The Research Directorate at CPUT celebrated research excellence at its annual Research Day on 4 December 2009. The event, which included an awards ceremony and poster exhibition, attracted a number of respected academics from both CPUT and other institutions of higher learning.
While praising the high quality research that has been produced by our researchers, many speakers voiced concerns about the decline of research output in South Africa and suggested ways that universities could confront this decline.
Prof Bongani Mayosi, Head of the Medicine Department at the University of Cape Town, stated that one can’t be an academic without being a researcher. Looking at our country’s share of publications, Prof Mayosi said in 1993 South Africa was above Argentina, Greece, New Zealand and Turkey, but those countries overtook South Africa during the period 1995 to 2000.
“We have not been reproducing ourselves. We have not been training new scientists. In 1990, 6% of the researchers who published were under 30 years and 2% were over 60 years,” he said.
Prof Mayosi, who was recently awarded the Order of Mapungubwe by President Jacob Zuma, said the reasons for this were related to lack of a national planning strategy, lack of infrastructure and lack of well-trained people. “You’ve got to build laboratories; you can’t rely on hospital facilities for research because these are meant for the delivery of a service. He said in a report to be released in January that they are calling for a national strategy.
While training as a cardiologist, Prof Mayosi decided to be “a doctor who can solve problems”. He published three papers during his studies. He said there was a point in his career when he published about 15 papers per annum. “People think once they get their PhDs they’re done and can now get a good job; that’s only the beginning. There are no shortcuts to building good researchers. It takes 10 to 15 years to make your mark,” he said.
Dr Chris Nhlapo, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Technology Innovation and Partnerships, said that at CPUT should not only be “at the heart of technology in Africa”, but that we should strive to be the heart of technology in the world.
“Some people say we are actually teachers and not researchers, we need to change that. We need to have at least two A-rated researchers come 2011. We need a more extensive, broad based approach to innovation,” he said.
Marlon Parker, a researcher at the Faculty of Informatics and Design, spoke about reconstructing communities through research and innovation, thereby alluding to his research which involved gangsters. Parker said, “We took the worst of the worst. If they can transform, everybody could transform. We taught them and they in turn taught the community. They taught people who used to fear them”.
Other speakers during the day included Sibongile Sowazi of the National Research Foundation, Prof Robert van Zyl of the French South African Institute of Technology, and Dr Sharhidd Taliep and Prof Simeon Davies of the Business Faculty, who delivered a speech on ‘The power of sport research to change the world’.
At the end of the day, prizes were awarded to researchers who performed well and projects that generated funds in excess of a million rand.
By Thami Nkwanyane
Written by CPUT News
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