RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION & PARTNERSHIPS (DVC: RTIP)
Dr David Phaho
CPUT researchers, scholars and postgraduate students have continued with driving our research and innovation agenda.
5 as online workshops as well as continuous engagement between postgraduate students and their supervisors albeit remotely. These initiatives have enabled our students to continue with their studies even during the lockdown periods. Specifically, the carefully designed online workshops and seminars delivered by experts focusing on key skills such as Proposal and Publications Writing, Research Methods and the Use of Online Library Resources, were found to be very effective in keeping postgraduate students engaged and motivated during 2020.
The impact of Covid-19 on higher educational institutions has been predictably acute. In a sector which requires access to lecture rooms and face-to-face engagements, the advent of Covid-19 and the restrictions it imposes presented serious challenges for the sector. As the pandemic required the closing down of facilities including our campuses, the need to provide students with reliable, enabling devices and internet access to ensure that their academic progress would not be impeded became an institutional priority. Restrictions to campuses imposed a particular burden on our postgraduates who require around the clock access to research facilities as well as constant travel requirements for fieldwork, conferences and other activities underpinning the research endeavour.
The impact on our research agenda, just like the postgraduate progress, has been felt far and wide. Notwithstanding these challenges, CPUT researchers, scholars and postgraduate students have continued with driving our research and innovation agenda. The upward trajectory in research outputs, increased number of postgraduate students as well as national and international innovation platforms spearheaded by our world-class researchers and scholars bears testimony to this. These colleagues who not only established and manage world-class research programmes continue, albeit with limited resources, to drive ground-breaking and high-impact research in areas of national priority. From the positive health effects of Rooibos Tea to Smart Energy Grids, we should be proud of the work our esteemed colleagues are doing across all our faculties, centres and institutes.
The support for postgraduate students, championed by our Centre for Postgraduate Studies (CPGS), for them to progress with their academic endeavours even during the Covid-19 pandemic is noteworthy. CPGS, working with the Faculty Deans and other key players, implemented contingency measures such
Impressive progress in our technology transfer and commercialisation initiatives continues. For a university of technology, we punch way above our weight when it comes to income from licensing of our innovations. In the innovation space, our world leading nanosatellite constellation programme is a vivid illustration of how
CAPE PENINSULA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
This report covers CPUT’s research and innovation activities during the academic year 2020. The year kicked off with news of the rapid spread of a virus first detected in Wuhan, China. Little did we know that the whole world would be profoundly impacted by this once in a generation ‘black swan’ event.
RESEARCH REPORT 2020
MESSAGE FROM THE DEPUTY VICE-CHANCELLOR:
