Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Categories
UFS News Media Release Research
Years
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Months
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Previous Archive
22 February 2018 Photo Johan Roux
KovsieACT music festival lives up to the hype
Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

Description: Kovsie Act concert Tags: Kovsie Act concert

Shekhinah embraces students at the festival.
Photo: Monk Manyeloyi

A weekend that promised great excitement kicked off on Friday 16 February 2018 with the Kovsie ACT Eco-vehicle race. This event saw students teaming up in their respective colleges in high hopes of earning what was assured to be a gratifying reward. The overall winners of the race were North College who also won for team spirit, the slalom race, and the Formula-e lookalike.

Students at the race rumbled with excitement as they witnessed the Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Free State Prof Francis Petersen get his hands dirty when he decided to test-drive one of the Eco-vehicles himself. “It was honestly an electrifying moment that proves that co-curricular activities have the power to indeed help shift education into the right direction,” said Dean of Student Affairs, Pura Mgolombane, who was seen alongside Prof Petersen.

The first official Kovsie ACT music festival was billed to rock Bloemfontein, and it did exactly that! With the gates opening at 4pm on 17 February 2018, the event saw people pouring in shortly afterwards. The community and student-centred celebration saw a turnout nothing short of amazing.

The evening included a laser show display that is always a crowd pleaser, with OFM radio-show host Shandor Potgieter as the official MC for the event. Festivalgoers were entertained by various musical acts that included Sam Ludidi and local DJ duo, C’jo-&-Cider.

The crowd rushed to the main arena as Jack Parow prepared to kick off with his piece, which undoubtedly revved them up. Shekhinah, of course, followed through with a thrilling performance that held fans at her mercy, with many shouting “Shekhinah!”, as she left the stage. 

Prince Kaybee’s electrifying set ended off the night on a high note. The audience wanted more but the celebrations for the evening had to come to an end. “The festival was too lit, and the artists brought the heat, exactly what I needed before classes start on Monday,” said #KovsieCyberSta and student Thuli Molebalwa.

Kovsie ACT music festival

News Archive

National 3MT competition held at UFS
2017-03-29

Description: 3MT 2017 Tags: 3MT 2017

The two winners of the Three minute thesis
competition, Andrew Verrijdt (left) and
Kerryn Warren (right).
Photo: Charl Devenish


From Neanderthal hybrid children to eating corn silk as a way of managing kidney diseases, the National Three Minute Thesis competition (3MT) captivated the mind.

“We brought the competition to South Africa and hosted the local, regional, and national competitions for the past few years,” said Dr Emmie Smit, organiser of the event. It is an opportunity to raise the profile of postgraduate research and to develop a cross-disciplinary student community to effectively communicate research to a wide audience. The event was founded by the University of Queensland, Australia. The third national 3MT competition took place at the University of the Free State (UFS) on Friday 24 March 2017.

Three minutes and one slide
During the competition, participants had three minutes to explain their master’s or doctoral research and one static PowerPoint slide could be used. “It is very important that this slide works for you. There must be some way the information on the slide connects to what you present,” said Dr Henriette van den Berg, Director of the Postgraduate School at the UFS.
 
Winners grateful for opportunity
“It is an honour and a drive. It is very nice to have this sort of thumbs up,” said Kerryn Warren, winner of the Science category. Her research title was, What did a Human-Neanderthal Child Look Like? “I have been looking at the hybrids between different species and subspecies of mice in order to use them as a model to find out what human hybrids looked like.”

The presentation by Andrew Verrijdt, winner of the Humanities category, entitled Hiding in the Deep: Anonymous Websites for Paedophiles on the ‘Darknet’, gave a glimpse into the mysterious and dangerous realm of the dark web. “I am grateful for the opportunity. Primarily because I think it’s an important topic, and society will benefit by getting the word out there as it is a sensitive topic,” he said. The two winners, both from the University of the Cape Town, won R15 000 each.  A further R30 000 of prize money went to the four runners-up.

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept