Page 10 - Unisa CSET Mid Year Highlights 2025 Digital

group are encouraged to publish their work while they proceed with their studies. Many have taken this advice to heart and have excelled. It is also pleasing to see them as academics who are also creating their own research stature as they supervise students, apply for research grants, teach with passion, and participate in engaged scholarship. Some of these excelled in as postdoctoral fellows and I see an even brighter future for them. The successes from my leadership roles are seen our engaged scholarship initiatives that we started years ago transforming the lives of our communities. It is always an encouragement to see those leaners who were once part of the Leaner Research Summit years back and are now participating now as role models or mentors for the current teams. The Waste to Energy and the iNanoWS4Rural projects have made an impact by providing energy and water solutions in the communities. Our First Lego Leagues teams have competed nationally and internationally, thus being afforded an opportunity to see other parts of the globe. Some of these learners were inspired to pursue qualifications in the STEM fields and are also working with together with currents teams as mentor or judges. It is exciting to lead a team where there are several opportunities for innovation in both teaching and learning, research and engaged scholarship. As one led the inaugural online steering committee back in 2020 which allowed the university to continue its business despite the teething challenges of systems, I could not help but be thrilled by the fact that the project was a success and opened our eyes for technologies that we could employ to protect the credibility of our qualification. Further improvements and innovations have arisen because we were willing to take the risk of moving forward.
Any interesting projects that you are currently working on that you wish to highlight?
We are excited to see new innovative projects being birthed out of the collaboration between Centre of Innovation in Teaching and Learning (CITAL) and Centre of Augmented Intelligence and Data Sciences (CAIDS). These projects will enhance teaching and learning while ensuring that academic integrity is embraced and will propel our e-tutoring to the next level. I am also excited by the prospects of innovation and commercialization that will sprout from the establishment of the CSET Innovation Centre, and several catalytic niche area related centres/research units lead by our Distinguished Professors. As a scholar I am excited by the green chemistry new sample preparation techniques that we still explore together with nanomaterial research for various applications.
Define tomorrow.
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