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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

Former students Cobus Muller and Charl Blom withdraw claims against UFS
2015-12-02

Former students Cobus Muller and Charl Blom without any explanation withdrew their claims for contractual damages against the University of the Free State (UFS) in the amount of R1 million each, last week. 

This comes after a letter of demand was addressed to Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS, on 5 March 2015 in which Muller and Blom claimed R 5 150 000.00   each in compensation from the UFS. The claim was rejected. Thereafter Muller and Blom issued a summons in which they claimed R1 million each for alleged contractual damages suffered.

Muller and Blom have tendered the full wasted costs as a result of the claims that were withdrawn.  The former students intend to proceed with the remaining claims.  These claims will likewise be opposed by the UFS.

The university management does not intend commenting on the withdrawal in the media.   The futile attempts by Muller and Blom to claim what was not due to them, speaks for itself.

Related links:

http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item?news=6394 (3 July 2015)
http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item?news=6274 (5 March 2015)
http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item?news=4116 (9 September 2014)
http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/news-archive-item?news=3924 (22 February 2014)

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