Awards and accolades

School of Computer Science and Information Systems secures third place in Cyber Security Challenge finals

The North-West University’s (NWU’s) School of Computer Science and Information Systems secured third place in the Cyber Security Challenge finals hosted by the South African National Research Network (SANReN) during the Centre for High Performance Computing’s national meeting.

Students Heinke Lubbe, Nico kemp, and Aaryadev Ghosalkar took part in the challenge, with honours student Christo Croucamp as their mentor and Prof Lynette Drevin as facilitator.

Submitted on Tue, 03/07/2023 - 09:43

The Capability Model of Work: “The Sound of Justice”

Over the past five years, the Optentia research unit of the North-West University (NWU) has conducted various research projects about sustainable employment, specifically using the Capability Model of Work.

Prof Jac van der Klink, an extraordinary professor at Optentia, recently delivered a prestigious lecture in support of this research. In his lecture titled “The Sound of Justice”, he examined social justice from the perspective of contributive justice - in contrast to distributive justice.

Submitted on Fri, 02/17/2023 - 10:08

Setswana academic has a passion for poetry

North-West University (NWU) Setswana lecturer and poet Ogodiseng Mokakale recently published an anthology of 60 Setswana poems, Tswina ya Poko.

Ogodiseng says teaching poetry at schools has lost its way, and that it is difficult to bring university students up to speed when they do not have a proper poetry background.

Fortunately, his passion for poetry motivates him to teach and instil a love and appreciation for poetry in his students.

Submitted on Tue, 02/14/2023 - 14:36

Alumnus joins prestigious law firm in the United Kingdom

North-West University (NWU) alumnus Thato Mashishi recently joined the corporate group of Walker Morris LLP (Walker Morris), the largest single-site law firm outside of London in the United Kingdom.

This corporate group is highly rated according to the rankings of Chambers and Partners and The Legal 500 – two leading global research companies.

Thato’s areas of focus at Walker Morris are general corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital.

Submitted on Wed, 02/01/2023 - 14:55

NWU academic wins award for a slogan against Anti-Gender Based Violence

Senior Lecturer and Chartered Accountant in the School of Accounting Sciences within the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences, Mr. Kurt Naicker, has recently won the award for the best slogan against Anti-Gender Based Violence.

His slogan that was chosen as the winning entry was:

"You always have a choice never choose violence, raise your hand in solidarity against vulnerable victims and end this vicious cycle.”

Submitted on Wed, 02/01/2023 - 13:50

NWU lecturer walks away with prestigious engineering award

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.

Submitted on Mon, 11/28/2022 - 10:04

NWU celebrates its exponents of excellence

The North-West University (NWU) celebrated its torchbearers of excellence ― one of the university’s core values ― during the university’s Excellence Awards for 2021/2022.

The prestigious awards ceremony took place on 24 November at Snowflake in Potchefstroom.

During the event, the NWU honoured the best-of-the-best academics across the three legs of the university’s core business: teaching and learning, research and innovation, and community engagement.

Submitted on Fri, 11/25/2022 - 09:18

NWU lecturer bags PhD against all odds

Walking across the stage to receive his PhD in operational research was surreal for Piet Ntema.

The North-West University (NWU) statistics lecturer received his degree at a recent graduation ceremony on the Vanderbijlpark Campus.

Piet and his five siblings were raised in poverty by a widowed mother who was a domestic worker. However, they persevered and today all but one of them are graduates, with his older brother Lejone Ntema being a university professor. “The hardships I experienced while growing up gave me the resilience to earn a PhD eventually,” says Piet.

Submitted on Thu, 11/10/2022 - 10:33