The North-West University’s (NWU’s) Faculty of Humanities recently hosted the 19th public lecture at the campus in Potchefstroom.

Dr Vukosi Marivate, who is an ABSA Chair for Data Science and a senior lecturer at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Pretoria, presented the lecture.

The lecture titled “We should all be data scientists: Why Social and Society is the Missing Link” focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning in the fourth industrial revolution and how these concepts work within an institution of higher learning.

Prof Refilwe Phaswana-Mafuya, deputy vice-chancellor for research and innovation, and Prof Pamela Maseko, the executive dean of the faculty, welcomed the attendees.

“Technologies augment our lives and machine learning is affecting our society is so many ways,” said Dr Marivate. “Just look at the effect Uber and Netflix has had on our lives. They know what we want and how we want it.”

 Here are Prof Mirna Nel, Dr Vukosi Marivate, Prof Refilwe Phaswana-Mafuya and Prof Pamela Maseko at the public lecture.