Faculty highlights

Commerce

UCT-led project amplifies mothers’ voices to effect social change

The Motherload Photovoice Exhibition was the culmination of a UCT Vision 2030 Grand Challenges Pilot Project, co-created with a group of low-income mothers from around the Western Cape and in collaboration with Flourish (Grow Great Campaign), the South African Medical Research Council, and the Western Cape Government. By foregrounding mothers as experts in their own lived experience, the project aimed to explore their intersecting strengths, struggles and needs and uncover potential pathways to improving their quality of life. Initiated and led by Professor Ameeta Jaga from the Section of Organisational Psychology in the School of Management Studies, the project used photovoice as a decolonial research approach to amplify the voices of women in Cape Town, the rest of South Africa and elsewhere in the world.

UCT prof part of report which charts way forward for Paris agreement on climate change

Professor Harald Winkler from Policy Research in International Services and Manufacturing (PRISM) in the School of Economics was one of two co-facilitators of a key technical report published as part of a global stocktake on the progress made in implementing the Paris Agreement. The stocktake aimed to assess the global response to the climate crisis and chart better ways forward. The report’s technical findings show that while widespread actions have been taken to address climate change and its impacts, much more is needed by all actors to meet the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement.

Six UCT researchers awarded SA research chairs

Professor Co-Pierre George, from the Financial Innovation Hub in the School of Economics, in collaboration with Professor Claudio Tessone at the University of Zurich, was awarded the DSI-NRF SA/Switzerland Bilateral Chair in Blockchain Technology as the Foundation for Digital Property Rights and Data Markets. The bilateral research will conduct research to better understand the potential impact of blockchain.

Measure impoverishment, not poverty – Prof Sir Angus Deaton

The first annual Francis Wilson Memorial Lecture, held in collaboration with the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU) and DataFirst in the School of Economics, featured the renowned economist, Professor Sir Angus Deaton, who delivered a thought-provoking talk on the importance of measuring impoverishment rather than solely focusing on poverty. Professor Deaton's insights sparked crucial discussions on understanding the broader aspects of people's living conditions beyond income levels. Professor Deaton crafted the lecture as a tribute to the late Emeritus Professor Francis Wilson, the founder of SALDRU in 1975.

SALDRU concludes large-scale research project on the state of SA

The conclusion of the Research Project on Employment, Income Distribution and Inclusive Growth (REDI3X3) – a large-scale, multi-year research undertaking led by the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU) in the School of Economics – provides an in-depth analysis of some of South Africa’s most pressing challenges; and how to fix them. REDI3x3 is an independent national research programme in partnership with the National Treasury. The project commenced in 2012, and the results were published in a book titled: A Measurement of Our Ills – and How We Might Fix Them by SALDRU’s Pippa Green. REDI3x3 aimed to better understand the dynamics of employment, incomes and economic trends in South Africa.

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Engineering & the Built Environment

UCT’s groundbreaking mechanical engineering isiXhosa glossary

The University of Cape Town (UCT) has introduced the Mechanical Engineering isiXhosa Glossary, which was launched by the Centre for Higher Education Development’s (CHED) Multilingualism Education Project (MEP) on 2 November. This glossary of terms is “groundbreaking” and is in keeping with enhancing student success not only at UCT, but at universities across the country, said the director of the MEP, Professor Lolie Makhubu-Badenhorst. “As … universities, we suffer with [the] success rate and throughput of students, and part of our research has proven that the issues of success and access are hindered by language. As we make these terms accessible in an indigenous language, we hope that it will contribute to the success of students.

UCT’s STEM outreach piques learners’ curiosity

A cohort of students from University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Department of Electrical Engineering recently embarked on a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) outreach project at Portland High School in Mitchells Plain around themes of sustainability and e-Mobility, offering a glimpse into the exciting possibilities within these fields. The two-day project included theoretical and practical demonstrations in a bid to kindle the curiosity of the next generation of engineers and innovators, instilling a passion for STEM subjects. This initiative is part of the Department of Electrical Engineering’s broader socially responsive programme, linking its world-class research to direct community impact around UCT.

