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.

In a world grappling with the effects of pollution and global warming, hydrogen is a viable alternative in generating cleaner, “greener” energy to not only benefit humankind, but also the environment.

Meelan Roopa, a lecturer in the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Faculty of Engineering, received the award for Best Industrial Engineering Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the Southern African Institute for Industrial Engineering’s (SAIIE’s) 2022 awards ceremony.

Meelan received this prestigious award in recognition of his teaching prowess in business engineering, a capstone module for final-year industrial engineering students.

The North-West University (NWU) attended the recent launch of a new initiative to promote digital health innovation in Africa. This initiative aligns with the strategies of the WHO and national governments across the world in promoting universal access to quality, affordable healthcare to all people.

The North-West University (NWU) is the best choice among local universities for studies in the field of engineering. The latest subjects ranking by Times Higher Education (THE) places the NWU at the top of the ladder in this field, and highlights the NWU’s other quality subject offerings.

According to THE’s World University Rankings by Subject for 2023, the NWU is first among local institutions in engineering, moving up from third position last year. It places the NWU in the 401 to 500 category globally.

Computers are becoming essential in modern society with a tremendous influence on how humans create and solve problems. The North-West University's (NWU’s) Intelligent Systems research group is on a mission to develop next-generation solutions that will help solve transportation problems using technology.