Students from various faculties presented their research at the recent Postgraduate Conference.

Held for the first time since 2014, the conference saw Masters and Doctoral candidates deliver presentations and present posters on a range of subjects. Topics ranged from the use of electro-spun copper oxide nanofibres for non-enzymatic glucose detection to preliminary findings in a survey of old materials used in heritage buildings in the Mother City. The Food Science and Technology students made quite the impact with five Masters students presenting a mixture of research into the potential uses of Bambara groundnut.

Acting director of the Centre for Postgraduate Studies, Prof Dina Burger, said while organising the event they did not have to cajole anyone into presenting their work, but were met by great enthusiasm.

“The importance of a conference such as this is multi-fold. It gives students an opportunity to communicate their science to a broader constituency and in so doing exposes them to feedback and critical engagement. They need this skills in the workplace and in life,” said Burger.

Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Technology, Innovation and Partnership, Prof Marshall Sheldon, pointed out that 6.2% of the university’s current student enrolment are postgraduate students, an increase from 5.5% of 2014.

“We want to increase postgraduate enrolment by the year 2025 and we anticipate the numbers could double. That should increase our research output in terms of articles, conferences attended and papers delivered,” said Sheldon.

She acknowledged that challenges facing current postgraduate students are different to what she experienced as a student but expressed her belief that the university’s support units were up to the task of helping students and their supervisors to achieve their goals.

At the end of the day Merlisa Kemp won best poster for her work on Ultrasound investigation of risk factors for extracranial vascular pathology in patients with Multiple Sclerosis.

Best presentation went to Mohamed Rahman (A performance and energy evaluation of a dye drawn forward osmoses (F) system for the textile industry). Bwandakassy Cedrick Elenga Baningobera’s presentation (Implementation of an IEC 61850 standard-based harmonic blocking scheme for a power transformer) won him second best presentation and Sarah Kasangana Kapinga (CO3O4/TIO2 heterojunction for heterogeneous activation of peroxymonosulfate for treatment of textile wastewater) won third best presentation.

PICTURE CAPTION: GROUP SHOT: Postgraduate students recently presented their current research at a conference held at Saretec.

Written by Theresa Smith
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In order to thrive in this era of ever-changing digital technology, business organisations require leaders who are independent thinkers, self-confident, innovative, creative and results-oriented.  

This kind of phenomenon is termed e-leadership.

This view was shared by Dr Michael Twum-Darko, Academic Head of Postgraduate Research at the Graduate Centre for Management, during the Digital Transformation Talk hosted recently by the CPUT-based Centre for Enterprise Resource Planning in Africa (CERPiA).

Dr Twum-Darko said that in addition to e-leadership technical infrastructure and enterprise architecture were also required.

He added that people need to appreciate that, while business content has not changed over the last couple of years, the context of doing business has evolved. He argued that digital technology and the internet of things are now being used to integrate business process and office automation with industrial processes and factory automation and that this is a convergence towards the establishment of cyber-production systems.

CERPiA manager Jerry Ansen said the Centre trains academics from Africa to train others in the SAP software programme. “Our task is to reach out to African universities so that they can skill and train their students.”

The Centre has since 2012 trained more than 6 000 graduates, 575 lecturers and professors in Africa.

Students in the Human Resources Management Department who recently completed the SAP training were awarded certificates during the event. Ansen added that the graduates, who were nominated to participate in the training by their department, all obtained distinctions during the assessment.

Aqeela Dawood, one of the graduates, said the SAP certificate has opened many doors in industry for them as they have been equipped to handle all the business processes pertaining to HR management.

Advancement director Calvin Maseko thanked Investec for funding the training of the graduates.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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