EBE launches positive psychology programme to build resilience and academic success

The Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment launched a semester-long character strengths course for its students after an overwhelmingly successful pilot programme. The transformative initiative was launched in conjunction with the Department of Student Affairs (DSA) and Residence Academic Development Committee following a five-week pilot programme, “Character Strengths Top 5”, involving 125 EBE students during the first semester.

UCT hosts German Education and Research minister for updates on German-funded research projects

The Catalysis Institute at the University of Cape Town (UCT) recently hosted German minister of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, [BMBF]), Bettina Stark-Watzinger, and Western Cape premier, Alan Winde, who toured the institute and received updates on two large BMBF-funded green energy research projects under way at UCT.

Launch of EBE Talks

The EBE Faculty launched our EBE Talks online platform (website).  It is a website that aims to transform the way we connect and collaborate on research inside EBE. The EBE Talks projects share their research findings through short videos, abstracts, and peer-reviewed articles. The studies were developed by individual researchers and/or research groups from UCT EBE. The result is a dynamic and user-friendly platform that will serve as a gateway to knowledge, resources, and opportunities for future research. With EBE Talks we intend to increase the visibility and reach of UCT EBE research, making research accessible and tangible not only to fellow researchers but also to students, the local industry, potential funders, and the general public.

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Humanities

Prestigious Wellcome Career Development Award for UCT’s Elena Moore

The University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Professor Elena Moore has been awarded a prestigious Wellcome Career Development Award that will bolster a unique five-year research programme that places older people in southern Africa at the top of its priority list. The award is an initiative of the Wellcome Foundation – a global charitable foundation that supports research into life, health and well-being. It provides funding to mid-career researchers from any discipline who have the potential to be international research leaders. According to the foundation, the goal of the award is to develop scholars’ research capabilities, drive innovative programmes of work, and deliver significant shifts in understanding that could improve human life, health and well-being.

Flute from his femur – A researcher’s journey with healthcare tech, AI

Sweet and clear, the ethereal sound of a flute greets visitors to artist-researcher Dr Ralph Borland’s exhibition in Woodstock. But the instrument yields a surprise: it’s been crafted from a human femur bone, a to-scale 3D replica of Dr Borland’s own thighbone. The exhibition, AIAIA – Aesthetic Interventions in Artificial Intelligence in Africa, caps Dr Borland’s two-year collaboration with a surgeon at Tygerberg Hospital, and a parallel personal journey that intricately weaves together his art, his research, and his lived reality. His project investigates emerging technologies in healthcare through collaboration. A Carnegie Corporation of New York-funded junior research fellow, his work is one of seven strategic projects under the umbrella of HUMA’s Future Hospitals: 4IR and Ethics of Care in Africa initiative. This reflects critically on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and other technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the future of hospitals in Africa.

UCT student Cwenga Koyana advocates for teen mothers at global conference

University of Cape Town (UCT) master’s student Cwenga Koyana recently returned from the UNESCO and Women@Dior Global Conference in Paris, where she was a guest speaker. She was reporting back on the progress that her non-profit company (NPC) has made since winning this mentoring and educational programme’s Dream for Change competition in March 2022. Graduating with her BA (Hons) in Film and Television Studies on 29 March, the creative entrepreneur and aspiring philanthropist is currently enrolled for her MPhil in Digital Curation at UCT. “[I] envision the enhancement of the South African entertainment industry, and the empowerment of teen mothers in Africa through the power of education,” she noted. Her passion for her causes is palpable. “I intend to use my qualifications to strategically design digital creative and educational platforms that aim to uplift young women, artists and the youth of Africa.”

Ouma Katrina Esau: Reviving a language, one child at a time

Earlier this week, the University of Cape Town (UCT) bestowed an honorary doctorate on Her Excellency ǂXuu Katrina Esau. Affectionately known as Ouma Katrina, the nonagenarian is the last remaining fluent speaker of the critically endangered N|uu language and one of South Africa’s living legends. Thought to be extinct until fairly recently, N|uu – an ancient San language from the Tuu family – re-emerged in the Northern Cape during the late 1990s when people who were able to speak the language fluently were encouraged to contribute to its survival and revival. At the time, there was a group of about 20 older people who could speak the language fluently, among them Ouma Katrina and her siblings. Sadly, Ouma Katrina is the last of the group still alive. She has, however, made it her life’s mission to preserve the language for the future by educating young people from her community in a tiny classroom at her house in Rosedale, outside Upington in the Northern Cape.

