December 2020 Newsletter
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PROGRAMME V3 – 16 September 2019
NATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION CONFERENCE 2-4 October 2019 CSIR ICC, Pretoria Reinventing South Africa’s Universities for the Future UPDATED DRAFT PROGRAMME V3 – 16 September 2019 This programme is subject to further change and will be updated regularly WEDNESDAY 2 OCTOBER 2019 Pre-conference workshops 08:00 – 11:30 Student success (participation by invitation only) HELM (participation by invitation only) Conference 10:30 – 11:45 Registration Tea and coffee on arrival 12:00 – 12:15 Opening and welcome: Prof Thandwa Mthembu, Vice-Chancellor: Durban University of Technology and Venue Chairperson: Universities South Africa Board of Directors 12:15 – 13:00 Opening keynote address: Speaker to be confirmed. Venue 13:00 – 14:00 Lunch Venue 14:00 – 15:30 Session A Session B Session C Venue Venue Venue Ethics and integrity in research New Technologies and the Labour The production of Institutional Culture publishing Market (provisional) in South African Universities and the limits of transformation Speakers: Speaker: Speakers: Dr Molapo Qhobela, CEO: NRF Dr Surendra (Colin) Thakur, Director: Prof André Keet, Chair of Critical Studies Prof Stephanie Burton, Vice-Principal: NEMISA KZN e-Skills CoLab, Durban in Higher Education Transformation: Research and Postgraduate Education, University of Technology Nelson Mandela University University of Pretoria More speakers to be confirmed Prof Pamela Dube, Deputy Vice- Chancellor: Student Development and Support, University of the Western Cape Mr George Mvalo, Director: Social Justice and Transformation, Vaal -
Creativity and Artificial Intelligence: a Digital Art Perspective Bo Xing And
Creativity and Artificial Intelligence: A Digital Art Perspective Bo Xing and Tshilidzi Marwala University of Johannesburg PO Box 524, Auckland Park, 2006 Republic of South Africa [email protected] Abstract This paper describes the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to the creation of digital art. AI is a computational paradigm that codifies intelligence into machines. There are generally three types of AI and these are machine learning, evolutionary programming and soft computing. Machine learning is the statistical approach to building intelligent systems. Evolutionary programming is the use of natural evolutionary systems to design intelligent machines. Some of the evolutionary programming systems include genetic algorithm which is inspired by the principles of evolution and swarm optimization which is inspired by the swarming of birds, fish, ants etc. Soft computing includes techniques such as agent based modelling and fuzzy logic. Opportunities on the applications of these to digital art are explored. 1. Introduction In the age of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) (Xing and Marwala, 2017), many countries (Shah et al., 2015; Ding and Li, 2015) are setting out an overarching goal of building/securing an “innovation-driven” economy. As innovation emphasizes the implementation of ideas, creativity is typically regarded as the first stage of innovation in which generating ideas becomes the dominant focus (Tang and Werner, 2017; Amabile, 1996; Mumford and Gustafson, 1988; Rank et al., 2004; West, 2002). In other words, if creativity is absent, innovation could be just luck. Though creativity can be generally understood as the capability of producing original and novel work or knowledge, the universal definition of creativity remains rather controversial, mainly due to its complex nature (Tang and Werner, 2017; Hernández-Romero, 2017). -
Object Detection Using Convolutional Neural Network Trained on Synthetic Images
