Graduates of the Faculty of Applied Sciences rose the roof this morning as they cheered on a classmate who had achieved one of the highest honours the University can bestow on its students.

Dean Berry, who graduated cum laude with a BTech degree in Horticulture, is also the recipient of the Vice Chancellor’s Medal. This medal is awarded to the top Btech student across all 6 Faculties. Berry achieved six out of six distinctions in his final year of study with an aggregate of 85%.

Four MTech degrees were also awarded to Nina Septoe, Andre Lambrechts, Jade North and Natalie Newman. These candidates’ graduated with their Masters Degrees from the Departments of Consumer Science: Food and Nutrition, Environmental Health, Horticulture and Nature Conservation, respectively, while Adegbenro Peter Daso and Janes Doughari Hamuel were awarded Doctoral degrees in the Environmental Health Department.

Guest speaker Dr Gansen Pillay, the Deputy CEO of the National Research Foundation of South Africa spoke passionately of the quality of research being done in South Africa.

He says that in moving from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy, South Africa offered a wealth of opportunity for bright young graduates to exploit.

“We have to focus and prioritise education in South Africa. I advocate the concept of liberation through education – it’s the one thing that can never be taken from you. And at the centre of everything, excellence and integrity needs to be non-negotiable. “

Graduation continues this evening on the Bellville campus where the Faculty of Engineering holds its second ceremony. On Saturday, the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences holds the final two ceremonies on Cape Town campus that bring a week of Autumn graduation to a close.

By Jan Weintrob

Photograph by Clive Galant

Written by CPUT News
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Representatives from government, industry and academia were among the delegates welcomed to the Bellville campus this morning for the first day of the DST-UNESCO Engineering Conference.

The theme of the three-day conference is Enabling the Fourth Industrial Revolution for Sustainability and Economic Growth.

Prof Marshall Sheldon, CPUT’s Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Technology Innovation and Partnerships, said the initiative was developed to build engineering capacity in the country that is informed by national projects such as the National Development Plan. National Infrastructure Plan, National Skills Development Plan Strategy and specific projects such as the Square Kilometre Array.

“This conference aims to bring together role-players in various engineering fields to discuss opportunities and challenges and to propose strategies to South Africa that we can adopt to develop the engineering capacity in South Africa,” she said.

In addition, the conference aims to raise awareness of the importance of the role of engineering in growing the economy of the country and thereby increasing the quality of life.

CPUT Vice-Chancellor Dr Chris Nhlapo said the conference theme was of particular interest to the institution as the university had recently embarked on a strategy aimed at unpacking the concept of the Fourth Industrial revolution and its impact on the Vision 2030 plan for the institution with a vision of creating one smart CPUT.

He said platforms like the conference were important “so that we can talk in unison about the national approach to the fourth and the fifth industrial revolution.”

This morning’s speakers included Dr Gansen Pillay, Deputy CEO of the National Research Foundation, who delivered the keynote address, and Sipho Madonsela, CEO of the Engineering Council of South Africa.

Written by Ilse Fredericks
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The DST-UNESCO Engineering Conference kicked off yesterday (September 17) with a day-long event dedicated to students.

Postgraduate students from around the country descended on Bellville campus to deliver papers, inspect each other’s posters and more importantly network.

Prof Mellet Moll, acting Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, said the important factor was for students to get to know their own peers and discover people who think as they do and might be able to contribute to their work.

“The day started off with a chance for postgraduate students from all over to listen to each other and look as peers at each other’s work.

“Prof Veruscha Fester’s opening address really framed the day. She gave the postgraduate students context in terms of what the new world of work would be like for them,” said Moll.

During their breaks students inspected the posters displayed in the Auditorium foyer and at a gala dinner CPUT DEng candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Whigens Ngoie Ilunga, won first prize for his poster “Biodiesel production from edible oil wastewater sludge with bioethanol using heterogeneous nano-magnetic catalysis.”

Kerry-Anne Airey of UCT won the first prize for her presentation “Simulation of discrete machining modelling characterisation of Titanium chip formation during milling operations.”
Moll added that it was important to note the Conference showed a CPUT community at peace. “This type of event promotes the spirit of lecturers and students working together. It was wonderful to see so many CPUT students present their work.”

Today (Tuesday) the DST-UNESCO Engineering Conference begins with an address by Vice-Chancellor Dr Chris Nhlapo followed by the United Nations Resident Coordinator in South Africa Nardos Bekele-Thomas and CEO of Engineering Council of South Africa Sipho Madonsela. Dr Gansen Pillay, Deputy CEO of the National Research Fund, will deliver the keynote address.

The three day DST-UNESCO Engineering Conference is themed Enabling the Fourth Industrial Revolution for Sustainability and Economic Growth and plenary sessions over the three days will cover topics such as Women in Engineering, Space Science and Engineering Education.

*CPUT students can visit the DST-UNESCO career exhibition in the Major Sports Hall on Tuesday 18 September and Wednesday 19 September between 9.00 and 16.00. Fifty of the students who visit during the day could receive gifts.

Written by Theresa Smith
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

CPUT has one of the most transformed researcher cohorts in the country and we can do even more to boost those numbers.

This was the message from a recent meeting between CPUT Research, Technology, Innovation and Partnerships Deputy Vice-Chancellor Dr David Phaho and the National Research Foundation’s Deputy CEO Dr Gansen Pillay. The meeting was also attended by Prof Judy Peter in her capacity as Director: Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships at CPUT while The NRF CEO, Prof Fulufhelo Nelwamondo joined the meeting virtually. 

Pillay visited CPUT to congratulate the institution for its recent win at the 2021 NRF awards, where Research Fellow Prof Moses Basitere won for exceptional performance for an emerging researcher.

The stakeholders discussed strengthening NRF and academia partnerships at CPUT and Pillay encouraged the university’s academics to take advantage of a range of excellent funding opportunities.

“We want to be a listening organization. CPUT has a very transformed research community here, the beauty of CPUT is that you are graduating work-ready graduates and as a university of technology you are closer to the interface for societal benefit,” Pillay said.

Phaho said the university was well placed to tap into the millions of rands of funding available at the NRF and would be implementing a few strategies to do this.

“Active grant management is one way of doing this and we will engage with the office of DVC: Teaching and Learning as well as Faculty Deans to ensure that our students, researchers and scholars derive maximum benefit from the opportunities offered by the NRF,” he says.

Written by Lauren Kansley
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Liaises with the media and writes press releases about interesting developments at CPUT.