No less than nine Masters (MTech) degrees and one doctoral (DTech) degree were conferred today in front of an exuberant audience at this year’s fourth and final Faculty of Business graduation ceremony.

A delighted Robertson Khan Tengeh not only received his doctorate in Public Management but also a standing ovation from dignitaries like Vice Chancellor L V Mazwi-Tanga, Dean of the Business Faculty, Prof Binza and guest speaker Ms Xoliswa Daku-Calana.

Daku-Calana is the CEO of DCI Holdings, a company focused on property development and strategic project management in the public sector.

She explained her recipe for certain success, including the importance of self-belief and forgetting negative thoughts and fear of failure.

She also spoke of the value of hard work and leaving nothing to chance, and most importantly – not expecting any hand-outs in achieving one’s goals.

Also honoured at the ceremony was Dean’s Medallist, Jennifer Katsch, who received her National Diploma in Event Management with an aggregate of 84.48% over her three years of study.

Graduation continues this evening on the Bellville Campus where the Faculty of Health and Wellness Sciences will confer certificates, diplomas, BTech and Mtech degrees on graduates in the Departments of Radiography, Dental Technology, Somatology and Emergency Medical Care, amongst others.

BY JAN WEINTROB

Written by CPUT News
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If you are looking for funding or need some advice on all the administration processes linked to your Mtech or Doctoral studies, then a visit to the Centre for Postgraduate Studies is a must.

With branches at the Bellville and Cape Town campuses, this one-stop-shop caters for all CPUT postgraduate students who are in need of a helping hand.

Staffed by experts in various academic fields, the centre is renowned for going that extra mile to ensure the success of each and every postgraduate student.

Recently the centre held welcome and information sessions across the CPUT campuses, which was attended by large numbers of postgraduate students.

Director of the centre, Prof Daniel Makinde urged students to make use of their services and facilities.

Services include assistance with funding, administration, research guidance and mentoring for students and research supervisors. The centre also boasts a study hall for postgraduate students, where they have access to the Internet, various computer programmes and other resources.

“CPUT provides a good environment to study and obtain your qualification,” said Prof Makinde.

Deputy-Vice Chancellor Research, Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, Dr Chris Nhlapo also urged students to make a success of their postgraduate studies.

“This is an opportunity of a lifetime,” he said.

Currently, South Africa produces just over 1000 PhD graduates a year, a low number compared to other developing countries, producing far larger numbers. During the next few years, South Africa hopes to up the number and produce up to 6 000 PhD graduates a year.

Dr Nhlapo said CPUT will play a key role in upping the PhD figures.

“We must make sure more young researchers get into the system,” he said.

By Candes Keating

Written by CPUT News
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The Faculty of Informatics and Design celebrated the success of their Master’s and Doctoral graduates during a robing ceremony on graduation day.

Four Master’s graduates and three Doctoral graduates were honoured during the event where they and their supervisors shared the journey they undertook to graduation day.

Loved ones were given the opportunity to symbolically robe the graduate.

The Information Technology Department’s Prof Johannes Cronjé, said the event also gave the graduates the opportunity to thank their loved ones who supported them during their studies.

Dean of the Faculty of Informatics and Design, Prof Tembisa Ngqondi, encouraged the graduates to continue on the journey of lifelong learning.

The three doctoral graduates were:

Jolanda De Villiers Morkel (Doctor Technologiae: Design), who was supervised by Cronjé. Her study is titled: An Exploration of the student-tutor interaction in the live online architectural design critique.

Emmanuel Udekwe (Doctor of Philosophy: Informatics), who was supervised by Prof Chux Gervase Iwu, Adjunct Prof Andrè Charles de la Harpe and Prof Justine Olawande Daramola. His study is titled: Effective utilisation of human resource information systems in the South African health sector

Ernest Etim (Doctor of Philosophy: Informatics), who was also supervised by Daramola. His study is titled: e-Readiness of the South African informal sector for electronic portal technology support.

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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The Centre for Distributed Power and Electronic Systems is very proud of their two doctoral and five master’s graduands who will be among the last students capped at this year’s Summer Graduation.

The students studied Electrical Engineering and Ayonkunle Oluwaseun Ayeleso and Gunjan Gupta are Doctor of Electrical Engineering graduands supervised by the CDPES.

Ayeleso’s research for his DEng Electrical Engineering focused on a novel alternative energy conversion and generation system based on Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and the fourth state of matter known as plasma. He built a prototype MHD system and published seven accredited journal and conference papers for the work that led to his thesis, An improved plasma energy conversion system for Electric Power Generation.

This focus on alternatives is a big focal point of the CDPES, headed by Prof Tariq Kahn, who supervised Ayeleso.

“The Energy sector is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. Do we have a solution for a seemingly dystopian future? On the one hand there is space exploration but that would be pretty useless if you go into space but Earth falls apart. Spaceship Earth has limited resources and the allocation from our current lifestyle simply uses too much. The world has to adjust and new forms of energy generation are needed,” said Kahn.

Director of CPUT’s Energy Institute, Kahn says while they realise the need to encourage students to research alternative energy sources, they cannot ignore the fossil fuel mix and the gas reserves of Mozambique and Namibia need investigating. The Western Cape’s dire water situation also means relooking how steam is utilised in power stations with an eye on desalination technology.

Another important focus area is power grids, featured in Gunjan Gupta’s DEng Electrical Engineering thesis An analysis and improvement of selected features of power quality of grid-tied alternative energy systems. Gupta, supervised by Prof Wilfred Fritz, has published her simulation results in two journal publications and six conference proceedings.

Dr Atanda Raji supervised Gideon Joubert’s Master’s thesis Advanced technological solutions to the negative perceptions of nuclear power plants. Joubert, who will graduate summa cum laude, looked at how nuclear technology has evolved into a safer and cleaner alternative method of power generation since it was first introduced.

Like Joubert, Hlonela Gesha did the new MTech Energy Coursework which is a Masters course that runs parallel to the regular Master of Electrical Engineering course. Gesha was supervised by Kahn for the thesis An analysis of the environmental impacts of biomass application hybrid Microgrids in South Africa.

Tariq Lameen, also supervised by Kahn, wrote the Master’s thesis Development of a photovoltaic reverse osmosis fogging demineralizer for improved gas turbine generation output.

William Murray, who will graduate his MEng Electrical Engineering summa cum laude, was supervised by Dr Marco Adonis for his thesis Energy Wheeling viability of distributed renewable energy for industry. He investigated the economic viability and technical concerns of transporting electricity generated by an Independent Power Producer directly to an industrial consumer.

Supervised by Dr Wilfred Fritz and Kahn, Nkusi Emmanuel will graduate as a Master of Electrical Engineering having written the thesis Modelling of Harmonic Stability and Voltage Distortion between Electrical Grid and Renewable Generation Technologies.

Written by Theresa Smith
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It was a celebration of hard work and resilience when postgraduate graduates in the Faculty of Informatics and Design were “robed” during a special ceremony. 

The ceremony has become a tradition in the Faculty and gives the graduates and their supervisors the opportunity to share and reflect on their journey to graduation while family members are given the chance to robe the graduates.

Six Master’s and eight doctoral candidates were robed during this morning’s ceremony while distinguished artist Conrad Theys, who will be receiving an honorary doctorate in Arts and Design during this evening’s ceremony, was also honoured.

“Thank you for recognising me as one of you. Thank you for recognising me as an artist and as a child of South Africa,” said Theys.

“I feel very honoured. I don’t how to tell you how pleased I am, how lucky I am.”

Written by Ilse Fredericks
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