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

Health's service learning showcased
2007-10-29

 

The Department of Community Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS) held a function to thank stakeholders for their contributions throughout the year. A DVD, entitled: "Community Service Learning" was also launched. The DVD showcases the community service work of respectively the School of Allied Health Professions, the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing in the faculty. At the occasion were, from the left: Dr Mabel Erasmus (Head of the Division: Community Service Learning in the Centre for Higher Education Studies and Development at the UFS), Dr Santie van Vuuren (Head: School of Allied Health Professions at the UFS), Prof. Anita van der Merwe (Head: School of Nursing at the UFS), Dr Brenda de Klerk (Chairperson of community service learning in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the UFS) and Ms Monique Nel (Community Service Co-ordinator in the faculty).
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

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