Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Previous Archive
14 December 2022 | Story André Damons | Photo André Damons
Dr Michael Pienaar, Senior Lecturer and specialist in the UFS Department of Paediatrics and Child Health being presented to the acting Chancellor by his supervisor Prof Stephen Brown.

A lecturer from the University of the Free State (UFS) says the need to improve the care of seriously ill children is a vital part of reducing preventable deaths and diseases, and this led him to investigate the use of artificial neural networks to develop models for the prediction of patient outcomes in children with severe illness. The study was done for his PhD thesis. 

This forms the basis for the PhD thesis of Dr Michael Pienaar, Senior Lecturer and specialist in the UFS Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, called, The Development and Validation of Predictive Models for Paediatric Critical Illness in Children in Central South Africa using Artificial Neural Networks. His thesis reports the development and testing of several machine learning models designed to help healthcare workers identify seriously ill children early in a range of resource-limited settings. Combining a systematic literature search and Delphi technique with clinical data from 1 032 participants, this research led to significant progress towards implementable models for community health workers in clinical practice.

Care for critically ill children is a mission and calling 

Dr Pienaar graduated with a PhD specialising in Paediatrics on Monday (12 December) during the Faculty of Health Sciences’ December graduation ceremony. It took him three years to complete this degree. His supervisor was Prof Stephen Brown, Principal Specialist and Head of the Division of Paediatric Cardiology in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the UFS. Prof Nicolaas Luwes and Dr EC George were his co-supervisors. 

“I have been working in paediatric critical care since 2019 and see the care of critically ill children as my mission and calling in life. At the outset of the project, I was interested in approaches to complex phenomena and wanted to investigate new methods for tackling these in healthcare. 

“I have been interested in technology since childhood and in collaborating with other disciplines since I joined the university in 2019. Machine learning seemed like a great fit that could incorporate these interests and yield meaningful clinical results,” explains Dr Pienaar the reason why he chose this topic for his thesis.

He hopes that, in time, this work will lead to the implementation of integrated machine learning models to improve care and clinical outcomes for children in South Africa. From a scholarship perspective, he continues, his hope is that this work draws interest to this field in clinical research and encourages a move towards incorporating these new methods, as well as skills in areas such as coding and design in the armamentarium of a new generation of clinicians.

Medicine chooses you

According to Dr Pienaar, he always had broad interests, of which medicine is one. “I am very grateful to have found my way in medicine and am humbled and privileged to be allowed to walk with children and their families on a difficult and important journey. I believe this profession will choose you and put you where you are needed if you give it time and are prepared to listen.”

He describes graduating as a complicated ending to this period of his life and the beginning of a next chapter. He was humbled by the graduation ceremony. 

“It was wonderful to graduate with undergraduates and postgraduates in my profession – I felt great pride and solidarity joining these new colleagues and specialists in taking the oath. I am certainly relieved, proud, excited, and happy. I am also very grateful to the university, my promotors, colleagues, friends, and family for supporting me through this process. I must confess, it is also slightly bittersweet, I loved working on this and do miss it, but look forward to the next exciting project. 

“I would like to thank my Head of Department, Dr (Nomakhuwa) Tabane, my supervisors, my family and friends once again. I would also like to acknowledge and thank the National Research Foundation (NRF) as well as the University of the Free State for their assistance with funding this research.”

News Archive

Community of Qwaqwa gives Prof Petersen a warm Basotho welcome
2017-05-16

 

 Description: Prof Petersen with Basotho hat and blanket Tags: Prof Petersen with Basotho hat and blanket

 Prof Francis Petersen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State
Photo: Ian van Straaten

Photo Gallery
Video

Various stakeholders pledged their support to the newly-appointed Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS), Prof Francis Petersen, during the first in a series of welcoming events that was held at the Qwaqwa Campus on Thursday 11 May 2017.

A message of support and welcome from the Paramount Queen of the Bakoena Royal Council, Mofumahadi Mathokoana Mopeli, took everybody in attendance back three decades to the time when the campus was first established.

“The Qwaqwa Campus of the then University of the North was created to swell this area and the broader Eastern Free State with intellectual capacity,” she said.

“It is with this in mind that we encourage you, Prof Petersen, to continue upholding the best of your predecessors. Search for what they could not achieve and learn from that. Traditional leadership in this area will always be a friend to the university,” she added.

Description: Community of Qwaqwa gives Prof Petersen a warm Basotho welcome Tags: Community of Qwaqwa gives Prof Petersen a warm Basotho welcome

Prof Petersen received a warm Basotho
welcome from Morena Thokoana Mopeli and
Paramount Queen Mofumahadi Mathokoana Mopeli of
the Bakoena Royal Council. With them is
Mrs Cheslyn Petersen.
Photo: Thabo Kessah

The Thabo Mofutsanyana Education District was represented by the Acting District Director, Lindiwe Mabaso, who expressed the district’s pride in being associated with the university.

“Our district is excelling in Mathematics and Science, and this can be attributed to the educators that we get from the Qwaqwa Campus. We are proud to say that we are number one nationally when it comes to Mathematics and Science, and this is through the support we get from the campus. Our schools will continue to be centres of excellence under the new leadership of Prof Petersen,” she said.

Staff and students weigh in

Both Nehawu and Uvpersu expressed their optimism in working with Prof Petersen.

Branch chairperson of Nehawu, Teboho Pitso, said the union appreciated the fact that Prof Petersen was taking over the leadership of the institution at a very difficult time, both institutionally and nationally.

“As workers, we are faced with a lot of challenges and we hope that none of us will be retrenched under your leadership,” he said to an appreciative audience consisting of various internal and external stakeholders.

Acting Chairperson of UVPERSU, Khethiwe Biyo, said the workers’ union was happy that Prof Petersen believed in teamwork.

“Your commitment in working with us is appreciated. We look forward to learning from you about institutional innovation,” she said.

Students were represented by the Qwaqwa Campus SRC President, Njabulo Mwali, who expressed the need for a deeper and detailed transformation process.

“Your expertise and skills have set you above all other aspirant applicants for this position, and we hope that we will learn a lot on this journey,” he said.

“We at the UFS are actively, intentionally,
and continuously engaged in promoting
diversity.”

"Ensure fairness" 

In his response, Prof Petersen emphasised the importance of inclusivity and innovativeness. He said, “Staff and students at the three sites of learning must do all they can to ensure that the UFS realises its goal of being an inclusive institution, one that provides equal access and opportunities to everyone, makes a conscious effort to prevent discrimination, and ensure fairness.”

“Being committed to inclusivity means that we at the UFS are actively, intentionally, and continuously engaged in promoting diversity. This diversity is expressed through our people and through the curriculum, and in the way we work with our communities to promote awareness, empathy, and understanding of the complex ways individuals interact. As you know, our ultimate goal as a university is not only to educate young people up to the point that they graduate. What they learn during their time with us should help shape them into people who can think innovatively in order to address the challenges that face us in the 21st century,” he said.

The Qwaqwa Campus Chorale and the award-winning choir from The Beacon Secondary School in Phuthaditjhaba provided the entertainment.

Similar events will respectively be hosted on the South and Bloemfontein Campuses on 18 and 19 May 2017.

 

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