Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
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

Villa Bravado orientation practice
2010-08-02

The University of the Free State (UFS) takes note of forbidden initiation practices which Residence Committee Members (RCM) of Villa Bravado, a men’s residence of the UFS, participated in during September and October 2009. A video of the events is currently widely being distributed.

Earlier this year, the UFS management was informed about the events by students who had also been involved in the initiation practices and management took note of that with great dismay.

These events took place despite the comprehensive amount of support and assistance regarding transformation which is continuously provided to students in residences. The UFS clearly and regularly communicates to students that initiation is strictly forbidden.

After the management had been informed of the matter, it was immediately addressed and the following measures were taken by the Dean: Student Affairs, Mr Rudi Buys without delay:

  1. The Student Head of the residence was immediately suspended as RCM member; and
  2. Disciplinary proceedings were immediately instituted against the Residence Head because of his alleged involvement in these forbidden practices. The case is currently under investigation.

The UFS is convinced that the event was not an incident where black students acted against white students, because black members of the Residence Committee had undergone the same initiation exercise earlier. The misconduct was a continuation of a forbidden initiation practice that is not allowed at the UFS.

“I expect that these events, which took place last year, were the last of students exercising forbidden initiation practices and once again I strongly wish to express the loathing that my management and myself have for any form of forbidden initiation practice,” said Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication (actg)
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl@ufs.ac.za 
2 August 2010

 

 

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