The Durban University of Technology closes its doors for the December vacation on Friday, 15 December 2017 and reopens for the first semester of the new year on Wednesday, 3 January 2018. Some members of DUT’s Executive Management team reflected on 2017 and looked ahead to the new academic year. Professor Nomthandazo Gwele, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning; Professor Sibusiso Moyo, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Engagement; and Professor Thenjiwe Meyiwa, DUT’s Registrar, passed on their well wishes and gratitude to the University community.
Professor Nomthandazo Gwele-Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic
“Dear staff and students, it’s been a year of new beginnings with a lot to learn. I know we are all richer for it. Now it’s time to sit back and revel in the excitement that the Summer Holidays bring.”
Professor Nomthandazo Gwele, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic.
Professor Thenjiwe Meyiwa-DUT Registrar
“The Office of the Registrar wishes all students a restful, safe and peaceful festive season. May you all have a productive, quality time with your loved ones and that you shall usher in the New Year well. We look forward to welcoming all our new students back in 2018, energised for the New Year. Our office also anticipates that prospective students shall arrive well at DUT and shall find our university all that they had hoped for, a student-centred university and we are committed to this value.”
DUT Registrar, Professor Thenjiwe Meyiwa.
Professor Sibusiso Moyo-Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Engagement
“Greetings from the Research, Innovation and Engagement front. It gives me great pleasure to thank all our DUT staff, students, sponsors, partners, friends of the university and all our external stakeholders for the support they continuously give us to ensure we continue contributing to skills training and excelling in our research, innovation and engagement enterprise. As 2017 comes to an end, we have had an extremely busy and engaged year with a number of milestones that have ranged from engaging our internal stakeholders on the decolonisation debate, initiating a baseline audit on entrepreneurship at DUT and auditing and creating a baseline for community engagement in line with the 2017 Annual Performance plan.
Our postgraduate students have also hosted a successful postgraduate conference in 2017 that involved a number of researchers and students from other universities. The Research Institutes, Centers and Faculties have also hosted a number of conferences, seminars and events that have seen DUT engage with various stakeholders. Our research and innovation profile continues to grow both in volume and impact as we have ended our year with the first Research and Innovation Summit that brought together key partners and included an exhibition at the Durban Exhibition Center. This was followed by the 2017 Annual DUT Research and Innovation awards which celebrate excellence in both research and innovation. It is an annual event widely anticipated by the DUT researchers and postgraduate students. The guest speaker for the evening was the Director General of the Department of Science and Technology, Dr Phil Mjwara. Special guests included the VIP guests, U.S Consul General Ms Sherry Zalika Sykes, Judge Vuka Tshabalala, Chancellor of the DUT and Dr Mahmoud Youssef Baker, Chairman of the IQRAA Trust, Executive Deans, Deputy Deans and DUT staff and students. Remarkable entertainment for our Guests was by very talented, Xolani Khowa, who is a 3rd year DUT Drama student. Professor Megandhren Govender from the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Applied Sciences also added his magical touch to the evening by presenting “Riddles in my soup mug” – a science presentation on quirky ideas on reality and life in general.
The Howard University ADVANCE-IT (HU ADVANCE-IT) and the Maryland-KwaZulu Natal Sister State Committee, hosted the HBCU-HDI Women in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Conference from the 24 to 27 October 2017 in Washington, DC. The meeting was held at the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine on Constitution Avenue in Washington, DC.
The conference programme was very intense and structured to showcase successful women leaders in STEM who participated in panel sessions, Guest Lectures shared with the student attendees on their various experiences. In addition, there were a number of organised prestigious tours to Morgan State University, Howard University, the World Bank and the IMF. These tours involved further presentations and panel sessions which deliberated on the role of women in STEM, giving the historical contexts of the earliest and first Black African Americans and Black South Africans to get degrees in STEM and make significant contributions to Science and Knowledge generation.
The conference Chair was Dr Sonya Smith, Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Howard University supported also by Dr Jean Bailey, Maryland-KZN Sister State Committee Chair. On the South African side, the organising Chair was Prof Shirley Motaung from Tshwane University of Technology, Prof Sibusiso Moyo from the Durban University of Technology; Mr Cecil Masoka, Director: Multilateral Cooperation, Department of Science and Technology (DST), Mr Bheki Radebe and DST team. DUT had 11 of its female STEM students participate as part of the 40 South African students who joined the delegation. We thank the DST for strategically supporting this initiative.
There are a number of highlights and outcomes of various engagements that our staff and students are involved in and I have just mentioned a few!
I take this opportunity to thank all our staff, students, partners and collaborators, our funders and sponsors for all your support, dedication and hard work as we continue to contribute to the economic social transformation agenda. May you find some time to rest and unwind with your families and friends.
I would like to end with a quote from one of the panels that presented at the South African Science Forum on 7th December 2017:
“There is freedom of speech but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech” by Idi Amin.
We must be grateful that we live in a democratic society where we still have freedom of speech and for this reason – we must continue the journey of questioning why things are the way they are and why things work the way they do and continue pushing the boundaries of knowledge to better the lives of our people!
May God bless and keep each one of you and your families. Look forward to a more successful 2018!”
Professor Sibusiso Moyo, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Engagement.
Article Compilation: Waheeda Peters
