Latest News Archive

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

Back to the future

30 December 2019 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Thabo Kessah

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

Computer laboratory receives generous donation from the Dell Foundation

2008-05-12

The University of the Free State (UFS) recently received 200 computers to the value of R2 million from the Dell Foundation.

The computers will be used in the new computer laboratory, which is being built between the UFS Sasol Library and the Genmin Lectorium on the Main Campus in Bloemfontein.

The building will make ample provision for students who have to make use of a computer for study purposes.

Altogether 815 computers will be at students’ disposal in the new laboratory. On the ground level four rooms will be furnished with computers. Students will be able to have discussions in two of these rooms, while they can work in silence in the other two rooms.

Provision is also made for 18 group rooms, which will be furnished with a computer and big screen. These rooms can occupy seven persons and will be made available by means of a booking.

Lecture halls will be built on the second level, together with the group rooms. The largest of these will have 184 seats and can also be used as an examination hall.

Another hall with 170 seats and three with 40 seats will be available. Two lecture halls will be furnished with laptops on movable desks to enable students to work in groups.

Security cameras will be installed all over the building and strict security measures will be enforced.

The laboratory, with a total project cost of about R28 million, will be in use next year.

Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@ufs.ac.za
12 May 2008

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

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