do.”

He said they are looking at becoming involved in technology transfer by means of “shop-floor training” and collaborating with other academic institutions.

“This new facility with its impact (visually and practically) will generate more business, increase our reputation and in so doing rub off on the academic intake,” he said.

Currently the department is meeting with industry in order to raise additional funds for various fittings.

An estimated R25.4 million is still needed to fit out the Sensory Analysis Facility and install various hi-tech fittings throughout the building.

Dolley said the facility will play a crucial role in ensuring that CPUT becomes the institution of choice for food technology training in the country and on the continent.

By Candes Keating

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On 6 and 7 October 2009 CPUT’s Bellville Campus served as the filming location for a number of television programmes on the theme of student voter education.

The programmes were commissioned by SABC Education in partnership with the Department of Higher Education and Training (DoHET) and Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) as part of a nationwide project that aims to engage students in discussions around the principles of democratic elections.

According to SABC Education Commissioning Editor Surekha Singh, the project came about as a result of a highly successful voter registration campaign for the September 2008 national elections, that included segments filmed at two South African Universities.

With several Universities holding SRC elections during the fourth quarter of 2009, the DoHET and IEC were encouraged to again partner with the SABC produce similar programmes, thereby helping South African universities ensure that their student governance elections are free and fair. CPUT was selected to represent the Western Cape Province.

Among the programmes filmed at CPUT were two live broadcasts of Shift, a daily lunchtime talk show on SABC1 in which young people and special guests discuss topics relevant to the country’s youth. The programme attracts between 800 000 and one million viewers per episode.

“Part of our campaign is to have face-to-face discussions in order to reach a wide audience, so we take Shift along,” said Singh.

The Shift broadcasts provided a forum for discussions on issues around student governance elections, including a conversation about the challenges faced by women in leadership. Discussions on lighter topics and musical inserts were also featured in the broadcast.

The discussion panels included staff and students from CPUT, students from other Western Cape universities, members of the IEC and other special guests.

The outside broadcast project has been endorsed by CPUT Head of Student Affairs Sibusiso Chalufu.

In a communication to staff and students sent prior to filming, Chalufu noted, “As Student Affairs we have welcomed the idea of the OB (outside broadcast) as we felt that it would add value and dovetail with our own SRC Elections Vibrancy Project.”

Having wrapped up filming in the Western Cape, the production team will be continuing the project at universities in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

Various pre-recorded documentary programmes, based on footage shot during the outside broadcast project will be broadcast by the SABC in January 2010. 

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The sound of Vuvuzelas rang out on Mowbray Campus on 11 September 2009, as first year Sport Management students celebrated the upcoming World Cup with a campus Soccer Day.

The event, which was organised by the first years as part of their course’s practical component, was enthusiastically supported by students and staff from the Business and Education and Social Sciences Faculties, many of whom arrived dressed in the colours of their favourite team.

National Red Bull Street Style Soccer champion Chris Njokwana demonstrated a series of dazzling soccer ball stunts including ‘around the world’ where the player kicks, juggles and catches the ball using one foot and ‘magnets’ where the ball appears to rotate around a players head.

Njokwana invited volunteers from the audience to have a go at some street style tricks and soon students and lecturers were showing off knee taps and other moves like football pros.

“Do you think we’re ready for 2010?” shouted Sport Management lecturer Juanita Stoop.

“Yes,” screamed the crowd, waving their flags and vuvuzelas.

Njokwana, who is currently on a nationwide tour to promote the Red Bull Worldwide Freestyle Soccer Contest was impressed with the spirit of the CPUT audience.

“This is the best live crowd we’ve had,” he said.

The day’s activities continued with a goal shooting competition and a soccer tournament that featured a number of student teams as well as a lecturers’ team.

Student Anelisa Jubisa, sporting top-to-toe Orlando Pirates gear, beat some serious competition from Kaiser Chiefs supporters to take home the award for best fan.

The CPUT Sport Management Department has urged all its students to volunteer to assist at the 2010 World Cup. According to Stoop, the planning, organising, risk management, marketing and public relations skills the first years acquired by managing the Soccer Day will be essential for those who participate in the 2010 programme.

“By exposing them to some hands on event planning and organising, they will have a very small idea of the effort one has to put in order to organise a World Cup event,” she said.

“This will allow them to think critically and with innovation when it comes to their volunteer work next year.”

By Ilana Abratt

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Landfill gas, with its high methane content, can pose a threat to humans through explosions, combustion or asphyxiation.