Master of Science Thesis in Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering, Linköping University, 2018 Object Detection Using Convolutional Neural Network Trained on Synthetic Images Margareta Vi Master of Science Thesis in Electrical Engineering Object Detection Using Convolutional Neural Network Trained on Synthetic Images Margareta Vi LiTH-ISY-EX--18/5180--SE Supervisor: Mikael Persson isy, Linköpings universitet Alexander Poole Company Examiner: Michael Felsberg isy, Linköpings universitet Computer Vision Laboratory Department of Electrical Engineering Linköping University SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden Copyright © 2018 Margareta Vi Abstract Training data is the bottleneck for training Convolutional Neural Networks. A larger dataset gives better accuracy though also needs longer training time. It is shown by finetuning neural networks on synthetic rendered images, that the mean average precision increases. This method was applied to two different datasets with five distinctive objects in each. The first dataset consisted of ran- dom objects with different geometric shapes. The second dataset contained ob- jects used to assemble IKEA furniture. The neural network with the best perfor- mance, trained on 5400 images, achieved a mean average precision of 0:81 on a test which was a sample of a video sequence. Analysis of the impact of the factors dataset size, batch size, and numbers of epochs used in training and dif- ferent network architectures were done. Using synthetic images to train CNN’s is a promising path to take for object detection where access to large amount of annotated image data is hard to come by. iii Acknowledgments I would like to thank my supervisor at my company Alexander Poole, for always being helpful and coming with interesting ideas. -
Previous Awardees
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT Dr Bernard Fanaroff CHAMPION OF RESEARCH CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSFORMATION AT SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS Professor Faizal Bux HAMILTON NAKI Professor Edmund February EXCELLENCE IN SCIENCE ENGAGEMENT Dr Rehana Malgas-Enus RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FOR NEXT GENERATION RESEARCHERS Mrs Natalie Benjamin-Damons Mr Edward Netherlands RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FOR EARLY CAREER / EMERGING RESEARCHERS Professor Tricia Naicker Dr Mohlopheni Marakalala LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT Professor Brian O’Connell CHAMPION OF RESEARCH CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSFORMATION AT SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS Professor Diane Hildebrandt HAMILTON NAKI Professor Lungisile Ntsebeza EXCELLENCE IN SCIENCE ENGAGEMENT Dr Tiisetso Lephoto RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FOR NEXT GENERATION RESEARCHERS Ms Shakira Choonara Dr Lukhanyo Mekuto RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FOR EARLY CAREER / EMERGING RESEARCHERS Professor Nicole Falkof Dr Musa Manzi SCIENCE TEAM Professor Bongani Mayosi and the UCT / Grootte Schuur Cardiovascular Genetics Laboratory LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT Professor Chabani Manganyi CHAMPION OF RESEARCH CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT AND TRANSFORMATION AT SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS Professor José Frantz HAMILTON NAKI Professor Lerothodi Leeuw EXCELLENCE IN SCIENCE ENGAGEMENT Professor Lee Berger RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FOR NEXT GENERATION RESEARCHERS Dr Pragashnie Govender Mr Sooraj Baijnath RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FOR EARLY CAREER / EMERGING RESEARCHERS Professor Nosipho Moloto Professor Mark Engel LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT Professor Michael Feast -
Profiles of Facilitators and Discussants 1. Professor Tshilidzi Marwala
Profiles of Facilitators and Discussants 1. Professor Tshilidzi Marwala Tshilidzi Marwala (OMB) born 28 July 1971 in Venda, Transvaal, South Africa is the currently the Deputy Vice Chancellor: Research, Innovation, Postgraduate Studies and the Library at the University of Johannesburg. Marwala was previously a Dean of Engineering at the University of Johannesburg, a Professor of Electrical Engineering, the Carl and Emily Fuchs Chair of Systems and Control Engineering as well as the DST/NRF South Africa Research Chair of Systems Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (Magna Cum Laude) from Case Western Reserve University in USA, a Master of Engineering from the University of Pretoria, a PhD in Engineering from the University of Cambridge. He was a post-doctoral research associate at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine and in year 2006 to 2007 was a visiting fellow at Harvard University. In the year 2007 to 2008, he has been appointed a visiting fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge. He has supervised 47 masters and 19 PhD students to completion and has published over 300 papers and 8 books. He is a fellow of TWAS, The World Academy of Sciences, Academy of Science of South Africa and African Academy of Sciences as well as a senior member of the IEEE and a distinguished member of the Association for Computing Machinery. His work has appeared in publications such as the New Scientist. He has served on the boards of EOH, Debel, SITA, City Power and Pikitup. 2. Discussant: Mr Kevin Moore Mr Kevin Moore has twenty five years’ experience in biodiversity conservation management. -
