research & technology promotion acting dean’s report

DR SHAHEED HARTLEY

With the dust slowly settling on merger issues, it is becoming increasingly important to establish this university of technology as one that pursues excellence in research, in striving to be at the heart of technology and innovation in Africa. Our role as a strategic partner in the region, nationally and internationally, depends on our ability to deliver quality research outputs. To this end we have to look critically internally at our research programmes, expertise and processes, and develop and implement strategies that will support areas of strength and potential. The investment of our limited resources must be directed at areas that will provide the necessary returns, which in turn generate additional income and further build the research status of CPUT.

The past year has seen the emergence of a silver

nrf ratings CLASSIFICATION

research lining. The recent report by the NRF Thuthuka programme shows that our black and female researchers produced the highest number of research outputs of all institutions for the period 2002-2005. The number and value of contract research projects have increased exponentially over the past two years, while more young researchers are making demands on the internal University Research Fund. The university bursary and scholarship scheme has almost doubled and CPUT has advertised 13 postdoctoral research fellowships in key research areas. At the same time faculties are developing research plans with an eye to expanding their centres of excellence. All of this augurs well for an institution determined to live out its vision and mission. Let us congratulate and continue to support our active and avid researchers.

B Researchers who enjoy considerable international recognition by their peers for the high quality of their recent research outputs

C Established researchers with a sustained record of productivity in the field who are recognised by their peers as having:

•produced a body of quality work, the core of which has coherence and attests to ongoing engagement with the field

•demonstrated the ability to conceptualise problems and apply research methods to investigating them

L Persons (normally younger than 55 years) who were previously established as researchers or who previously demonstrated potential through their own research products, and who are considered capable of fully establishing or re-establishing themselves as researchers within a five-year period after evaluation. Candidates should be South African citizens or foreign nationals who have been resident in South Africa for five years during which time they have been unable for practical reasons to realise their potential as researchers.

Candidates who are eligible in this category include:

•black researchers

•female researchers

•those employed in a higher education institution that lacked a research environment

•those who were previously established as researchers and have returned to a research environment

Y Young researchers (normally younger than 35 years of age), who have held the doctorate or equivalent qualification for less than five years at the time of the application, and who are recognised as having the potential to establish themselves as researchers within a five-year period after evaluation, based on their performance and productivity as researchers during their doctoral studies and/or early postdoctoral careers.

ResearcherRating Research Areas

Prof F Dakora B Biological nitrogen fixation, nitrogen metabolism, plant physiology

Dr TC Haupt B Construction management and industry development, construction worker safety and health, infrastructure policy and delivery, occupational health, sustainable construction, affordable/low-cost housing, cooperative education, construction environment management, HIV/Aids, construction quality management

Prof M Robinson C Educator development, teacher education policy, diversity in education, justice and equity in education, mentor training, classroom pedagogy, action research, organisational learning, educator identity

Prof P Slatter C Rheology, fluid/solid processes, non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, postgraduate didactics, fluid dynamics, fluid mechanics

Prof P van Brakel C Information management, information aggregators, information portals, intelligent information agents, virtual communities

Dr AJ van der Merwe C Partial differential equations, vibration models, numerical analysis

Assoc Prof R Chetty L African and Indian literature in English, critical educational studies, multiculturalism, language policy, higher education transformation

Prof B Sun L Composite structures: beams, plates and shells Smart devices, applied mechanics, micro-electrical-mechanical systems (MEMS), sensors and actuators

Prof C Winberg L Relationships and partnerships between higher education and its broader contexts. Policy studies, curricular research, audits of graduates, education and workplace alignment studies, evaluation of programmes, service-learning audits, language studies (technical and professional writing, multilingual practices in higher education and work)

Dr JL Marnewick Y Health properties (cancer modulation, antioxidant) of rooibos and honeybush teas and other indigenous medicinal plants; clinical evaluation of traditional medicinal plants in human intervention studies; evaluation of dietary components that may modulate or prevent degenerative diseases (cancer, heart disease); enhancing marketability of local industries’ indigenous products

Prof GJ Oliver Y

Welding, heat treatment, finite element methods, phase transformation kinetic modelling, thermo-mechanical simulation, computational mechanics, constitutive modelling incorporating microstructure, thermodynamics of solids