The Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment and Professor in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), Professor Bhekisipho Twala was recently inaugurated as a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) at the annual Awards Ceremony.
He was amongst 43 of the country’s top scholars and scientists who were honoured at this prestigious event. The inauguration was part of ASSAf’s core function, which is to honour outstanding scholars from the full spectrum of disciplines by electing them to Membership of the Academy. The recent addition of 43 new ASSAf Members has increased the total Membership of ASSAf to 632.
Prof Thandwa Zizwe Mthembu, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the DUT, was elated and proud that DUT had one of its own scientists inaugurated amongst the top 43 country’s scholars. He remarked that this contributes to placing DUT as one of the significant players within the sector in the Artificial Intelligence and Data Science areas.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Engagement at DUT, Prof Sibusiso Moyo, congratulated Prof Twala, saying that, Prof Twala is one of DUT’s highly cited and ranked Scholars with a Google Scholar H index of 23.
“His field of research includes Applied and Theoretical Machine Learning amongst other 4IR areas which the DUT is focusing on as part of its Systems and Processes as well as Society perspectives of ENVISION2030. Prof Twala also leads the DUT Engineering and Built Environment (EBE) which is positioned to become a significant role player in advancing our applied and technological advances as a leading University of Technology,” noted Prof Moyo.
Speaking about this great achievement Prof Twala said: “ASSAf is regarded as the most prestigious honorary scientific society for exceptional leaders in the country. I cannot wait to provide independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology just by being a member of the organisation.”
Congratulating Prof Twala, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning, Prof Nokuthula Sibiya said Jack Dorsey once said: “Success is never accidental.”
“My heartfelt congratulation to you, Prof Twala for the prestigious ASSAf Membership. Your hard work has paid off. I express our pride in you and wish you all the best for the exciting new journey as a member of ASSAf,” added Prof Sibiya.
Biography
Prof Twala is a Professor in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science with the Department of Electrical and Mining Engineering at the University of South Africa. Before then he was the Director of the Institute for Intelligent Systems at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and was also Head of the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Science Department at UJ. Before then, Prof Twala was a Principal Research Scientist at the Council for Science and Industrial Research (CSIR) within the Modeling and Digital Science Unit (where he is currently an Advisor). His research work at the CSIR involved and expanded swath of data, analytics, and optimisation approaches that bring a complete understanding of digital customer experiences.
Prof Twala was also a post-doctoral researcher at Brunel University in the UK, mainly focusing on empirical software engineering research and looking at data quality issues in software engineering. His broad research interests include image in signal processing, multivariate statistics, applied and theoretical machine learning, knowledge discovery and reasoning with uncertainty, and the interface between statistics and computing, and has published over 100 scientific papers.
Pictured: Professor Bhekisipho Twala
Simangele Zuma
