February 2008: IT & Telecomms Industry Gives Rhodes the Thumbs Up
Business executives from around the country and abroad met at Rhodes University this week to celebrate the expansion of Rhodes University's Telkom Centre of Excellence.
Housed in the Department of Computer Science, the Centre prepares postgraduate students and undertakes research for the telecommunication and information technology industries. The event included the signing of a research agreement between Rhodes University and the industry partners, which ensures ongoing technical support and funding for Rhodes under the banner of the national Telkom Centres of Excellence programme. |
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Welcoming the industry delegation to Rhodes University, Vice-Chancellor Dr Saleem Badat, pointed to the range of subject mix opportunities available at Rhodes which are not available elsewhere, and which result in the kind of cross disciplinary approaches exhibited by the Distributed Multimedia Centre.
The Centre also has formal links with Universities in other parts of Africa . The Computer Science department has recently been awarded a two year funding grant from the South Africa Norway Tertiary Education Development Programme (SANTED) for an initiative to ramp up collaboration between the Computer Science departments of Rhodes and the University of Namibia .
Group Executive of founding partner Telkom, Mr Marius Mostert, told the gathering that the achievements of the Centre at Rhodes had surpassed all original expectations. Rhodes has been used as a model for the establishment of similarly structured centres at other institutions. He added that the high quality of the research and graduate output had attracted additional industry funders to the centre, and that his company had befitted hugely from its relationship with Rhodes .
Professor Peter Clayton described the core theme of the centre a s the development of a media services framework, which incorporates the communication needs of interactive multimedia applications, delivery across different kinds of networks, distributed and mobile applications, graphics, audio engineering, security, and the requirements of the specific areas of education, entertainment, and marginalized communities. “Strong industry support had been an essential ingredient in growing the quantity and quality of research and postgraduate students over the past ten years” said Clayton.
The Centre has a considerable community engagement component. A field trial of technology orientated services for economically marginalised communities is being run in collaboration with the University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape Dwesa region. The Centre has produced the popular BingBee edutainment kiosk at the Raglan Road multipurpose centre in Grahamstown, and supports computer and network infrastructure in historically disadvantaged schools in the Makana area.
Industry partners involved in the initiative include Telkom, Business Connexion, Comverse, Tellabs, StorTech, Amatole Telecommunications, Mars Technologies, OpenVoice, and Bright Ideas. The Department of Trade and Industry provides matching research funds through its Technology and Human Resources for Industry Programme (THRIP).
Mr Isaac Mophatlane, Chairman and Group Executive of Business Connexion, closed the proceeding with reminiscences about student life at Rhodes from his days as a student in Grahamstown. He emphasised that he was speaking on behalf of all present industry partners when he expressed the IT and telecommunication industry's long term commitment to supporting and growing research at Rhodes .