The Durban University of Technology recently signed a MoU with various companies towards the establishment of a centre of excellence in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) at DUT.

The initiative is a partnership between DUT, Q-FREE Africa, the eThekwini Municipality, Transnet and other role players.

Q-FREE Africa will be providing equipment, including a test gantry, training, and access to a vast amount of existing and new data, for the purpose of research and development in the ITS arena.

Q- FREE Africa is a subsidiary of Q-FREE ASA, a Norwegian company that specialises in ITS with an emphasis on road user charging, congestion charging, traffic surveillance, video tolling and truck tolling, among others.

Staff from the DUT Department of Electronic Engineering will undergo training in this technology and together with experts from Q-FREE Africa and their associated companies in Norway, Netherlands and various other countries, it will form part of a specialist group. This group will then be responsible for the knowledge transfer of the aforementioned technologies to current and future students.

Department of Electronic Engineering Lecturer Seren Reddy said the intention is to establish DUT as a centre for excellence in ITS for KwaZulu-Natal.

“This new ITS research group will come under the Department of Electronic Engineering and be affiliated with our current Intelligent Systems Group. Since ITS involves understanding technologies that are used to improve and enhance road, air, freight and sea traffic management and logistics, DUT students that are selected to be trained in this field will have extremely specialised and highly marketable skills,” Reddy added.

Professor Theo Andrew, the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment Dean said DUT is very excited to be part of the project. “DUT does not only want to be the best university in South Africa but wants to be embedded in the context of KwaZulu-Natal. The DUT vision is to be engaged in its local context,” he said.

— Nomvula Sikakane

Caption: DUT staff from the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment together with delegates from Q-FREE Africa, Q-FREE Norway and eThekwini Municipality.