This was the focus of the Landfill Gas Harvesting workshop that took place at the CPUT auditorium on the Bellville campus recently.

The workshop was organised by the Waste Management students as part of their assessment on 7 October 2009.

This was the first landfill gas harvesting workshop in Cape Town

The workshop focused on creating awareness about the dangers of methane gas which may be the result of a gas that comes out of landfills.

Also, the event showed attendees what has been previously done regarding the landfill gas, what is currently underway and what may be possible in the future.

The Waste Management department emphasised that there is a significant amount of money that can be made by operators through mining landfill liabilities and turn them into garbage gold

Jacob Seccona, CPUT Environmental Department’s head said: “This is the first workshop ever organised in CPUT. We need more workshops like these in order to create awareness at municipalities as it is only Ethekwini Municipality that is doing something about landfill gas harvesting.”

CPUT’s Environmental Management Department, which presents the Waste Management course to environmental officers who come from all over the country, helped the students organise the workshop.

Kagisho Motingwe, a student who also works for the City of Cape Town as a principal technician, was the steering committee manager for the workshop.

“Putting together this workshop was an assignment on its own for us as it is part of the continuous evaluation of students, which forms part of the year mark,” said Motingwe.

The workshop targeted municipalities, non-governmental organisations and private sector entities involved in waste management in general, but specifically landfill management and subsequently expanded to students as well.

Motingwe said the objective of the workshop was to create a discussion around landfill gas in South Africa, and to stimulate that relevant guest speakers were invited.

Five speakers shared the stage, touching on the social and environmental externalities of landfill gas, carbon loads and carbon credits, civil impact on landfill gas harvesting and also creating a climate for innovation and change.

According to Motingwe, the idea behind the workshop was to look at the economic side of landfill gas harvesting, the social side and the ethical side of it.

Among the guest speakers was CPUT’s lecturer Dr Lee-Anne Seeliger who spoke around the ethical side of landfill gas.

By Andiswa Dantile

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A colloquium on Web 2.0 technologies, held jointly by the CPUT and University of the Western Cape (UWC) Libraries, provided a forum for both institutions to explore new technologies that could improve their service to library users.

Web 2.0 refers to recent advancements in World Wide Web technology that provide the ability for users to collaborate and share information online. It is a topic currently garnering the attention of university libraries worldwide, as the role played by these technologies in the lives of students continues to increase.

The CPUT/UWC colloquium took place at the UWC Library Auditorium on 25 November 2009. Johann van Wyk, Education Library Manager at the University of Pretoria (UP), was Guest Speaker, and opened the colloquium by discussing the strategic plan that his library had rolled out in order to better utilise Web 2.0 tools and the generally positive response of UP students

Van Wyk provided examples of blogs that Library staff members had set up in order to provide online forums for literature discussions and environments for collaborative bibliographies.

“The environment has changed. A new virtual world exists. We cannot wait for them to come to the library. We must take ourselves to them,” he said.

The colloquium included addresses by UWC Library Director Pateka Matshaya, CPUT Informatics and Design Lecturer Prof Melius Weideman, UWC Lecturer Sandy Zinn and Nikki Crowster of Calico. CPUT Libraries Deputy Director Michiel Moll provided the closing address.

According to Moll, the CPUT and UWC Libraries are embarking on a process of increased coooperation between the two units.

“We feel that together we can achieve more and, as libraries, we are not in competition with each other, but both are there to serve our users. Projects such as this colloquium, closer working on an individual level and further joint projects are envisaged,” he said.

Matshaya said that she foresaw the two institutional libraries working together in the areas of staff training and development and in the sharing of expertise, innovations and IT solutions.

Commenting on discussions she had held with CPUT Libraries Director Dr Elisha Chiware, she said: “I strongly believe that, taking this relationship forward will be the responsibility of our staff as that approach will ensure long-term sustainability.”

The Web 2.0 colloquium was organised by Sulaiman Majal, Janine Lockhart and Yunus Omar of CPUT and Lilian Mitchell-Kamalie of UWC. The event was sponsored by Emerald, SWETS and Springerlink.

By Ilana Abratt

Photograph: Attending the CPUT/UWC Web 2.0 Colloquium were (left to right) CPUT Lecturer Prof Melius Weideman, UWC Library Director Pateka Matshaya, Library Manager at the University of Pretoria Johann van Wyk and CPUT Libraries Deputy Director Michiel Moll.

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