The Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment hosted its annual Faculty Research Day 2023 at the Coastlands on the Ridge, Musgrave on Friday, 27 October 2023.
The aim of the event was to foster a culture of research and innovation within the faculty, to provide a platform for sharing research findings, promoting intellectual discussions, and facilitating interdisciplinary collaborations.
Furthermore, the event also sought to celebrate the research achievements of the faculty’s members and to enhance the faculty’s research reputation and stimulate interest in research endeavours. Giving the welcome address at the event was the Acting Executive Dean in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), Professor Sudesh Rathilal, who explained that the Research day is an annual event and was the second time that the faculty was holding this event after a successful event in 2022.
“The idea is to allow everyone to get involved in presenting their research. It’s not a competition but we do have prizes. It’s more about staff, and students getting the opportunity to talk about their research. When you see the faculty presentations over this year and from last year, you can see the passion with which presenters talk about their research, and that is exciting for us. This passion is not always received from reading a dissertation or a journal articles. The day is also combined with the Staff and Students awards,” he said.
Beginning the talks at the event was one of the keynote speakers, Mr Gert Madonsela, who has over 28 years of industry experience in the field of Power System Protection Technology and Planning. He is presently a Chief Engineer in the Distribution Division of Eskom. Madonsela has authored and co-authored nine technical papers which were presented in both local and international conferences; two of which are “Earthing practices of medium-sized star-star Distribution transformers” and “Through-fault capability of power transformers”. His topic of discussion was on: Research that Counts. He spoke on the definition and importance of defining objectives with classical strategic management, and understanding internal and external environments.
He emphasised on the typical industry key problems such as e-waste, key industrial customers billing challenges, managing the transition from convectional into electric vehicles, smart cities, load-shedding solutions, Artificial Intelligence and hybrid education.
In conclusion, he relayed that the case for Research that Counts can be motivated by strategic management, economics, financial management and education.
“Research that Counts should migrate from being researcher-centred to being industry/market-informed, Research that Counts must be innovative, relevant and value-adding-today and in future,” he said.
The second keynote speaker was Dr Udesh Pillay. He holds a PhD in development economics and built environment studies. He is a business administration and strategic planning-high level strategist; public policy expert; socio-economic development specialist; thought leader; change catalyst; institutional turnaround and restructuring expert; and fundraising specialist. Adding to his accolades, Dr Pillay is an accomplished Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) author; Corporal Social Investment (CSI) expert; and Associate Professor; Honorary Research Fellow at Harvard, Princeton and the London School of Economics (LSE). He focused his talk on the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The day’s agenda included presentations by distinguished speakers, plenary sessions, and parallel sessions on specific research themes. These sessions covered a broad spectrum of topics, fostering knowledge exchange and intellectual discourse. Participants also had the opportunity to engage with the research community, networking with fellow academics and students, and exploring potential research collaborations.
Presenters ranged from academics/researchers, postgraduate students (Master’s and Doctoral) and Honours students. In all, there were more than 50 presentations across the various disciplines within the faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment.
The Research day then culminated with the presentation of the Faculty Awards 2023 based on achievements in 2022.
The winners announced were:
- Best Graduating student: Bachelor of Engineering Technology (BEngTech)-Kelsi Naidoo.
- Best Graduating student: Bachelor of the Built Environment (BBE) – Nonhlanhla Mbambo.
- Best Graduating student: Honours (Engineering)-Tiara Kerisha Moonsamy.
- Best Graduating student: Honours (Built Environment)-Sabeeha Sayed Begum.
- Best Graduating student: Masters-Nomthandazo Precious
- Top Publishing Doctoral Graduate: Dr Emmanuel Kweinor Tetteh.
- Staff Category: Best Researcher of the Year: Dr Modupe Mewomo.
- Teaching and Excellence Award (Gold): Dr Navin Singh.
- Teaching and Excellence Award (Silver): Mr Graham Bruce.
- Research Category: Best Productive Department (Research output): Electrical Power Engineering.
Faculty Research Day Presentation Awards:
- Students’ Best Oral presentation: Platinum-Ms Londiwe Ngomane.
Best Oral presentation: Gold-Mr Prince Manyepa.
Best Oral presentation: Silver-Mr Mfanelo Chonco.
- Students’ Best Poster presentation: Platinum-Mr Preston Rorich.
Best Poster presentation: Gold-Mr Mpilo Tatana.
Best Poster presentation: Silver-Ms Nomvelo Shabalala.
- Staff Best Oral presentation-Dr Robynne Jean Hansmann.
Rorich, who won for Students’ Best Poster presentation: Platinum, expressed his sheer joy of having his work obtaining such recognition. “It was two years of hard work, I appreciate my supervisor Prof Moloi for always supporting me and I could not have done it without him,” he stressed.
Head of the Electrical Power Engineering Department, Prof Katleho Moloi was over the moon with the announcement for best productive department.
“Its outstanding work from my colleagues who sacrificed a lot of time and energy, and sometimes I pushed them a lot. They are always willing to ensure that we produce the best. The objectives are clear, increase the number of PhDs in the department, increase female graduates in PhDs and I’m thinking in the next five years we will have a department full of professors,” he said proudly.
DUT Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning, Dr Azwitevhelwi Nevhutalu gave the closing remarks. All in all, the overarching goal of the event was to enrich the intellectual landscape, inspire new research initiatives, and foster a vibrant research community.
Pictured: Faculty award winners at the event.
Photography: Morgen Kisten.
Waheeda Peters/Asanda Dzelwa
