SCHOOL OF CIVIL & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING The School of choice
CEE
Brief
Greetings from the Head of School to our Alumni and Friends Greetings to you all from your “School of choice”. The past year 2020 was truly unprecedented in many respects, primarily because of the COVID pandemic that had a global impact on humanity. We thought we should use this newsletter CEE Brief to highlight some of the activities that took place in the School during the epic year of 2020. The COVID pandemic presented many challenges and opportunities. On the social level, we are fortunate that no staff or student in the School succumbed to the virus, but many of us have had friends and relations who passed away due to the virus, and we share your grief and pain. In line with other departments in the University, the School transitioned to online teaching on April 20, 2020, and that was a radical shift in pedagogy unprecedented in its history. Academic staff repackaged and expanded their course materials so that they were amenable for online teaching and learning. I am truly grateful to all academic staff who made considerable sacrifices and commitment to successful online teaching. Staff used various tools such as powerpoint presentations (PPs), audio-enhanced PPs and videos that were uploaded on Sakai (the online Learning Management System in 2020), and had synchronous and asynchronous approaches to engage with students. On the part of students, they made considerable sacrifices to adapt to this new mode of teaching and learning. Some students had to carry out their studies in non-conducive environment and with limited access to learning materials because of data constraints. The University went the extra mile by negotiating free data bundles with various telecommunication service providers, and loaned laptops to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The lockdown restrictions in June 2020 made it impossible to have sit-in examinations for the first semester courses, which were rescheduled with the second semester examinations in November 2020. The School recognized the challenges of having many examinations within a short space of time and relaxed conditions for deferred examinations which took place in January 2021. I applaud the administrative and technical staff of the School who ensured that invigilation of sit-in examinations took place successfully, students’ marks were processed within a much more shortened space of time, and laboratories and lab-based investigational projects (IPs) were successfully carried out. That we successfully completed the 2020 academic year on February 15, 2021 with the last set of meetings of the Faculty Board of Examiners, which deliberated on the undergraduate and postgraduate results, is a testament of the collaboration and team effort of staff and students in the School. It is worth noting that 101
students achieved the BSc (Eng) qualification in Civil Engineering in the 2020 academic year, which is the most number of graduating students for the past 10 years. We have come to the realization that the COVID pandemic will alter our lives and the way we do things going into the future. This is what many have referred to as the “new normal”. It is one that is filled with many opportunities. One of such opportunities was exploited by the School in the 2021 registration of its undergraduate and postgraduate students using a combination of online and electronic engagements, without having staff sit in Hall 29 before long queues of students. We should all embrace this new normal with a quest to tap into the opportunities that lie ahead. Best wishes to you all in the 2021 academic year. Prof Akpofure Taigbenu Head of School April 2021
February 5, 2020: Sheldon Reddy and Brandon Naidoo crowned winners of the SAICE IP National Showdown in Durban The year 2020 started with the great news that Sheldon Reddy and Brandon Naidoo, who graduated in the 2019 academic year, were the winners of the SAICE IP National Showdown that was held in Durban on February 5, 2020. Their investigational project, titled “Assessing the Viability of a Conjunctive Water Reuse System in Urban Residences in South Africa”, was supervised by Prof Adeshola Ilemobade. They competed against other final year IPs from UCT, UJ, SU, UP and UKZN. Read more
https://www.wits.ac.za/ebe/schools/civil-and-environmental-engineering/school-events/
Prof Chris James publishes a text book on Hydraulics Structures with Springer Prof Chris James is the sole author of a 369-page text book on Hydraulic Structures that was published by Springer in 2020. The text book comprises nine chapters and presents the concepts and design of hydraulic structures that have wide applications in civil engineering infrastructure. The book is the product of over 30 years that Chris James spent in the School teaching hydraulics engineering to both undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Two IP students cement their ideas to minimize construction waste Ms Lepogo Maleka and Mr Kgadimo Mohlatlole, teamed up in an investigational project (IP), under the guidance of Prof Yunus Ballim and Ms Janina Kanjee, that utilized clay masonry rubble that was obtained from an informal and illegal dump site on the South-West side of Johannesburg, as the aggregate for their trial concrete. They explored the effects of the recycled aggregates when used as part of the sand fraction of the aggregate, and drew very interesting insights from the results of their study. Their results were of sufficient interest for the two students to be included in an international workshop on recycled aggregates in concrete that was organized jointly by IIT-Madras, UCT and Wits University. Read more https://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/general-news/2020/2020-11/witsies-cement-theirideas-to-minimise-construction-waste-.html
New Environmental Engineering Lab. and a cyclic direct shear device for the Geotechnical Lab. There is a new addition to the environmental engineering laboratory, and it is situated on the first floor of Hillman building. It comprises a main teaching laboratory space of 52 m2, a cold room of 4 m2, and a clean room of 7 m2. This new teaching facility will cater for the increase in undergraduate class sizes experienced in the past 8 years. The clean room, fitted with equipment for proper air handling and filtration, will provide an environment that enables investigations to be carried out at low levels of pollutants such as aerosols, dust, chemical vapors, and microbes. The teaching facility and the clean room were completed in 2020, while funding is being sought for the equipping of the cold room.
