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12 May 2020 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Pexels

A data scientist and research coordinator at the University of the Free State (UFS), in collaboration with his supervisor at the University of Pretoria (UP), is at the forefront of the fight against the Covid-19 virus with accurate data and analysis.
Herkulaas Combrink of the Centre for Teaching and Learning at the UFS and PhD candidate in Computer Science at the UP, said accurate data is important to prevent widespread panic and sensationalism during a global disaster such as the current pandemic. This information helps people to make informed decisions and to reduce their exposure to the threat of the virus.

Assisting decision-makers

“I, along with colleagues from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA, the provincial office of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, provincial clinicians, and the Free State Department of Health led by Dr David Motau, have been able to progress significantly in terms of evidence-based tools to assist provincial and national decision-makers during these turbulent times.”
“It does come at a cost, though, in that we have worked continuously since the lockdown, dedicating all our time and efforts to the department from all over to ensure that we are not part of some of the global statistics we have seen,” said Combrink. 

A paper written together with his supervisor, Dr Vukosi Marivate, has also been accepted by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET)-accredited Data Science Journal.  This paper is related to a framework for sharing public data to the public in a way that is useful, usable, and understandable. 

Ongoing projects

Combrink said it is hard to name all those who are/were involved in the great work done by the Free State Department of Health, but some of them include Dr Elizabeth Reji (Head of Department, Family Medicine), Dr Collin Noel (surgeon, senior lecturer at the UFS), Dr Sammy Mokoena (community health registrar, UFS), Dr Ming-Han Motloung (public health medicine specialist, senior lecturer, UFS), Dr Perpetual Chikobvu (Director: Information Management at the Department of Health, affiliated lecturer at the UFS), as well as Alfred Deacon (lecturer at the UFS), who have worked at some point during this short space of time on one of the many projects. 

Some of the projects include the following:

• A provincial database for screening and monitoring.
• A data pipeline and assembly of hospital information flow, liaised with the NICD, Vodacom, and the different district managers to ensure that the pipeline occurs in a timely manner.
• Digitised paper-based capturing tools for rapid data capturing and processing.
• Incorporated state-of-the-art visualisation tools to action data into useful information for decision-makers in certain areas.
• Provided both provincial and national projections, stress testing different scenarios using a variety of statistical, computational, and/or machine-learning approaches to add to the already existing projections of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
• Training healthcare professionals in the field to apply these tools within their own districts.
No easy task

“These aforementioned feats were by no means easy and are not completed yet, but we are getting there. In the foreseeable future, I will be working closely with national and international researchers to deploy a tool for hospital managers in the Free State that will assist them when we move from level 5 to any level below.”

“In addition to this, I am constantly providing support to the Free State Department of Health regarding any analysis required for decision-making purposes. The teams we work in comprise highly competent individuals with a passion for solving problems from multidisciplinary perspectives,” according to Combrink.

News Archive

UFS Vista campus elects SRC
2005-08-25

 

Front from left:Ms Mpule Rabele, Finance; Mr Julius Kompi, President; Ms Buyiswa Nyotho, Vice-President; Back from left: Mr Tshepo Mohotsi, Academics and Transformation; Mr Shimane Mokwena, Sport, Arts and Culture ; Mr Maje Mokhutle, Projects and Community Liaison; Mr Teboho Mtimkulu, Secretary-General; Mr Andile Tyobeka, Constitutional and Legal Affairs;
 

Mr Julius Kompi, a senior LLB-student, has been named as the president of the Student Representative Council (SRC) at the Vista Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein.

The election of a SRC for the Vista Campus of the UFS for the term 2005/2006 was completed earlier this week.

After the main campus, the Vista campus is the second of the UFS three campuses to have completed its SRC election process.  Students at the Qwaqwa campus of the UFS will elect a SRC on Friday 26 August 2005.

“The Main Campus SRC and the Vista Campus SRC elections were a resounding success and were conducted in a peaceful manner.  We are positive that this tendency will continue in future,” said Dr Ezekiel Moraka, Vice-Rector:  Student Affairs at the UFS.     

According to Dr Moraka the election process on the Vista Campus was closely monitored by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).  More than 50% of the students on campus took part in the election.   

A central SRC that represents the three campus SRCs of the UFS was inaugurated earlier this month. The officials of the Central SRC will be chosen after all three campuses have elected a new SRC.

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

25 August 2005
 

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