In celebration of Charlotte Maxeke’s 151^st Birthday

On the 7^th of April 2022, Google along with the rest of South Africa, celebrated what would have been Charlotte Maxeke’ s 151^st birthday. While South Africa has its own acknowledgments of the South African social and political activist and religious leader through the likes of the Charlotte Maxeke hospital – which has made headlines for all the wrong reasons as of late. Outside of her namesake Johannesburg-based Academic Hospital, there is also a submarine in the South African Navy named after her as she is often acknowledged as the “Mother of Black Freedom in South Africa” due to her ground-breaking political and social activism. There is also a statue of […]

Tesla taking over Twitter a few shares at a time?

It seems that there are few areas of business and industry that aren’t of interest to South-African born intrepid entrepreneur and tech-preneur Elon Musk. Musk is already the co-founder and owner of numerous companies including the likes of The Boring Company which is aimed at developing alternate channels or in this case tunnels for pedestrian, cargo and electric vehicle travel in order to eliminate unnecessary congestion on roads. Outside of The Boring Company, Musk also heads up NeuraLink which is working on creating “implantable brain-machine interfaces” in the hopes of giving people with paralysis some of the capabilities they may have lost. Even though Musk resigned from Open.AI […]

Taking Tech to the streets to combat COVID-19 in Shanghai

Shanghai has taken their COVID-19 preventative measures and monitoring to a whole other level by capitalizing on technology in its various forms. Most notably of course, is by using a robot dog whose job it is to patrol the streets and remind the city’s citizens to abide by the mandated COVID protocols. The robodog does this through the loudspeaker that is attached to its back that issues reminders such as “wear a mask”; “wash hands frequently” and “check your temperature”. These ‘reminders’ are currently directed at the residents of Jiading district in Shanghai in alignment with the current lockdown measures imposed due to the most recent wave believed […]

NRF-SAASTA invites VUT Senior Lecturer Dr Tozama Qwebani-Ogunleye to Facilitate Webinar on the Role of Traditional Medicine in Modern Healthcare Systems

Selina Rapulane

The Vaal University of Technology (VUT) is proud to announce that one of its own innovators,
Dr Tozama Qwebani-Ogunleye has been identified by the National Research Foundation-South African Agency for Science Technology Advancement (NRF-SAASTA), as facilitator of a webinar on the Role of Traditional Medicine in Modern Healthcare Systems, scheduled to take place during the first week of April 2022.

Dr Qwebani- Ogunleye, fondly known as Dr T, is a Senior Lecturer in the Biotechnology and Chemistry Department. She also serves as the Project Manager – VUT Traditional Medicine Unit.

The primary purpose of the webinar is to contribute […]

International Women’s Day 2022

On the 8^th of March annually, we celebrate International Women’s Day, it is a day when we pay homage and celebrate the “social, political and economic achievements of women” worldwide. The idea is that women around the world come together on this day in order to acknowledge how far we’ve come and how far there still is to go in order to achieve equal treatment and representation.  Each year there is a different theme that is representative of certain ideals or ideologies as well as collective goals that the community strives towards in order to close the gap. This year’s theme was “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow” which took the shape and […]

The role tech will play in the Ukrainian war

On the 24^th of February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine after President Putin announced that Russia could not feel “”safe, develop and exist because of what he claimed was a constant threat from modern Ukraine.” This latest invasion of Ukraine stems off the back of years of on-going tension between the two countries, and when looking at Russia’s most recent actions, the conflict that began almost a decade ago in February 2014 absolutely needs to be factored in. However, experts weigh in that this dates back much further, potentially even to the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) in 1991. Russia’s President Putin has always been vocal […]

SmartWater, a new way to keep women safe?

Gender Based violence is prevalent worldwide and is certainly more pervasive in South African society than in others. This level of prevalence necessitates that women take preventative measures  wherever possible in order to keep themselves safe, whether that is carrying pepper spray, a Taser or stun gun, holding their keys strategically between their fingers so that if they have to strike, it’s likely to cause more damage, send pin to a family friend or loved one when travelling alone, not running or walking with any jewellery so as not to make themselves a target, not wearing anything too revealing in case it attracts the wrong kind of attention – the […]

Big Mac Attack – where SA stands on the index in 2022

The Big Mac Index sounds like it’s about a burger, right? Well, you would be half right in thinking that because the ‘Big Mac’ part does indeed refer to one of the fast-food giant’s signature offerings – the Big Mac burger, however it has since taken on a more significant role and as not only a form of food, but also as an economic indicator. The Big Mac Index was invented in 1986 by the well-known international newspaper The Economist as a different or more “light-hearted” means of determining whether or not currencies are their correct level. The theory behind the index is known as the […]

Afrigen’s Moderna magic

Since the onset of COVID, there has been a major disparity in shared resources worldwide, predominantly when it came to the purchasing and distribution of vaccinations as they were first developed. ‘First world’ countries and continents such as the US, the United Kingdom and Europe bought off as many vaccines as possible as they came off factory lines – so much so that many had purchased so many that they would be able to vaccinate their entire populations multiple times over, leaving many African countries without vaccines, or with the only option being to purchase them and surcharge rates.  This was largely due to the intense demand worldwide created by over purchasing. However, now that […]

Tech-giant Google

Tech-giant Google has decided to get on board the blockchain train. In the company’s latest move, they have opted to create a unit that specifically focuses on blockchain technology. In the past, this has been an area that Google has determinately avoided, however this move is indicative of the company’s intention to expand its horizons into the cryptocurrency space. The unit will be headed up by Shivakumar Venkataraman, who is well known to the company and has spent most of his career working within one of Google’s core business functionalities, namely its ad business which is one of its largest income generators. Up until the end of last year, Google was is resistant to the idea […]