UCT opera star who broke glass ceiling to sing at coronation

he has the voice of an angel, and it will grace the coronation of a king and his queen in Westminster Abbey on 6 May. University of Cape Town (UCT) alumnus Pretty Yende’s story is a triumph of talent over adversity – and the transformation of the Eurocentric, elitist world of opera. Yende (37) will sing a solo at the coronation of Charles and his wife, Camilla, as king and queen of the United Kingdom (UK) and the other Commonwealth realms. Charles will be crowned King Charles III. Sharing the news on social media, the UCT-trained soprano said: “It’s hard to put into words how honoured and blessed I feel to receive an invitation to perform at the coronation.” The coronation will showcase talent, chosen by the regent, from across the UK and the Commonwealth. The invitation adds to Yende’s growing repertory of international performances and awards. The most recent is the Ceremonial Badge of Honour that recognises her contribution to the arts and letters in France and worldwide.

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Health Sciences

Groote Schuur Hospital clears backlog of 1 500 surgeries

Much of South Africa’s public health sector is plagued by long waiting times for surgery, a situation that was made much worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, an inspiring project at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town has reached the target of slashing its backlog by 1 500 elective surgeries – two months ahead of target. At the end of March 2023, a small team of healthcare workers completed the project called ‘Surgical Recovery’. The project ran from May 2022 and was originally planned to conclude 12 months later.

FlexiGyn named joint winner of 2023 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation

Edmund Wessels, the brain behind FlexiGyn – a groundbreaking, innovative and easy-to-use gynaecological device, designed to address and improve the health of women on the ground – is one of the joint winners of the 2023 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation. FlexiGyn allows gynaecologists to diagnose and treat uterine-related challenges without using general anaesthesia, and is considered a game-changer for women and girls living in under-resourced communities who struggle to access gynaecological care. In June, Wessels, a University of Cape Town (UCT) PhD student was shortlisted as one of the top four African innovators in line to receive the Royal Academy’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation. The award was established in 2014, and remains the largest prize dedicated to engineering innovation. On Thursday 6 July, in Accra, Ghana, the Academy announced that Wessels and Anatoli Kirigwajjo from Uganda were the 2023 joint winners, and will each receive £25 000 (approximately R585 000). The two runners-up will each receive £10 000 (approximately R234 000).

Med student’s stellar academic record paves way for elective abroad

Fifth-year Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MBChB) student Moses Malebana’s stellar academic record has paved the way for a special international elective at the University of Graz – making him the maiden recipient of this golden opportunity – and galvanising ties between the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Department of Medicine and the Medical University of Graz (Med Uni Graz) in Austria. Malebana will depart in November and return to UCT’s Faculty of Health Sciences in January 2024. And with just a few short weeks before he boards his flight, he said he is excited for what awaits, and plans to absorb every detail of the experience. “I plan on becoming a giant sponge while there. I am excited and feel privileged that I’ve been selected for this opportunity. I look forward to learning all there is to learn and flying UCT’s and the Department of Medicine’s flag[s] high at Med Uni Graz,” he said.

UCT TB researcher elected Fellow of the Royal Society

The University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Professor Valerie Mizrahi is among the 80 outstanding researchers, innovators and communicators from around the world who have been elected as the newest Fellows of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences and the oldest science academy in continuous existence. They have been selected for their substantial contribution to the advancement of science – from using forensic techniques to identify victims of war crimes, to investigating processes in the earth’s core, and mapping the world’s largest peatlands in the Congo basin. Professor Mizrahi, the director of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine in the Faculty of Health Sciences, is one of very few scientists from South Africa to have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society. The other UCT academics elected as Fellows in previous years are Emeritus Professor George Ellis and Emeritus Professor William Bond.

