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06 March 2020 | Story Thabo Kessah | Photo Tsepo Moeketsi
Dr Ocaya
Dr Richard Ocaya’s research addresses the skills development and transfer millennium goal of many governments globally.

With the Fourth Industrial Revolution becoming a reality, Dr Richard Ocaya’s research is receptive to the fact that Africa and the world need to re-imagine their research. His research focuses on electronic instrumentation design for scientific measurements, computational physics on atomic nano-atomic structures, and semiconducting organic compounds materials built on silicon to realise Schottky devices.

Software developer 
“I develop most of the instrumentation that I apply in my research – both software and hardware,” said Dr Ocaya, a Physics Lecturer and Programme Director: Physics and Chemistry on the UFS Qwaqwa Campus.

“I am active in scientific computing through the computing cluster and software development, mathematical physics for material science modelling, and embedded instrumentation design using microprocessors. I also have deep interest in radio and data telemetry, in which I hold a South African patent issued in 2013. My present international collaborations are with like-minded researchers in similar fields in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Japan, Egypt, South Korea, and the United States,” he added.

How does his research talk to the real world?
“The driving principle of all areas of my research has always been to deploy cutting-edge research to actual, real-world applications for the immediate betterment of Africans. The areas of my research align closely with the millennium goals of many governments globally, including the Republic of South Africa. These goals pertain to skills development and transfer that position us to better address the challenges of energy, water, and other priorities.”

Dr Ocaya is currently co-promoting a PhD student, having previously supervised one PhD, two MSc, and more than twenty honours students. He is a self-taught electronics and computer programmer, whose curiosity led him to question ‘the voices and music coming from a box; a radio’. “In my quest to satisfy my curiosity, I collected many discarded devices, took them apart, and tried so many circuits, only to have them fail because the theory was lacking. After thousands of failed projects and with me barely thirteen and in lower secondary school, my first ever project actually worked,” he said.

NRF-rating
He is the author of the book Introduction to Control Systems Analysis using Point Symmetries: An application of Lie Symmetries, which is available in all major bookstores such as Amazon, in both print and e-book format. He is a C3 NRF-rated researcher whose work makes a pioneering contribution to the new and growing field of phononics, an independent field of the now established photonics.

“This field will someday lead to improved energy-storage devices and faster processors due to more efficient heat removal from nanodevices,” he concludes.


News Archive

FS Premiers Documentary Film On Basotho King Moshoeshoe
2004-10-06

The University of the Free State (UFS) will premiere a documentary film on the legacy of King Moshoeshoe, Basotho leader of the nineteenth century for his role in nation-building and reconciliation on Wednesday 13 October 2004.

The hour-long documentary film, produced by the well-known journalist Mr Max du Preez, was commissioned by the UFS as part of its centenary celebrations.

“To us this film is a practical demonstration of the UFS’s commitment to the continued transformation of the campus, and its commitment to reconciliation and nation-building. It is seen as a contribution to one of the UFS’s key strategic priorities for this year, namely diversity, equity and redress,” says Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

“Through these priorities, the UFS commits itself to developing a shared appreciation of the history of this country and to contribute to the establishment of the Free State Province as a model of reconciliation and nation building,” says Prof Fourie.

“King Moshoeshoe was a great African statesman and leader. He was born in this region of the country, but his influence and legacy extends way beyond the borders of the Free State, Lesotho and even way beyond the borders of South Africa,” says Prof Fourie.

Earlier this year the UFS launched a project to honor King Moshoeshoe. The project included among others the production of this documentary film, the possible presentation of an annual Moshoeshoe memorial lecture that will focus on African leadership, nation-building and reconciliation and PhD-level research into the life and legacy of King Moshoeshoe and a literary anthology including prose and poetry.

According to Prof Fourie the project will enable the UFS to give real meaning to words such as reconciliation, respect for the diversity of our languages and cultures, and the unity South Africans seek to build as a democratic nation through such diversity.

The documentary film on King Moshoeshoe will be screened on SABC 2 later this year.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
6 October 2004

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