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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

Education bursaries awarded to 180 UFS students
2007-08-24

 

At the awarding ceremony were, from the left: Prof. Steve Niemann (Head: School of Education at the UFS), Kaizer Mosupeng (first-year student in Education), Prof. Frederick Fourie (Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS), Mr Enver Surty (Deputy Minister of Education), Danielle Nel (third-year Education student) and Mr Tebogo Lioma (Deputy Director General of the Free State Department of Education).
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

Education bursaries awarded to 180 UFS students

The Department of Education awarded 180 Fundza Lushaka Bursaries to students in education at the University of the Free State (UFS).

The bursaries were handed to the students today by the Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Enver Surty during a function held on the Main Campus in Bloemfontein.

The Fundza Lushaka Bursary Programme is a multi-year programme that promotes teaching in public schools. The bursaries, valued at R40 000 each, enable students to complete a full teaching qualification in an area of national priority. The recipients are required to teach at a school or provincial education department for the same number of years that they receive the bursary.

“The programme was implemented in recognition and acknowledgement of the educators in South Africa. All of you sitting here today should regard yourselves as nation builders as you will be helping to build communities and a caring society. Therefore it is imperative that you must be committed to teaching and have an interest in working with young people when taking up this bursary,” said Mr Surty.

Mr Surty said the skills required for teachers of today are much different than in the past. “You would be teaching in an environment with mixed cultures and language and must be able to adapt and be willing to contribute to a multi-cultural, multi-lingual and diverse South African society,” said Mr Surty.

According to Mr Surty, the national priority areas include among others African languages, English, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information and Computer Application Technology. Although the bursary programme is non-racial, special attention was given to the awarding of the bursaries to women. At the UFS 58% of the bursars are female students, while 58% are black and 42% white students.

Prof. Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS, said the institution was worried about the small number of students who showed interest in the field of education a while ago. “Since the implementation of the bursary programme we have seen a turn-around in the registration of students in education, which is an extremely positive sign,” said Prof. Fourie.

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
24 August 2007
 

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