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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

Remembrance wall celebrates Kovsies
2012-08-21

SRC members leading the Proudly Kovsie March. From the left are: Biejangka Calitz, SRC member: Media, Marketing & Liaison Marketing; William Clayton, SRC member: Accessibility & Student Support; and Bonolo Thebe, SRC member: Sport.
Photo: Linda Fekisi
21 August 2012

 

One of the highlights of the recent Proudly Kovsie March was the unveiling of the SRC Remembrance Wall. The wall is a board with photos of the everyday Kovsie student.

Biejangka Calitz, SRC member: Media, Marketing & Liaison, says the board was set up to give students a feeling of Kovsie unity. “It will also create a sense of pride of being part of an iconic place with a melting pot of talent and creativity that is never boring.”

Biejangka says the inspiration comes from a theatre overseas that has a wall with photos and experiences quotes of people who have visited the theatre.

The board of photos will be put up on the wall between the Student Life Centre and Träumerei, behind Van Schaik Bookshop on the Thakaneng Bridge. It will be on display for five years and could remain on display for longer.
 

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