9 minute read
2020 in a nutshell
Vincent Morta bids farewell to UWC – with decades of fond memories
More than four decades after joining the University of the Western Cape (UWC), campus legend Vincent Morta officially retired in January 2020 as the Director of Quality Assurance and MI in the Institutional Planning Office.
Astronomy in isiXhosa: Translating and transforming science
Although South Africa has 11 national languages only two have an advanced scientific vocabulary. UWC’s Department of Xhosa and the interUniversity Institute for Data-Intensive Astronomy (IDIA) have joined forces in a project that translates astronomy resources written in English into other South African languages.
Dental care programme aims to help more children with special needs
An old tennis ball or bicycle handles can help children with special needs take care of their teeth. The ball assists a child with poor upper arm coordination and strength to develop an enlarged, yet fl exible grip, while the bicycle handles encourage a strong grip on toothbrushes. These are some of the innovative ideas used in the Sparkle Brush programme – an internationally recognised collaborative community engagement programme between UWC and the University of KwaZulu-Natal which provides children with special needs with eff ective dental health care and maintenance.
UWC Rugby star earns a Stormers call-up
UWC Rugby star Lyle Hendricks continued his impressive rise in rugby when he was named in the DHL Stormers squad for the 2020 Vodacom Super Rugby campaign, the second UWC player to make the team.
Song of hope to aid China’s fight against COVID-19
China has put up a brave fight against the coronavirus and many countries have extended a helping hand. In February 2020, the UWC Student Choir showcased their support in song. They sang the Chinese national anthem to a group of Chinese lecturers as a gesture of encouragement and support in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak.
UWC ranks in the Top 200 Emerging Economies Universities
UWC has been declared one of the developing world’s top 200 higher education institutions in the Times Higher Education Emerging Economies Rankings 2020 – a testament to how far UWC has come in its 60 years.
Coveted A-rating for UWC cosmology academic
Astrophysicist and UWC academic, Professor Mario Santos, achieved a coveted A-rating at the 2020 NRF Awards. Prof Santos holds the SARChI Chair in Cosmology for Multi-Wavelength Data and is the director of UWC’s Centre for Radio Cosmology.
Something to smile about: Prof Osman caps an illustrious career
Prof Yusuf Osman committed most of his life to the growth of the Dentistry Faculty at UWC and has been associated with UWC since he fi rst started studying Dentistry over 40 years ago. He was one of the fi rst cohort of dentistry graduates and guided the Faculty to new heights locally and globally as a lecturer, Head of Department, Deputy Dean and Dean. His well-deserved retirement commenced at the end of February 2020.
UWC alumna Thembi Kgatlana joins top European club
UWC alumna and 2018 African Woman Footballer of the Year, Thembi Kgatlana, has been signed by European giant Benfica in Portugal, joining a growing number of South African women footballers who have recently moved to top clubs in Europe.
Samsung and UWC spark digital transformation for an empowered society
Samsung South Africa and UWC are on a mission to empower the youth through the Future-Innovation Lab, which provides opportunities for previously disadvantaged youth to gain skills in software development and digital social innovation.
Decoding COVID-19
As the country struggled through the lockdown, April 2020 saw the National Institute for Communicable Diseases and researchers at UWC’s South African National Bioinformatics Institute (UWC-SANBI) successfully sequence South Africa’s fi rst SARS-CoV-2 genome – providing a genetic ‘fi ngerprint’ that might help us understand and contain the spread of COVID-19.
Data Must Fall: Zenzeleni Network zero rates sites for rural communities
In response to COVID-19, the Zenzeleni Community Network, South Africa’s fi rst community-owned Internet Service Provider, has zero-rated access to dozens of essential health and education sites, including all university and TVET college sites. Zenzeleni is a multi-stakeholder project of UWC, the Zenzeleni Networks not-for-profi t company, the Association of Progressive Communications, Ellipsis Regulatory and rural community cooperatives in the remote Eastern Cape that enables connectivity through low-cost WiFi networks in rural areas.
#NoStudentWillBeLeftBehind launch
UWC devised a comprehensive plan to ensure that students complete the 2020 academic year in spite of challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, the university appealed to alumni, corporates and individuals to donate funds, laptops or similar devices, as well as data, to ensure that no student will be left behind with commencement of the fl exible learning and teaching plan.