TWAS 27Th General Meeting - Kigali, Rwanda, 14-17 November 2016 List of Participants
TWAS 27th General Meeting - Kigali, Rwanda, 14-17 November 2016 List of Participants 1 Samir ABBES 9 Sabah ALMOMIN (FTWAS) 18 Marlene BENCHIMOL Associate Professor Research Scientist Brazilian Academy of Sciences Higher Institute of Biotechnology of Beja Biotechnology Department Rio de Janeiro (ISBB) Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research Brazil Habib Bourguiba Street (KISR) BP: 382; Beja 9000 P.O. Box 24885 University of Jendouba Safat 13109 19 Tonya BLOWERS Jendouba 8189 Kuwait OWSD Programme Coordinator Tunisia Organization for Women in Science for 10 Ashima ANAND (FTWAS) the Developing World (OWSD) 2 Ahmed E. ABDEL MONEIM Principal Investigator c/o TWAS, ICTP Campus Lecturer Exertional Breathlessness Studies Strada Costiera 11 Zoology and Entomology Department Laboratory 34151 Trieste Faculty of Science Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute Italy Helwan University P.O. Box 2101 11795 Ain Helwan Delhi University 20 Rodrigo de Moraes BRINDEIRO Cairo Delhi 110 007 Director Egypt India Institute of Biology Federal University of Rio de Janeiro 3 Adejuwon Adewale ADENEYE 11 Asfawossen ASRAT KASSAYE (UFRJ) Associate Professor Associate Professor Rio de Janeiro Department of Pharmacology School of Earth Sciences Brazil Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences Addis Ababa University Lagos State University College of P.O. BOX 1176 21 Federico BROWN Medicine Addis Ababa Assistant Professor 1-5 Oba Akinjobi Way Ethiopia Departamento de Zoologia G.R.A. Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria Instituto de Biociências 12 Thomas AUF DER HEYDE Universidade de São Paulo 4 Ahmed A. AL-AMIERY Deputy Director General Rua do Matão, Travessa 14, n.101 Assistant Professor Ministry of Science and Technology Cidade Universitária Environmental Research Center Department of Science and Technology São Paulo SP. -
The National Identity Passport of Patriotism
The National Identity Passport of Patriotism Table of Contents Topic Pages Foreword Our Constitution 2 The Preamble of our Constitution 3 The National Flag 4 The National Flag Etiquette 5 The National Anthem 6 History of the National Anthem 7 The National Coat of Arms 8 The Provincial Coats of Arms 9 The National Animal 10 The National Flower 11 The National Tree 12 The National Bird 13 The National Fish 14 The National Orders 15 The Order of Mapungubwe 16 The Order of Baobab 16 The Order of the Companions of OR Tambo 16 The Order of Luthuli 17 The Order of Mendi 17 The Order of Ikhamanga 17 The Mace 18 The Black Rod 18 The Parliamentary Emblem 19 The African Union (AU) Flag 20 The African Union Anthem 21 MINISTER’S FOREWORD South Africa is a country of unique and original national symbols and its flag is one of the most recognizable in the world. With the re-issuing of this booklet, we are speed- ing up the program to heighten awareness and consciousness of our national symbols. This booklet includes many of our important sym- bols that define our national identity and promote nation building to inspire pride in being a South Afri- can. The importance of being a citizen of this great nation is when all our people are a living expression of our constitutional values, principles and ideals. As part of the celebration of the 20th anniversary of democracy and freedom milestone, we are proud to include details of our Constitution and that of the African Union (AU). -
My Country South Africa: Celebrating Our National Symbols and Heritage
