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26 August 2022 | Story Anthony Mthembu | Photo Supplied
Katleho Nkosi
Katleho Nkosi’s design, which won him second place in the national design competition during the Student Entrepreneurship Week 2022.

Katleho Nkosi, a fourth-year Education student at the University of the Free State (UFS), obtained second place in a national design competition hosted virtually by Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE). 

The national design competition formed part of the launch of the Student Entrepreneurship Week 2022, which took place at the University of Venda on 18 August 2022. As such, students from many of the universities in the country, including Nkosi, took part in designing a poster that would be used to advertise the event. 

Nkosi is delighted and excited about this accomplishment. “This win was really surprising and unbelievable for me, because obtaining the second-place position means that my work is good,” said Nkosi.

The participants were allowed to conceptualise and submit their final product between 28 June and 15 July 2022. “I had no experience in this space, I only designed content for fun, and I participated in this competition because I was motivated by a friend,” Nkosi highlighted. 

Click to view document  Click here to view poster in full size.


The motivation behind the design

Since the Student Entrepreneurship Week was held at the University of Venda, Nkosi used the vibrancy and colourfulness of Venda as inspiration for his design. “When I was designing the poster, the only thing on my mind was making sure that I put something together that was related to Venda,” he explained. In addition, the theme for the Entrepreneurship Week was ‘Move to Market’, and Nkosi asserts that he tried to integrate the theme with Venda, and this is how the design came about.

The outcome of the competition and future plans

Although Nkosi did not win the competition, he did receive a cash prize for being among the top three. Furthermore, given his accomplishment, Nkosi would like to take part in many more design competitions moving forward. “Now that I have realised that I have the potential to win, I think I can take this as a career path in the future,” he said. Nkosi is also looking at merging his love of teaching with his newfound love for design. “I’m going to try and find the connection between design and education, because I really love to teach, so I could perhaps become a design teacher,” Nkosi expressed

News Archive

Student receives international award in microbiology
2008-01-24

A postgraduate student at the University of the Free State (UFS) received an exceptional honour last month when he received the first prize for his presentation in the Biochemistry and Industrial Mycology session of the Asian Mycology Congress (AMC) held in Malaysia.

Desmond Ncango (24), a Ph.D. student from the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology received the first prize for his presentation on the inhibitory effects of non-steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin on fungi.

This suggests that commonly used aspirin may be used as a cheap antifungal to combat yeast infections. Desmond also exposed novel lubricants that are used by yeasts for water-propelled movement. This may find application in nanotechnology in the lubrication of nanorobots, which are manmade miniature machines, invisible to the naked eye, which may in future be used to combat diseases such as cancer.

The conference, which was attended by more than 300 representatives from 27 countries, is a platform for mycologists (who are experts in fungi) around the world to come together and share their knowledge and research. “Many interested researchers listened to my presentation and were impressed by the novelty and scientific depth of my work,” said Desmond.

“The presentation was selected as the best because of its novelty, academic depth as well as applicability. The meticulous preparation and presentation style also contributed to the success,” said Prof. Lodewyk Kock, head of the Lipid Biotechnology Group at the department and main promoter of Desmond’s Ph.D. studies.

“I cannot really explain the feeling when my presentation was selected as the best as it was presented in a very difficult category and many senior researchers and professors also participated. I plan to use all the knowledge and skills I have learnt from Prof. Kock, who is my role model, especially to the benefit of disadvantage communities in South Africa. I want to follow an academic career at a tertiary institution when I have completed my Ph.D. studies,” said Desmond.

Desmond went to school in Botshabelo, Bloemfontein and completed his Grade 12 in 2000 with a distinction in Mathematics. He enrolled for a B.Sc. degree at the UFS, majoring in Microbiology and Physiology. After obtaining this qualification, he joined the postgraduate research group of Prof. Kock. He completed his M.Sc. degree with distinction last year and was privileged to have this research published in and on the cover of the Canadian Journal of Microbiology, a journal accredited by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI).

He was one of six postgraduate students from the Lipid Biotechnology Group who attended the AMC conference in Malaysia. The students’ attendance was funded by the South African Fryer Oil Initiative (SAFOI), which is housed in the UFS Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology. This initiative, steered by Prof. Kock, currently monitors edible oils in the food industry in South Africa and makes a quality seal available to the manufacturers and distributors of these edible oils.

“SAFOI’s income is used to fund my own research on various kinds of oils (including yeast oils) to enable postgraduate students to attend international congresses and to partially fund international scientific symposia and congresses,” said Prof. Kock.

 

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 January 2008

 

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