UWC alumnus develops swift COVID-19 testing kit
UWC alumnus Daniel Ndima and his business partner Dineo Lioma of CapeBio Technologies, have developed an innovative testing kit for the coronavirus called qPCR that cuts the waiting time for results by about 64%. In April 2020, it took up to three hours to get results, but the qPCR kit reduces that time to just 65 minutes.
UWC among world’s best in Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2020
UWC has again been recognised as one of the world’s leading socially and environmentally aware higher education institutions according to the Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings 2020. UWC excelled in several specifi c United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) areas, including SDG 1: No Poverty (where UWC ranked 10th); SDG 4: Quality Education; SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities and SDG 17: Partnership for the Goals.
UWC and SU isolate South Africa’s first laboratory culture of SARS-CoV-2
UWC and Stellenbosch University have collaborated to isolate SARS-CoV-2 and maintain a viral stock for diagnostic testing, under the guidance of Dr Tasnim Suliman. Dr Suliman obtained clinical samples from COVID-19-positive patients at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town and inoculated these samples onto live cells that were cultured in the laboratory. If the virus is present in the clinical sample, the virus infects the cells and grows. This provides a pure culture of the virus – an essential resource for research laboratories, as well as clinical laboratories that can use it as a positive control in their diagnostic tests.
PHA4GE – A global scientific alliance uniting genomics and public health
With USD840,000 in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology (PHA4GE) is a global coalition working to combat pandemics like COVID-19 by uniting public health practices with cutting-edge genomics research and analysis. UWC-SANBI serves as the secretariat for the global programme launched in May 2020, and is a part of the steering committee formed to provide oversight for the various PHA4GE activities. Additionally, UWC’s Prof Alan Christoff els was selected as a leading role-player in this research coalition due to his expertise and research in the fi eld of genomics.
Two UWC students won the national annual Chinese Bridge Language Competition, hosted online on 7 May 2020. Shannah Rose Erasmus and Lauren Willenberg represented South Africa at the grand world fi nal in November which was hosted online in Beijing, China, as participants could not travel due to COVID-19 restrictions. Belgian Lucas Deckers was the overall winner.
UWC teaching and research excellence recognised in CWUR World University Rankings
UWC has been acknowledged as one of the premier teaching and research institutions in South Africa and the world, according to the recent Center for World University Rankings 2020/2021. UWC ranks 8th in South Africa and 1158th in the world, putting the institution in the top 5,8% worldwide. The university was also ranked 1097th for research performance.
Jellyfish genetics: UWC researcher discovers new jellyfish species
UWC marine biologist and taxonomist, Verena Ras, and her team used a comprehensive collaborative approach analysing statistical and molecular data to discover Chrysaora agulhensis, a new species of jellyfi sh in South Africa’s waters. Only two species of Chrysaora jellyfi sh were hitherto known in the Benguela Current Ecosystem: C. fulgida and C. africana.
UWC Education graduate assists parents and learners online
In response to the challenge posed by the COVID-19 lockdown, UWC Education graduate Lizette Booys is providing free online help to learners and parents in primary school mathematics.
Zone Learning launched at UWC
UWC’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic, Prof Vivienne Lawack, has launched an innovative approach to learning and teaching known as Zone Learning. Zone Learning is a hub for transmedia – storytelling using multiple platforms – in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. It is also home to the Entrepreneurial Law Clinic, born out of the Law Clinic at the Faculty of Law, that will assist law students to imagine themselves as entrepreneurs. The Small Business Clinic of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences will share the space, helping to create an even more collaborative environment of entrepreneurship and innovation.
WHO chooses UWC-SANBI as reference lab to join the fight against COVID-19
UWC-SANBI has been chosen as one of three regional reference laboratories in the World Health Organisation (WHO) network. These laboratories will provide sequencing and data analysis, supported by an additional nine laboratories, for technical support services to the countries in which they are located as well as to neighbouring countries and countries in their sub-regions.
Groundbreaking partnership to empower future data scientists
UWC has engaged in a multi-million-rand partnership with Imvelo Ventures to empower a new generation of leaders. Imvelo Ventures, a venture capital investment company founded by Capitec Bank and Empowerment Capital Investment Partners, will invest approximately R11 million over three years in the university’s data science programmes.
UWC researchers cited among the world’s most impactful
With over six million scientists who have published at least fi ve papers considered, a review by Stanford University lists 18 researchers from UWC among the world’s top 1% most-cited scientists in various fi elds.