In 2020, the School purchased a cyclic direct simple shear device from Geocomp in the USA for the geotechnical engineering laboratory. The device enables the characterization of both the dynamic and static strength properties of a wide variety of soils. In particular, the device can aid with advanced mechanical characterization of mining tailings. This device will serve a very useful purpose in teaching of geotechnical engineering courses in the School and experimental investigations by postgraduate students in studies of slope stability and repetitive loading due to wind, tides or machinery.
Figure source: www.geocomp.com
Ulwazi is here in the 2021 academic year In January 2021, the University joined a host of worldwide prestigious universities in adopting Canvas as its Learning Management System (LMS). Canvas has been renamed Ulwazi which means knowledge in isiZulu and information in Sesotho. Ulwazi is a modern, powerful, easy to use LMS hosted in the Cloud. It replaced Wits-e (Sakai) which could no longer cope with the intensive online teaching and learning prevalent in the University. Ulwazi is now the LMS that is being used in the 2021 academic year. Read more
https://www.wits.ac.za/teaching-and-learning/ulwazi-updates/
Alumni Network Innocentia Mahlangu - BSc Eng (Civil) 2011; MSc 2018 - project manager and civil engineer for Hatch Ltd, won the 2020 Rising Star Award in the Construction and Industrials category. Rising Star Awards 2020 “recognise, celebrate and connect talented people in the workplace aged 28-40 who display leadership, a capacity for achievement, success and make a valuable difference”. Read more
https://www.hatch.com/en/About-Us/About-the-Company/Our-People/Innocentia-Mahlangu
Alumni in the News: https://www.wits.ac.za/news/sources/alumni-news/ Update your contact details: https://www.wits.ac.za/alumni/updateyourdetails/
Wits Centenary campaign Wits University will be 100 years old in 2022. This year aligns with the time that the School started as the Department of Civil Engineering (See the brief history of the School: https://www.wits.ac.za/ebe/schools/civil-and-environmentalengineering/about-us/a-brief-history/). The centenary campaign has commenced, and we will like everyone to be part of this campaign in celebrating the huge impact that Wits has made and continues to make in societies nationally and globally. Read more
https://wits100.wits.ac.za/our-campaign/
Announcement of forthcoming Events Below are forthcoming events organized by the School, the SAICE Student Chapter and the Institution of Civil Engineering (ICE) Student Chapter: Presenter
Topic
Greg Skeen
Ethics
Dr Rob Adam
Progress on the SKA Renewable energy Towards Net Zero Carbon - current progress
Daniel Avutia ICE President, Rachel Skinner SAICE Transportation Division (Tentative) SAICE CEO and President TEEO
TBC
Prof Bea Lacquet
Annual Brunel International Lecture ECSA registration Water scarcity
Prof Yunus Ballim
Wed, 21 April; 14h0015h30 Mon, 26 April; 15h00– 16h00 Mon, 3 May; any time after 13h00 Tue, 11 May; 15h0016h00
Roadshow (to be confirmed) Sandton’s The Leonardo
Attendance CPD points 1 ‘Compulsory’ CPD point To be confirmed
Organized by School ICE Student Chapter
1 ‘Optional’ CPD point To be confirmed
School
Mon, 17 May
To be confirmed
SAICE Student Chapter
Wed, 26 May; 15H0017H00 Mon, 31 May; 13H30
1 ‘Compulsory’ CPD point 1 ‘Compulsory’ CPD point To be confirmed
School and SAICE Student Chapter School
1 ‘Compulsory’ CPD point To be confirmed
School
1 ‘Compulsory’ CPD point To be confirmed
School
To be confirmed
SAICE Student Chapter ICE Student Chapter
8 June; 17h00–19h00
Wed, 09 June; 13h30-15h30 Mon, 2 August; 15h00-16h00 or Tue, 3 August; 15h0016h00
To be confirmed Civil engineer in the 4IR
SAICE
Slot
Mon, 13 September; 15h00-16h00 or Tue, 14 September 15h0016h00
To be confirmed
ICE Student Chapter
ICE Student Chapter
ICE Student Chapter
ICE Student Chapter