Niche AreasDIRECTORATE: RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

2017

FACulTy OF ECONOmICS AND FINANCESustainability Accounting and Finance

FOCUSTo integrate sustainability accounting and finance, especially environmental management methodologies, business management and finance systems in order to construct a sustainable socio-economic system by developing and implementing sustainability tools. A special emphasis is also given public sector financial management and accounting methodologies to provide sustainable sound financial governance and, therefore, enhance the credibility of public sector governance in South Africa.

THE OBJECTIVES• Sustainability Management Accounting consists of three interrelated

functions: physical, social and monetary sustainability management accounting. We will investigate the problems and develop models to account for the relationship between economic variables, environmental and other sustainability information in order to achieve sustainable development and develop new approaches/benchmarks for the application, implementation and promotion of sustainability management accounting, especially Enviromental Management Accounting (EMA).

• Sustainability Disclosure. Among various measures for environmental

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disclosure, the Niche Area draws the focus on sustainability, (especially environmental) reports, which are the most comprehensive form of information disclosure. The N/A intends to develop for organisations models for sustainability (especially environmental) disclosure and encourage them to use this model to issue sustainability, especially environmental, reports, exploring effective methods for improving the content of the reports, and analysing the possible relevance between external reporting, disclosure and the needs of stakeholders.

• Sustainability (especially Environmental) Management Evaluation  is indispensable for promoting Sustainability Management Accounting and Disclosure (and especially EMA and environmental disclosure) as described above. It is an essential system for proper evaluation of organisational sustainability activities when promoting effective sustainability management by sustainability management accounting, or by disclosing such information in sustainability, especially environmental reports. By studying methods to properly evaluate internal conservation activities that lead to management activities, as well as external evaluation methods such as environmental rating by external organisations, the N/A to develop a framework for examining a desirable style of sustainability management evaluation for the society.

• Budgeting and public expenditure.  We endeavour to identify, clarify and explore the problems and solutions relating to multi-year performance budgeting and its costing, to develop new methods and approaches for the application, implementation and promotion of multi-year performance budgeting.

• Accrual-based a in the public sector.  We endeavour to identify, clarify and explore problems and solutions relating to the development of specific accounting standards for the public sector as well as methods and approaches to implement these standards.

• Ethics in the public sector.  We endeavour to identify, clarify and explore problems and solutions relating to the development and application of codes of ethics in the African public sector.

• Public sector internal auditing.  We endeavour to identify, clarify

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and explore problems and solutions relating to the establishment of internal auditing activities in the African public sector.

• Public sector auditing.  We endeavour to identify, clarify and explore problems and solutions relating to the achievement of auditing objectives in the African public sector.

•  Public sector financial management.  We endeavour to identify, clarify and explore problems and solutions relating to the implementation of policy and legislation and the enforcement thereof regarding financial management African public sector.

Developing the model, framework, guidance, checklist and scorecard mentioned above, sustainability management accounting facilitates the realisation of more effective sustainability activities, esp. environmental conservation activities, but also in the social and economical perspective. Likewise, the feasibility of a sustainable socio-economic system depends largely on sustainability disclosure by way of sustainability, especially environmental reports, and proper evaluation of sustainability management by stakeholders. Since all this is not only true for the private, but as well for the public sector, a strong  focus is also on the endeavours in developing sustainable accounting and finance in this sector. The objective of the niche area, therefore, is to clarify the actual status of the methodologies and future direction for further development in both sectors, private and public.

PRODUCTS OR SERVICES• Economics of Climate Change

• Future Clean Energy Concepts (Renewable Energies as well as Fusion Power)

• Water and Pollution (here is also a link to a newly established Institute on Water Research and Natural Resources which explicitly includes an economical perspective)

• Waste Disposal and Recycling

• Mining

• Investments in Environmental Protection Technologies

• Impacts of Environmental Policy (esp. regulations, taxes, subsidies,

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tradable permits and emissions trading, environmental liability law) on company decisions and acting

• Sustainability Reporting

• Eco-audit

• Green Purchasing

• Social regulations, challenges and consequences for decision making and investments

• Micro finance as an instrument for poverty alleviation

• Sustainable micro enterprises as form of self-employment

• Sustainable venture capital

• Projects – A member of this niche area is a member of a research group that consists of members from UNISA, UP and TUT conducting research on Audit Committees in the South African public sector.  The project is funded by UNISA and the NRF and endorsed by the National Treasury. The project hosts three master degree students and four PhD students registered with UNISA and one master degree student registered with TUT.

