The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has presented two DTI Technology Awards to Rhodes University staff members.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has presented two DTI Technology Awards to Rhodes University staff members.
They are Dr Lee-Anne McKinnell, a research associate in the Department of Physics and Electronics who also works for the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory (HMO), and Prof Alfredo Terzoli, head of the Telecommunications Centre of Excellence in Distributed Multimedia, hosted by the Computer Science Department.
The purpose of the awards is to raise awareness of the benefits offered by technology and demonstrate how its use can help local enterprises become more competitive. The awards recognise individuals or organisations who contribute towards technology promotion and innovation in South Africa.
The 2009 award winners were presented with both a trophy and a framed certificate. McKinnell and Terzoli were nominated by the Technology and Human Resources for Industry Programme (Thrip), which funds part of their research.
Thrip supports projects which are able to be applied directly within the industry, through a mechanism that matches at a specified ratio and the funding from industry that the projects were able to attract. McKinnell’s project won the award in the Advanced Hi Technology category and Terzoli received his award in the Research Collaboration category.
McKinnell praised the amount of support she receives in her work from the Rhodes Research and Dean’s offices, and believes that the fact that two Thrip projects at Rhodes won awards at the 2009 DTI ceremony shows that the university functions as a good environment for research development, and provides its researchers with the support they need to achieve their aims.
Terzoli said the award coming directly from Thrip, one of their more demanding funders, is cause for celebration. He echoed McKinnell’s comment that the fact that Rhodes received two awards in this year’s ceremony expresses a ringing endorsement of the quality of work undertaken at the University.
The DTI Technology Awards incorporate an exhibition, this year titled Innovation for Change which is attended by representatives of industries, universities and schools. Terzoli and four of his students were among the exhibitors and their demo, of a complete video-on-demand system based on Mobicents, attracted the attention of the pupils on the first day of the exhibition and that of Trade and Industry minister, Rob Davies.
