Research

Student wins VC Medal with research on deep learning in space weather

Jacques Beukes of the MUST Deep Learning research group at the Faculty of Engineering is the 2021 winner of a North-West University (NWU) Vice-Chancellor’s Medal for his dissertation “Interpretability of deep neural networks for SYM-H prediction”. Eight vice-chancellor’s medals are awarded annually to the best master’s-degree students at the NWU. Jacques was awarded the medal for Engineering.

Submitted on Tue, 04/26/2022 - 09:39

NWU farm manager reflects on economic impact of foot and mouth disease outbreak

Phenyo Mokgothu

South Africa is presently experiencing an outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) on farms and communal areas in the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, North West and Gauteng. 

Hannes Lombard, manager of the North-West University’s (NWU’s) farm in Mahikeng, says the outbreak of FMD in the country has a big impact on the poorest people who are directly dependent on their livestock.

“FMD reduces herd fertility, leading to less efficient herd structures and lower livestock productivity, which in turn affects food security.

Submitted on Thu, 04/21/2022 - 13:54

NWU academic weighs in on prospects and challenges of District Development Model

Phenyo Mokgothu


North-West University (NWU) academic in the subject group Developmental Studies, Gaopalelwe Mpolokeng says the success of the government’s District Development Model (DDM) lies in cooperation.

 Approved by the South African cabinet on 21 August 2019, the DDM is a government approach to improve integrated planning and service delivery across the three spheres of government, with district and metropolitan spaces as focal points of government and private sector investment.

Submitted on Wed, 04/20/2022 - 10:43

SADiLaR and NWU launches Digital Humanities Open Educational Resources Champions Initiative

The South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) and the UNESCO Chair on Multimodal Learning and Open Educational Resources (OER) at the North-West University (NWU) are having the first intake of their Digital Humanities OER Champions Initiative.

Submitted on Tue, 04/05/2022 - 14:04

NWU’s nuclear research makes a global impact

Groundbreaking work, demanding years of teaching and learning and specialised research have over the past decade and a half led to the North-West University (NWU) now being described as the South African pioneer in the sophisticated field of nuclear engineering. This follows after the recent completion of the maximum contracted period of 15 years for a research chair at the NWU’s Faculty of Engineering.

Submitted on Tue, 04/05/2022 - 13:58