• The niche area hosts round about 30 postgraduate degree students, half of them focussing their studies on public financial management.

CONTACT DETAILSProf. Dr. rer. pol. habil. Heinz Eckart Klingelhöfer

Tel: 012 382 0664

Email: klingelhoeferhe@tut.ac.za

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FACulTy OF ENgINEERINg AND THE BuIlT ENVIRONmENTClimate Change, Water Security and Disaster Management

FOCUSThis research area will seek to analyse and mitigate against the potential impacts of climate and land use changes on water resources and the environment. The occurrence of pollution, floods, drought and forest fires, all of which destabilise human activities are considered essential components of the niche research area. The niche area is intended to tackle some of the most challenging hazards the world faces today and its establishment is motivated by the fact that unless reliable solutions to these events are sought, natural and human induced disasters will continue to pose serious threats, consequently negating all the development that the world has so far enjoyed. The researches under this niche area are grouped into the following thematic areas:

• Pollution and Remediation• Groundwater Sustainability• Watershed Hydrology• Flood forecasting and development of coping mechanisms• Drought forecasting and coping mechanisms• Fire forecasting and coping mechanisms

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OBJECTIVES

At present, the following specific researches captured under the thematic headings are underway.

1. Pollution and RemediationThe pollution and remediation thematic area is centered on the use of normally constructed wetlands and hybridised type in remediating mine polluted water and wastewater. The specific researches under this thematic area are outlined as follows:

i. Constructed Wetland in Mine Water Pollution Remediation

The research aims at exploring the relatively new area of using wetland plants to remove heavy metals from wastewater generated from mining and mineral processing activities. The research objective is to optimise the use of vegetated constructed wetlands in treating mine water. The study also seeks to develop empirical models to predict the heavy metal removal efficiencies in constructed wetlands. These models will aid in the design of constructed wetlands that are industry specific, for treatment of mine waters to prevent heavy metal contamination that would result when mining industries discharge untreated or poorly treated wastewater into the environment.

ii. Hybridized Constructed Wetland in Municipal Wastewater Treatment

This research work is investigating alternative Phosphorus removal technologies that are economically feasible using specialised substrates with physico-chemical properties that could influence the P-sorption phenomena onto their surfaces to remove. Experiments are being carried out on the suitability of Blast Furnace Slag (BFS) and SUDFLOC 3850 as potential substrates in constructed wetlands for municipal wastewater treatment, which if found suitable, will reduce the solid waste management problems associated with the iron and steel industries and the water treatment industry.

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2. Groundwater SustainabilityGroundwater sustainability remains a key focus area of the groundwater-surface water nexus contributing to sustainable water resources that are geared towards future water security. It is therefore imperative to advance knowledge in this area to inform policy actions that will in the long term safeguard groundwater utilisation to ensure its availability for posterity. Currently running under this theme are the following researches:

i. Conjunctive Use of Groundwater and Surface Water Resources

An efficient management of water resources is vital for the long term utilisation and sustainability of the resource base in South Africa. Conjunctive water use management of surface water and groundwater resources has potential to alleviate water shortage problems arising from the ever-increasing demands and climate change. The overall objective of this research is to develop a tool capable of optimising the conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater taking into account scanty data, uncertainty conditions, through application of simulation – optimisation techniques. The management tool will provide an optimal (sustainable) conjunctive water use strategy for development of surface water and groundwater conjunctive water use policy.

ii. Linked Simulation - Optimization Model of Groundwater Pollution Monitoring

The study aims at exploring the impact of mining activities on groundwater system by understanding the dispersion of pollutants through application of groundwater simulation model. The simulation model is then linked with an optimisation algorithm to optimise amount of contaminants that can be discharged into the system without degrading the quality of the water in aquifers. The objective is to develop a groundwater pollution monitoring model capable of characterising groundwater system and optimizing contaminants discharged from mining areas with limited observation points.