My Country SouthAfrica celebrating ournationalsynbols&heritage My Country South Africa celebrating our national symbols & heritage Department of Education Race and Values Sol Plaatje House 123 Schoeman Street Pretoria South Africa Tel: +27 (12) 312 5080 [email protected] updated 2ndedition Cover photos courtesy SA Tourism, Parliament of South Africa Parliament of South and Department of Education photos courtesyCover SA Tourism, updated 2nd edition My Country South Africa celebrating our national symbols & heritage 2nd edition ISBN: 1-77018-108-3 © Department of Education 2006-2008 All rights reserved. You may copy material from this publication for use in non-profit education programmes if you acknowledge the source. For use in publications, please obtain the written permission of the Department of Education Enquiries Directorate: Race and Values, Department of Education, Room 223, 123 Schoeman Street, Pretoria Tel: (012) 312-5080 Fax: (012) 326-1909 Email: [email protected] The Department of Education gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Royal Netherlands Embassy towards the development and distribution of this publication. Page 3 My Country South Africa /ÃÊ«ÕLV>ÌÊ}}ÌÃÊÌiÊÃÌÀV>ÊVÌiÝÌÊvÊi>VÊ>Ì> symbol - when and how it came into being and the protocols >ÀÕ`ÊÌiÊÃ}wV>ViÊ>`Ê«ÀÌ>ViÊvÊi>V°ÊÌÊiÝ«>Ã]ÊvÀÊ iÝ>«i]Êw, when and where the National Flag should be flown, hung or stored. It also outlines the protocols around the singing of the National Anthem. Schools should ensure that the official version of the National Anthem is sung in full. Learners and educators should be made aware of the appropriate behaviour involved in singing the Anthem. -
Science and Technology
18 Science and technology The Department of Science and Technology aims to Some funds allocated to science councils were realise the full potential of science and technology earmarked to address specific South African (S&T) in social and economic development, through problems. The funding of science councils has been the development of human resources (HR), substantially reformed: core funding through research and innovation. parliamentary grants is complemented by The intellectual framework for policy is the allocations through a competitive bidding process National System of Innovation (NSI), in which from the Innovation Fund (IF). The IF applies three a set of functioning institutions, organisations, major criteria when making its selections: individuals and policies interact in pursuit of a competitiveness, quality of life and environmental common set of social and economic goals. sustainability. The department’s budget over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) has seen an Innovation Fund increase of 26%, most of which will fund new The IF was created to promote technological scientific research infrastructure such as the innovation; increased networking and cross- Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC). sectoral collaboration; and competitiveness, quality of life, environmental sustainability and the National System of Innovation harnessing of information technology (IT). The NSI focuses on the role of technology in The National Research Foundation (NRF) claims economic growth and supports innovation and a management and administration fee from the technology diffusion. Since 1994, institutions such allocated budget for support services rendered. as the National Advisory Council on Innovation The IF’s strategic objectives include creating (NACI) have been established to advise the Minister a knowledge base in key technology and eco- of Science and Technology on policy and the nomic sectors; facilitating the exploitation and allocation of funding. -
Thecathartic ALUMNI MAGAZINE | FACULTY of HEALTH SCIENCES | 2010 of Football and Faculty
TheCATHARTIC ALUMNI MAGAZINE | FACULTY OF HEALTH SCIENCES | 2010 Of football and Faculty ... Contents our mandate for redress and ensuring a diverse and representative student body, or responding Features to yet another media query about how we select Something of an Accidental Doctor __ 2 our students. Letter from the Trenches ____________ 4 In this issue of the Cathartic, you will read about a recent visit by a group of journalists, Healing in Haiti ___________________ 6 including a reporter from the New York Times, Taking Life 2 the Limit _____________ 7 really served to highlight not only how far we Humanitarian … Without Borders ___ 10 have come as a Faculty, but also how far our Admissions Policy ________________ 12 students have come—sometimes literally, but more often in terms of the difficulties that they Faculty News have overcome in order to study at UCT, and more importantly, to flourish as a student in the Ikeys go down to Maties ____________ 9 Faculty. Apartheid Health Exhibit for Biko Day 13 We were able to gather together a small Lance Armstrong visits ____________ 14 group of students, of different races, economic New 3-D Temporal Lobe Simulator Trains backgrounds and geographical origins, to spend a ENT surgeons ____________________ 15 few hours with a selected cohort of journalists Winning Research ________________ 16 from a range of media, both print and electronic. One of the main topics of discussion was the Professional Standards Committee is support that we offer students, which makes our watchdog for Faculty ______________ 16 faculty unique and gives students from all SHAWCO education in action ______ 17 As we take leave of 2010, it’s time to reflect backgrounds a fair opportunity to succeed. -
The Who's Who of Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation in South Africa 2009/10
Sound it for our SETI Stars The Who’s Who of Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation in South Africa 2009/10 A National Science and Technology Forum Initiative Partners & Sponsors Partners Platinum Sponsors Media Sponsor Gold Sponsor Community • Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Support • Mintek • South African Medical Research Council (MRC) • South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) • University of Cape Town • University of Johannesburg • University of Pretoria • University of Pretoria: Department of Electrical, Electronic & Computer Engineering • University of Stellenbosch • University of the Witwatersrand Contents 1 Focus on the NSTF 2 Message from the Chairperson of the NSTF 3 Adjudication of the Awards 4 Tribute to Dr TW Kambule 4 Tribute to Chief Adjudicator, Denis Frank Hunt 5 The Finalists: Individuals 13 The Finalists: Research for Innovation by an individual or a team through an Organisation/Institution 15 The Brilliants Programme for our future Innovators 20 The NSTF Share ‘n Dare Programme Focus on the NSTF The National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) is the largest and most prominent multi-stakeholder representative forum for all science, engineering, technology and innovation (SETI) organisations in South Africa, which seeks to influence policy formulation and delivery. The NSTF was established in 1995, and has a proud history of involvement with SETI policy issues and the promotion of discussion about SETI matters. The NSTF Awards are unique in South Africa and the flagship project of the NSTF. The NSTF Awards encourage and reward excellence in Scientific Research, Technological Innovation, Education, Capacity Building, and Science Communication and therefore afford an opportunity for recognition on a national level to all practising scientists, engineers and technologists across the system of innovation. -
Academy of Science of South Africa______62
Annual Report 2015/2016 Page 1 Annual Report 2015/2016 Page 2 Annual Report 2015/2016 Page 3 Annual Report 2015/2016 Page 4 Contents List of Tables ___________________________________ 6 Abbreviations & Acronyms ________________________ 7 Message – President _____________________________ 10 Molaetsa Wa Moporesidente Pegelo Ya ASSAf Ya Ngwaga Le Ngwana 2015 – 2016 __________________ 12 Message – Executive Officer ______________________ 14 Part A: Strategic Overview _____________________ 17 1 Vision _________________________________ 17 2 Mission ________________________________ 17 3 Values _________________________________ 17 4 Legislative and Other Mandates ___________ 18 5 Organisational Structure _________________ 18 6 Council ________________________________ 19 6.1 Council Composition _________________________ 19 6.2 Council Meeting Attendance _________________ 23 Part B: Performance Information ________________ 24 1 Overview ______________________________ 24 1.1 Service Delivery Environment _________________ 24 1.2 Alignment with Government Policies __________ 24 1.3 Significant Developments/Major Projects ______ 26 1.4 Service Delivery Improvement Plan ___________ 26 1.5 Strategic Outcome-oriented Goals ___________ 26 2 Performance Information by Programme ___ 27 2.1 Programme 1: Governance and Administration Programme ___________________ 27 2.1.1 Good Governance __________________________ 27 2.1.2 Diversification of Academy Membership ______ 27 Annual Report 2015/2016 Page 5 2.1.3 Recognition of Excellence ____________________ 29 2.2