NEw PrOFESSOrS APPOiNTED

Best paper award

Prof Harry Ballard won a Best Paper award at the 2014 International Conference on Public Administration (ICPA) held in Chengdu, China.

The title of his paper was The relevance of public management/ administration as a qualification within a public development paradigm in South Africa. The award was made by the ICPA Academic Committee in the category of Best reform and practices paper.

LAMIPISA conference 2014

The 2nd International Leadership & Management in Projects Driven in South Africa Conference was held at CPUT’s Cape Town campus from 8 to10 September. The Department of Management & Project Management hosted the conference.

Fifty research papers were presented, from counties including Germany, Uganda, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Local universities UNISA, CUT, TUT and NMMU also sent delegates. A number of CPUT Faculty of Business & Management Sciences staff members also submitted abstracts.

Miracle walking suit

The Sport Management Department is involved in groundbreaking training with a suit which enables people with spinal cord injuries to walk. Developed by ekso Bionics in London, the suit is strapped over the user’s clothing and adjusted to fit the patient’s height and weight. Walking is achieved when the user’s weight shifts and activates sensors in the device, which initiate steps. The motors, powered by battery, drive the legs.

Staff members of the department’s Human Performance Laboratory were trained and certified by the company’s London-based trainers. The suit used by the laboratory’s staff has been hired from ekso Bionics by Mr andrew Merryweather, who has been undergoing rehabilitation and therapy in the laboratory since an accident in 2006 which left him with severe spinal cord injuries.

The suit, one of only three in africa, has also been tried by other accident survivors free of charge. “We invited other people with spinal cord injuries, including a lady who had not walked for 24 years, to try out the ekso,” said Dr Sacha West, the laboratory’s coordinator.

Mr Merryweather said that since he started training in the suit his body has grown a lot stronger. “I’m beginning to feel sensation in my left foot, my walking pattern has improved and I can now walk in the swimming pool unassisted.”