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French South African Institute of Technology (F’SATI)

F’SATI, the French South African Institute of Technology is an institute that also offers degrees jointly developed by France and South Africa. The initiative was launched early in 1994 after a state visit by South African President Nelson Mandela to France, arranged by the French Chamber of Commerce and industry - île-de-France (CCI-IDF) with the initial objective of developing a training institute in electronics in South Africa. In 1997, ESIEE Paris created the French-South African Institute of Technology (F'SATI) in Pretoria, South Africa, in collaboration with Technikon Pretoria (now Tshwane University of Technology). Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) is a public and higher education institution in South Africa; a public university of technology and one of the country's largest universities, established on 1 January 2004, because of a merger of three established Technikons, namely: Technikon Northern Gauteng, Technikon North-West and Technikon Pretoria.

In 2008, a second F'SATI opened in Cape Town at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). Université Paris Est Créteil (UPEC) also joined the partnership on the French side. Since its creation, Université Gustave Eiffel has also been a F'SATI stakeholder, extending participation to all its component campuses. Since the addition of Université Gustave Eiffel to the collaboration, its scope has extended beyond information and communication technologies (ICT) to include civil engineering, technology management, and artificial intelligence.

F'SATI is therefore a training institute with research centres, geared towards offering programmes in high-added-value scientific and technological fields, such as: signal processing and telecommunications; automation and control; power and energy; information and communication techniques; space science, engineering, technology; satellite communication systems and applications. Hitherto, F’SATI at CPUT narrowly focussed on the design, development, and deployment of Nanosatellites for LOE (Low earth orbit) with relevance to marine domain awareness. Its successes have been celebrated and widely acknowledged, leading to the establishment of the African Space Innovation Centre (ASIC) as a formal Research, Technology, and Innovation (RTI) research centre within CPUT in 2013.

Fig. 1: New CPUT F’SATI Structure and Research Projects

F’SATI, through ASIC will continue to build and launch nanosatellites, in a sustainable manner, and engage in innovative projects and adapt to a rapidly changing world. F’SATI will continue to offer the structured master’s degree in Satellite Systems and Applications, or the new Joint Master’s in Satellite Systems and Applications degree Program, thus catering to the growing Space Industry in South Africa, Southern Africa, Africa and internationally. At the 05 July 2023 F’SATI Board meeting in Paris, a strategic decision was made and expounded by the CPUT Vice Chancellor to broaden the scope of CPUT F’SATI, beyond satellite systems and applications, to meet the requirements of an Institute and ensure sustainability. The goal is to position F’SATI to address diverse practical problems facing South Africa and France (Europe) and providing solutions. This refocusing serves as a catalyst for expanding current research to leverage the societal benefits that can be derived from transdisciplinary research and space-based services.

CPUT F’SATI has identified new real-world problems and embarked on a trans-disciplinary research approach and establishing new research project groups, namely:

  • Satellite Systems and Applications Research.
  • Ocean Plastics and Composite Materials Research. (Sustainable Oceans)
  • Smart Integrated African Super-Grid (Smart Solar Power Systems)
  • New Transdisciplinary Research (Aviation, Transportations Systems, Sports Science, Aerospace)

These research projects interface with any other groups at CPUT (such as Sustainable Oceans, Smart Grids, Energy Institute), as well as national (TUT F’SATI) as well as international collaborators (UPEC, UGE France). The Ocean Plastics & Composites project is a transdisciplinary research initiative, involving several FSATI institutions and disciplines. Marine ecosystems are significantly threatened by plastic litter, hence effective detection and monitoring techniques are necessary. The identification and classification of ocean plastic litter has been made possible by the development of remote sensing (RS) methods such as optical imaging, thermal infrared (TIR) sensing, hyperspectral imaging (HSI), multispectral imaging (MSI), and synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The project begins with top surface sea plastic waste detection using satellite images (or data capture using UAVs, low flying plane) and AI (machine learning) methods and tools for identification, tracking and segmentation. A secondary dimension with potential for intellectual property, is the use of such plastic waste to develop composites for fabricating environmentally friendly wind turbines and industry products and components, in a collaborative research project.

The French South African Institute of Technology F’SATI at CPUT, is therefore a trans-disciplinary training and research institute and a flagship programme at CPUT. It engages in applied scientific research and technology development across both partner nations, in support of the National Development Plan (NDP) of the South African Government, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) to improve the living standards of people in the South African and the French (European) society and to contribute towards nation building. F’SATI will continue to play a crucial role as regards the development of intellectual capital of South Africa. This is carried out through seeking to patent research outputs associated technological outcomes with significant industrial potential. The execution of this goal will be done in a manner that focuses on enhancing South Africa’s research intellectual property output within South Africa and Internationally (through filing for patents where applicable in international jurisdictions). The justification for the consideration of this diversity approach is the increased role of software related innovation, and invention within the space engineering domain. New initiatives such as open satellite ground station networks provide such opportunities in innovation in the software domain with regards to accessing data from in-orbit satellite used in earth observation and communication networks. The patenting of software related products while challenging in South Africa will be pursued with the overall goal of enhancing F’SATI IP output.

The purpose of F’SATI is to contribute to the South African engineering and scientific expertise through its own fundamental and applied research, and through collaborative work with our French (European) partners and others. The transdisciplinary nature of our research is reflected in the current and future activities of the Institute’s research with industry and community-based development projects. The institute engages in inter-disciplinary approaches to the resolution of real-world engineering problems facing human society and industry. The strategic intent is to see F’SATI contribute massively to CPUT research productivity, human capital, generating resources, and strengthening our indices on internationalization.