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iii. Modelling Groundwater Under Uncertainty

Increasing population, urbanisation and expansion in agriculture over the years has led to unscientific exploitation of groundwater resources. The consequence of this practice is the inefficient and unsustainable use of our water resources. To remedy this situation, it is subservient that exploitation of these resources be carried out with the aid of scientific tools which would inform on how best to utilise the resource optimally. Groundwater recharge is one of the most important parameters which aids in proper evaluation of the resource and yet it is very difficult to determine with certainty. Previous approaches used to determine groundwater recharge have been based on deterministic approach which assumes that all the input data is known without error. This assumption is invalid since typically only a few set of data are available to define the current situation of the system with certainty. Therefore this research aims at developing a comprehensive quasi three dimensional model for groundwater management. The novelty of this research work is that the determination of groundwater recharge parameter is sought under uncertainty.

3. Watershed HydrologyThe deteriorating repercussions of climate change on hydrology of watersheds are immense and critical to water resources availability. Among many others are the alterations introduce into the hydrologic regime due to climate change. The hydrologic regime alterations in part are also linked to changes in land use which result mainly due to anthropogenic activities. Evolving knowledge and understanding of current trends in land use impacts on watershed hydrology under changing climate is indispensable if we are to protect water resources. Under this theme, the following are ongoing projects:

i. Hydrologic Dynamics under land use/cover and climate change.

The project seeks to investigate the impacts of land use on watershed hydrology in both space and time using emerging technologies of GIS/RS and hydrologic model. Key components of the hydrologic cycle including surface runoff, groundwater, lateral flow and evaporation are under

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investigation. The summative impact on water resources in terms of water yield will also be assessed. Eventually, a Decision Support Tool (DST) configured within a hydrologic model environment is envisaged to be a key output of this study to aid water managers and key policy stakeholders to make informed decisions on water resources planning and management.

ii. The impact of landuse/cover and climate changes on the Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Sediment Yield

Sedimentation resulting from soil erosion is widely acknowledged as a major environmental issue in South African watersheds affecting reservoir capacity, water quality and ecosystem functioning services. To curtail sedimentation requires the implementation of conservation measures that are based on sound scientific judgement. In view of this, acquiring knowledge on sediment yield sources, the interrelationship of sediment yield with land use types and the hotspots within the watersheds become essential. The objectives of this study is therefore to establish through the application of geographic information systems (GIS) and modelling tools the various sediment sources, sediment yields and their spatial coverage within the watershed. Proposals on remediation measures based on the study results will also be given.

CONTACT DETAILS OF NICHE AREA LEADERProfessor JM Ndambuki

Telephone: +27 12 382 2852

Email: NdambukiJM@tut.ac.za

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FACulTy OF ENgINEERINg AND THE BuIlT ENVIRONmENTAppropriate Architecture for Southern Africa

FOCUSThe focus is on the development of appropriate technologies for implementation in Southern Africa. The field of inquiry is delimited to the following interdependent and interrelated topics:

1. Building types and typologies.First world examples of buildings are still being used in Africa with little regard for climate, culture, resources and social-economic realities. We need new types of low cost housing, and medical care, educational and manufacturing facilities, specifically for developing communities. Development of new types must commence with research into the history of African architecture as the terms of reference.

2. Climate responsive construction details.Western world details are applied regardless of climate and location. There is a need to develop appropriate details to ensure more comfortable and healthy spaces, and to develop the morphology of new building types.

3. Appropriate construction technologies.Imported First World technologies rarely recognise the demands of

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context and resources. Appropriate technologies harmonise with the environment and not only use indigenous and locally available materials, but also local and sometimes traditional forms of building.

OBJECTIVES• To develop construction details compatible with the local climate,

skills and materials.

