To the winner goes the spoils! The weekend saw North-West University (NWU) alumna Shannon Roscher (25) being announced as the 2017 Woman of Stature: Youth Ambassador during a glitzy ceremony held at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg.

To the victors go the spoils – or in this case, the Faranani off-campus residence of the Vanderbijlpark Campus of the North-West University (NWU). As winners of the 2017 rendition of the First Years Carnival, the residence was awarded a cash prize of R10 000 by Prof Linda du Plessis, acting campus rector.

With 11 official languages in South Africa, finding an effective yet affordable way to transcribe speech to text was never going to be easy, but that is set to change with some innovative thinking from researchers who are creating an open source web-based platform for speech transcription.

Researchers from North-West University’s Multilingual Speech Technologies (MuST) and a young South African company called INTSYST have developed a prototype speech transcription platform that will have applications for both the public and private sectors.

The South African Economy showed negative growth in the final quarter of 2016. This negative growth can be contributed to the decline in two sectors, namely: mining and manufacturing. During an interview with RSG, well-known economist, Dr Andre Mellet from the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Vanderbijlpark Campus, commented on the negative growth figures for the final quarter of 2016.

Did you know that it took the Hungarian inventor and professor of architecture Erno Rubik one month to master his own mechanical puzzle, the Rubik’s Cube? With 42 Quintillion possibilities but only a few correct solutions, the Rubik’s Cube is the epitome of human society: with each block representing a social science topic.

The North-West University (NWU) and ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) recently teamed-up to present an entrepreneurial training initiative to small business owners in the Vanderbijlpark region.

Prof Danie Meyer and Dr Andre Mellet from the North-West University’s Vanderbijlpark Campus (NWU) and experts in Local Economic Development (LED) and Monetary Economics respectively, is of the opinion that South African tax payers are not reaping any rewards from increased taxation.

Saint Augustine once said that the world is a book, and those who do not travel limit themselves to reading only a single page. With this in mind, students of the North-West University (NWU) are invited to apply for the Abe Bailey Travel Bursary.

In what is being described as required reading for all South African university vice-chancellors and risk managers – especially in light of increasing intimidation and violent disruptions of lectures, seminars, talks by scholars, Senate and Council meetings, a recent opinion article by Prof Hermien Zaaiman of the North-West University’s (NWU) Vanderbijlpark Campus is proving that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Economists, academics alike are in agreement: female entrepreneurs are an under-tapped force that can revive economic growth. Having said this, Natanya Meyer – a lecturer within the School of Economic Sciences on the Vanderbijlpark Campus of the North-West University (NWU), will join an international research team to collaborate on a research project titled: “Women for Women Entrepreneurship Development.”