To address the skills shortage and digital divide brought by Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), the Durban University of Technology in collaboration with the Media, Information and Communication Technologies Sector Education and Training Authority’s (MICTSETA) launched the MICTSETA 4IR Centre of Excellence for Postgraduate Student Training. The event was held recently at the Hotel School Conference Centre, Ritson Campus in Durban and also online.
DUT marked this milestone with an official opening of the first Smart Societies comprising of 20 postgraduate students receiving bursaries to the value of R90 000 each. It is envisaged that these students would go on to make a positive impact on society by shaping skills, pioneering industries and empowering industries with their research findings.
Facilitating the proceedings of the event was the former Commissioner from the Presidential Commission of 4IR, Nuclear Scientist and Entrepreneur, Ms Nomso Kana. She began by introducing the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Engagement at DUT, Professor Sibusiso Moyo who was going to deliver the welcome address.
Prof Moyo welcomed all the esteemed guests and participants saying it was an exciting day for DUT to open the first Centre of Excellence at the University in partnership with the MICTSETA. She acknowledged the Chairperson of the MICTSETA Board, Mr Simphiwe Thobela, and MICTSETA Board members, Mr Loyiso Tyira, Mr Sipho Zwane, Ms Nombikayise Khumalo, Mr Thabo Mofokeng, MICTSETA Acting CEO, Mr Matome Madibana and all the other members of MICTSETA, including the Advisory Board committee members and stakeholders. At DUT, Prof Moyo acknowledged the Vice-Chancellor & Principal, Professor Thandwa Zizwe Mthembu, the MICTSETA Research Chair, Prof Oludayo Olugbara who is also the Executive Dean: Faculty of Accounting and Informatics, the various Head of Departments that were present, DUT staff and students who worked behind the scenes to ensure that the launch was a success.
Speaking about DUT, Prof Moyo said the University is ranked first in the country by the Times Higher Education University Rankings in terms of its citations and research impact.
“In 2021 we were ranked 10th globally in terms of the citation impact and in 2022, we have been ranked 12th, considering over 600 other universities that took part this time around. One of the reasons of participating in these rankings is to really try and benchmark our performance and identify areas that we can improve on, as well as increase our visibility in the African continent and globally. One of our research focus areas is in ICT for Society and the Centre of Excellence and MICTSETA Research Chair is well aligned to our aspirations to address societal needs and co-design and produce knowledge products and services for the benefit of our people,” conveyed Prof Moyo.
She added that DUT has great focus on entrepreneurship and innovation, where the emphasis is not just about setting up businesses and producing products and services but really trying to identify gaps and opportunities within Society and come up with solutions and services that can improve the experience of the people and transform livelihoods.
MICTSETA Research Chair, Prof Oludayo Olugbara’s presentation was titled: Exponential Innovation: Bane or Swank of 4IR for Better Society. He first explained exponential Innovations as the ability to join technologies with people to create a better society.
“A better society should balance economic advancements and resolution of social challenges. Technology and education are essential for improving lives and livelihoods. Most people have a parochial mindset around the emergence of 4IR. Some say jobs will be lost, jobs will be displaced, 4IR will change what we do and who we are. There is also an issue of reskilling and upskilling after several years on the jobs,” said Prof Olugbara.
Furthermore, he said cybercrime is the prime threat of 4IR not “parochialism”. He also spent a bit of time speaking about the cybercrime pandemic, how the internet has become an absolute cesspit for whistle-blowers and criminals by studying cybersecurity threats through South African internet protocol address pace. Prof Olugbara spoke about the three internet webs, which are the surface web, deep web and the dark web.
Speaking about the Centre of Excellence, Prof Oludayo said it has a team of highly talented people leading the way to address skills shortage in South Africa. He said the objectives of the Centre include collaborations to stimulate creative innovation within the ICT sector, providing skills-based postgraduate training in 4IR and solving complex problems using the Luban workshop model of Engineering Practice Innovation Project (EPIP). He defined EPIP as an advanced project-based learning model that embraces design thinking, computational thinking and computational action for complex problem solving.
Dr Alveen Singh, DUT Senior Lecturer in the Department of Information Technology (IT) spoke briefly about his role in the Centre which is the recruitment and selection of postgraduate students as well as to ensure an enriched learning environment for the students.
“It is not unusual for a student to come to me and say, sir I want to do a Master’s but I don’t have a topic, I don’t have a supervisor and I don’t have any money. I respond quickly and I say no problem, we can take care of most of that for you. Then I ask what is it that you want to do and why do you want to do this. This is when the student replies and says where I live we have a few animals in our place and sometimes these animals go missing. Someone says your animal was stolen, people start mobilising to bring it back what is theirs while in the meantime the animal wonders back in the yard in perfect condition and good spirit. He says I have an idea, I think I can come up with a IoT solution because it could be made easy to use and inexpensive. This student has the elementary research skills, now it is up to the university to equip the student but the problem of no money and no access to technology is real,” explained Dr Singh.
Pictured: Guest at the newly launched MICTSETA 4IR Centre of Excellence.
He said due to various social economic reasons, DUT loses the opportunity to create future leaders, entrepreneurs and contributors to the knowledge pond. Therefore, he expressed his gratitude to MICTSETA and Prof Olubgara for making it a reality in DUT. He also shared a video made by students sharing their research projects and expressing their appreciation for being selected to be part of this programme.
The keynote address was delivered by MICTSETA Board Chairperson, Mr Simphiwe Thobela who expressed that he grew up in the rural area in the Eastern Cape and that he is a typical rural person.
“If this 4IR we are talking about is not responding to real issues that confront the people in the society in general, we might as well be not this passionate about it. Passion must be driven by a desire to resolve issues that are affecting humanity. I will begin with a quote from the 4IR Presidential Commission. It reads undoubtedly that 4IR represents an opportunity to place South Africa in a leadership role, passing behind the history of exploitation and exclusion. For me that is a very fundamental thing because we are from a very particular history as a country and it has been defined by exploitation and exclusion. With all the previous industrial revolutions that have happened, Africa has always been behind and this one time we must take a responsibility of asserting ourselves and catching up with the rest of the world,” Thobela said.
According to Thobela those who are in privileged positions of power, have a responsibility to empower the disadvantaged, as it is not about what you do but who is affected by what you do.
After Thobela’s robust presentation, there was the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between DUT and MICTSETA, with DUT represented by DVC: RIE, Prof Sibusiso Moyo and MICTSETA represented by Acting CEO, Mr Matome Madibana.
The vote of thanks was delivered by Madibana who expressed his appreciation to the MICTSETA, DUT staff and students for this fruitful partnership.
Guests were then taken to the 4IR Centre of Excellence for the unveiling of the plaque and the cutting of the ribbon ceremony where they had the opportunity to see the students working on their research projects.
Pictured: Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Engagement, Prof Sibusiso Moyo and MICTSETA Acting CEO, Mr Matome Madibana after signing the Memorandum of Understanding.
Simangele Zuma
