Zürich 2024, here we come, complete with a state-of-the-art prosthetic leg and wheelchair.

Headed by the formidable North-West University (NWU) team of Prof André Grobler and Ian Thomson from the Faculty of Engineering and Dr Mark Kramer from Health Sciences, the innovators are preparing to take the fruits of their research and designs in digital health to the international stage.

They will be competing at the 2024 Cybathlon competition* in Switzerland. This competition, in the form of a gruelling race, will take place in Kloten near Zürich in October next year.

Hendrik Snyman, a fourth-year industrial engineering student at the North-West University (NWU), emerged as the victor in the recent Operations Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA*) optimisation modeling competition.

The competition, which took place during the tutorial session of this year's 52nd annual ORSSA conference, presented an exciting opportunity for attendees to showcase their optimisation modeling skills. Prof Fanie Terblanche from Elytica presented the competition, and also sponsored the first-place cash prize of R3 500.

Prof LJ Grobler, a professor in mechanical engineering at the North-West University (NWU), is a man with determination. His CV and numerous engineering accomplishments reveal his dynamism.

He has come a long way – from growing up in the beautiful farmlands of Ermelo in Mpumalanga – to sitting in international boardrooms and sharing his expertise to make an impact in the field of renewable energy.

The quest for more sustainable and greener coal energy is receiving a boost through the National Research Foundation’s (NRF) renewal of the Chair for Coal Research at the North-West University (NWU).

The chair has secured funding of R4,15 million per year for the next five years as part of the NRF’s South African Research Chairs initiative (SARChI). This adds up to more than R20 million over the full period.

Political titan, businessman extraordinaire, philanthropist and a figurehead of the ANC’s negotiation process in the early 1990s, Dr Mathews Phosa visited the North-West University (NWU) on 23 May and pulled no punches in detailing how to get the country back on track.

By Aldrin Ngorima

Two North-West University (NWU) academics, Prof Frikkie van Niekerk and Prof Nico Vorster, are the proud editors of the transdisciplinary book  titled Science and Faith in Dialogue. It is published in open access format by AOSIS Scholarly Books. 

Prof van Niekerk was the main editor and also contributed a book chapter, and Prof Vorster was the co-editor.

South Africa faces difficult challenges that require the next generation of university graduates to be skilled leaders with extensive abilities to collaborate with communities to solve problems and create change. 

Four North-West University (NWU) projects carried out in partnership with communities exemplify how collaboration with communities can be impactful.

They are the best of the best … of the best, sir. The preceding sentence might find its origins in the 1997 science-fiction comedy Men in Black, but there is no denying that the sextet of Joshua van Zyl, Etienne Kruger, Niël Gertenbach, Jean du Toit, Rynhardt Engelbrecht and Henri Kock are a blockbuster engineering team.

In December 2022, these six NWU students won the People’s Prize in the prestigious Engineering Without Borders: Engineering for People Design Challenge and were crowned the overall runners-up of the international competition.

Leané Naudé, an MSc Engineering student at the North-West University (NWU), will be packing her bags for Amsterdam in May to represent South Africa in the global finals of the Blue Sky science competition.

She earned this honour after coming second in last year’s national Blue Sky awards, a biennial competition acknowledging the work of students and young researchers in forest-based science product development.