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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

Department of Communication Science officially welcomes honours students
2009-03-26

 
The Department of Communication Science in the Faculty of the Humanities recently hosted a function for its honours students in Westdene, Bloemfontein, to welcome them to the new postgraduate programme. A new honours programme, consisting of degrees in Communication Science, Media Studies and Journalism, and Corporate and Marketing Communication, was introduced at the beginning of 2009. This year's intake consists of 27 students. At the function were, from the left: Ms Zanelle Britz (Communication Science), Mr Herman Naudé (Media Studies and Journalism), Ms Ingrid Wu (Media Studies and Journalism), Ms Willemien Marais (Co-ordinator: Postgraduate Programme), Dr Dalmé Mulder (Programme Director), Ms Letshego Thibeletsa (Corporate and Marketing Communication), Mr Earl Coetzee (Media Studies and Journalism), and Prof. Johann de Wet (Departmental Chairperson).
Photo: Mangaliso Radebe

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