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30 December 2019 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Thabo Kessah
Gavin Dollman
Gavin Dollman is involved in virtual prospecting for fossils using a drone.

Gavin Dollman is one of the young researchers selected for the international research programme funded through the US-SA Higher Education Network. This prestigious programme is aimed at giving PhD candidates and their supervisors the opportunity to regularly travel to the USA and spend time at participating US universities where their co-promoters will be based.

“The University Staff Doctoral Programme (USDP) has allowed me to bring my idea of collaborative science to fruition. It’s an exciting opportunity,” Dollman said.

Dollman added that his PhD studies would focus on the machine and deep learning for prospecting for palaeontology. He is studying with the Appalachian State University. Other participating universities are Montana and Colorado State.

He has also had the privilege to work alongside a team of Geologists and Paleontologists from the universities of Birmingham, Zurich and Oxford in a project under the auspices of the University of the Witwatersrand’s Evolution Studies Institute (ESI) on a site in rural Eastern Cape.

“My role within this massive project is to perform a detailed survey of the sites and the surrounding area for later analysis. I used a drone known as the DJI Phantom 3 Pro with which I took hundreds of pictures that were later put together to create a detailed map,” he said.

“The maps allowed for virtual prospecting by the team and will in the long term serve as the basis for a predictive fossil model for the area.”

Dollman is a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Informatics on the Qwaqwa Campus.

News Archive

UFS pianist honoured for contribution to international summer school
2008-08-30

 

A commemoration plate was recently handed to Prof. Albie van Schalkwyk from the Department of Music at the University of the Free State (UFS) during the closing ceremony of the 2008 international summer school of the Neuberger Kulturtage in Austria for his contribution as repetitor at the summer school for the past 20 years. The plate was handed over by the mayor of Neuberg on behalf of the community of Neuberg. Prof. Van Schalkwyk was thanked for his dedication and the exceptional manner in which he shared his expertise with students over the years. Pictured here are: Prof. Van Schalkwyk and Ms Magdalena Roux, lecturer in cello at the Stellenbosch University during this year's summer school.
Photo: Supplied

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