Charting SHAWCO’s next 80 years

The University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Students’ Health and Welfare Centres Organisation (SHAWCO) has 80 years’ worth of stories to tell; however, the organisation is focusing on what the future should hold. “So, it was on one cold and windy night in mid-July in 1943 that this small group of students went in, and on that night, eight patients came. The clinic had started. In driving gales and pouring rain, this small band continued to visit Kensington. The effort and sacrifice these students made was incredible and their keen sense of duty was truly remarkable.” These are the words attributed to SHAWCO founder, Andrew Kinnear, during the celebration of the 80-year milestone of Africa’s largest student-led non-profit organisation. Kinnear, a medical student at the time, drove an ambulance during his university holidays in order to pay for his studies. His ambulance duties turned out to be a blessing in disguise for communities like Kensington, as Kinnear came face to face with poverty, lack of hygiene and scant medical facilities. He wanted to do something about the situation.

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Law

Human Rights Day: ‘Refugees are people with rights and aspirations’

“As a foreigner living in South Africa, your refugee status underpins the treatment you receive. We need to work twice as hard as South African citizens to achieve the same result, while being discriminated against and obnoxiously labelled and distained.” So says Innocent Biringanine, a Congolese national and third-year audiology student at the University of Cape Town (UCT). This Human Rights Day, Innocent openly shared some of his family’s struggles as they journeyed from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to seek refuge in South Africa. But on arrival, life was challenging, especially for Innocent. He endured years of emotional turmoil at the hands of his classmates – only because he looked and spoke differently. Innocent said he was ridiculed regularly and openly discriminated against, acts that affected his mental health.

Law faculty honours ‘best in legal fraternity’

The Law faculty rubber-stamped the process to rename some of its rooms after pre-eminent South African law scholars and anti-apartheid struggle stalwarts during Africa Day celebrations hosted at the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Kramer building on 25 May. The faculty took a giant leap in realising its transformative purpose when it unveiled two meeting rooms bearing the names of lawyer and activist Victoria Mxenge and Rivonia trial defence lawyer Bram Fischer. The palatial quad has been named after former Constitutional Court Chief Justice Pius Langa. With large smiles on their faces, the families were joined by several members of UCT’s top management at the ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

UCT law academics lead a new global innovation research project

“Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development” – this is Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3. This goal, along with other SDGs, is the focus of a newly funded collaborative Open AIR research project which has just been awarded significant support by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of US$2 million to investigate the regulatory environments for innovation in healthcare, data governance, food security, and green technologies. Titled “Regulation for Innovation: Inclusive and Sustainable Knowledge Governance in Lower-income Countries”, the project runs for three years from March 2023 to June 2026. Open AIR’s research has already confirmed that current regulatory systems – including intellectual property (IP) laws – often inhibit innovation and create and sustain severe access inequalities, eg, with regards to life-saving drugs and vaccines. This new research project seeks to improve regulatory systems across Africa and provide solutions to achieving several SDGs, such as better access to vaccines and essential medicines; the development and deployment of clean technologies for environmental sustainability; digital and data-driven agriculture for food security; and equitable access to research materials for quality education.

Law PhD at 26 for Gaopalelwe Mathiba – youngest in over a decade

University of Cape Town (UCT) senior law lecturer Gaopalelwe Mathiba, 26, will become the youngest person in the Faculty of Law to obtain a PhD when he graduates on Friday, 21 July. Over the past 11 years, there have been only five PhD graduates aged 26 or younger out of a total of 2 583 graduates from UCT. With his research and teaching interests cutting across property law, mining law, human rights law and comparative law, Gaopalelwe’s thesis is titled “Towards a meaningful engagement approach to mining-induced displacements in South Africa: A legal comparative perspective”. His goal was to devise best industry practices and policies that protect affected communities and is alive to their plight. Commenting on what drives him, Gaopalelwe said: “I am a man of faith and give God glory for everything I have accomplished and everything I am yet to accomplish. Apart from my career, I am a family-oriented young man.”

Making law available free online in Africa

AfricanLII and Laws.Africa director, Mariya Badeva, recently partnered with the governments of Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Tanzania to provide technical assistance and capacity building to help provide free access to law online. The law, and its practice, is fundamentally inaccessible for the ordinary citizen in many African countries. UCT News spoke to Badeva, who advocates for the free digitisation of legal documents. She is the director of the AfricanLII programme of the Democratic Governance and Rights Unit at the Department of Public Law at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the deputy director of the iNtaka Centre for Law and Technology, also at UCT’s Faculty of Law.

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Science

‘Grachte’, pumps and the first hydroelectric station – how water shaped the city

Day Zero in 2018, triggered by a severe drought in the Mother City and with taps predicted to run dry on over four million people, marked a crisis like none before. But the region has always been water thirsty. This saw early Dutch and British settlers take matters into their own hands to provision ships on the East Indies route and, later, the fledgling centre’s growing settler and slave population. Each development since the 17th century has made its mark on various natural landmarks and on the city’s geography and infrastructure, said the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Emeritus Professor Jenny Day in her UCT Summer School lecture, “Water for Cape Town: 370 years of ‘not quite enough’”.

New digital tool helps prepare for malaria outbreaks in southern Africa

The Wellcome Trust has provided approximately R487 million to support global research to address urgent health threats brought about by climate change. This funding provides for 24 research teams in 12 countries around the world to develop innovative digital tools to model the relationship between climate change and infectious disease. One of the 24 global project teams is led by a University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Science faculty collaboration between the Modelling and Simulation Hub, Africa (MASHA) in the department of Statistical Sciences and the Climate Systems Analysis Group (CSAG) in the Environmental and Geographical Sciences department. This project brings together disease modelling expertise at MASHA and climate modelling expertise at CSAG to build Health: RADAR – Responsible Access to Data for Analysis and Research. Health: RADAR will be an open-source web-based platform in which data is collated, curated and transformed to catalyse Climate Sensitive Infectious Disease (CSID) modelling. The tool can be used to explore data across a range of diseases in several countries on the continent.

Long in the tooth: Ancient proteins illuminate deep-time species evolution

Standing up to 3 m tall and weighing up to 600 kg, illustrations of the massive primate Gigantopithecus blacki call to mind the mythical Himalayan Yeti. Dental remains of the prehistoric ape, which lived in the tropical forests of south China, have been dated to 1.8 million years ago, and scientists now know they were ancient relatives of modern-day orangutans. This is thanks to advances in palaeoproteomics, keys to a vault of significant palaeontological data. Broadly, palaeoproteomics is the study of ancient proteins. These are ‘mined’ from mineralised fossil remains such as bone, teeth, and eggshell. And the example of Gigantopithecus blacki was one of several presented at a public seminar titled “Reconstructing Deep-Time Evolution Using Palaeoproteomics”.  This public seminar formed part of the African Palaeoproteomics Workshop, held at the University of Cape Town (UCT) from 23 to 25 February, and hosted by the university’s Human Evolution Research Institute (HERI).

UCT funding to support cost-effective manufacturing of pharmaceuticals in South Africa

The manufacturing and availability of medicines in sub-Saharan Africa will receive a major boost with the injection of R13 million to the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Holistic Drug Discovery and Development Centre (H3D). The awarded integrated special project (ISP) has been made possible by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through MATRIX, a USAID project to advance the research and development of innovative HIV prevention products for women. It will support a pilot project aimed at evaluating an innovative continuous flow technology for cost-effective manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in South Africa. Pharmaceutical manufacturing primarily takes place outside Africa, mainly in high-income countries where collaborating organisations, technology, infrastructure and a critical mass of skilled scientists and technicians are more readily available. In South Africa, the pharmaceutical formulation industry is well developed and produces more than half the final pharmaceutical product consumed locally, though it has not yet developed the capacity to synthesise and manufacture the APIs. In fact, the vast majority of APIs for use as medicines on the African continent must be imported.

AI, chatbots and ChatGPT: Threat to knowledge work, or a ‘dancing bear’?

Developments in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven platforms such as Open AI’s ChatGPT needs a cogent response from universities as students turn to this technology to produce their academic outputs – sidestepping critical thinking and research. The issue was one of many on the topic of AI addressed by University of Cape Town (UCT) 1972 alumnus Professor Dan Remenyi in his Summer School Extension Series webinar titled “Branded dangerous – AI and the chatbots”. Professor Remenyi also asked his audience to think carefully about where this technology is taking society. Now living in the United Kingdom, he has been part of the information and communications technology (ICT) industry for several decades and has worked with companies, consultants and leading research universities. The author of several books on ICT, Remenyi is currently an honorary professor in two schools of computing. While possibilities linked to AI are remarkable, caution is needed, he said.

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