• To investigate building types and morphologies suited to local climatic, cultural and socio-economic needs.

• To explore the historical development of architecture in Africa.

• To constantly monitor global and regional developments for application in Southern Africa.

• To research architectural education, and research and design methods.

• To investigate new patterns of neighbourhood planning.

PRODUCTS OR SERVICES1. Development of strategies and concepts for community service

projects in a consulting capacity.

2. Evaluation of buildings to determine existing state and for settling disputes.

CONTACT DETAILS OF NICHE AREA LEADERProfessor G Steyn

Telephone: +2712 382 5719

E-mail: steyngs@tut.ac.za

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FACulTy OF HumANITIESAssessment for Learning

FOCUSThe focus of this Research Niche Area (RNA) is to develop strategies, systems and policies to enhance the use of assessment for learning in schools and universities, with a specific focus on poor and marginalised learners. This includes:

• Implementation of the Assessment for Learning approach to improve teacher/lecturer competencies in the classroom and enhance feedback provided to learners for improving learning, especially for poor and marginalised learners.

• Implementation of a pre- and in-service Teacher Professional Development programme.

• Developing relevant learning and teaching materials and resources for teachers, lecturers and education officials to effectively use assessment for improving classroom practice.

• Development of a national framework for reporting, disseminating and the utilisation of results from large-scale assessment surveys.

• Development of relevant ICT systems for supporting teachers, school leaders, parents and education department officials to access and using assessment information to improve learning and teaching.

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OBJECTIVESThe objectives of this RNA are to:

a. Enhance the effective use of assessment for improving learning and teaching, with a specific focus on the poor and marginalised. This will be done by:

• Understanding the different models regarding the development and implementation of an integrated education assessment system.

• Reviewing current policy and its impact on practices of teachers and education officials.

• Interrogating the relationship between assessment and accountability, and its implications for the Department of Education’s Action Plan 2014 and Vision 2025.

• Developing a national framework to report and disseminate assessment results for use by teachers, parents and department officials to identify and address specific learning needs of learners, especially the poor and marginalised.

• Establishing models for delivering pre-service and in-service capacity development programmes to teachers and education department officials, undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

• Developing relevant learning and teaching materials for use in addressing the learning needs of learners, teachers, lecturers, parents and education officials. This includes training manuals and videos, research reports, journal articles, book chapters and books.

b. Contribute to the development of the next generation of academics and scholars. This will be achieved by:

• Creating opportunities for postgraduate students and university staff to undertake research in this area.

• Developing relevant infrastructure for academic sabbaticals and research fellowships, targeting key policy makers, leaders in the NGO sector as well as national and international scholars.

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• Publishing journal articles, book chapter and books to contribute to current debates in the sector.

• Establishing communities of practice in the area of educational assessment, comprising local, regional and international scholars to share ideas and experience by engaging in evidence based policy dialogue fora, joint research projects, co-supervision of postgraduate students, co-authoring of peer-reviewed publications, and supporting capacity development programmes for University staff and project participants.

c. Enhance the use of ICT to support effective assessment practices. This will be done by:

• Improving available software provided to schools for data entry and analysis of examinations and other assessment data.

• Developing a teacher professional development system for providing targeted, on-demand support for teachers through online and mobile delivery platforms.

• Supporting the Department of Basic Education to improve its computerised classroom assessment system to enable easy access for teachers, especially those located in poor and rural areas.

PRODUCTS OR SERVICES• Technical support and capacity development,

• Publications for teachers, education officials and parents, and

• Software programs for schools.

CONTACT DETAILS OF NICHE AREA LEADERProfessor A Kanjee

Telephone: +2712 382 9382/9338

Email: kanjeea@tut.ac.za

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FACulTy OF THE ARTSCritical Studies in Visual Art

FOCUS

A start-up niche area

The focus of this start-up niche area is on the viewer and her / his interaction with visual culture artefacts and related processes. Our research paradigm draws on critical discourse, and critical visual discourse analyses. Our research activities take place in the areas of visual communication, fine arts, fashion and textiles and applied design. The aims of this niche area are to establish the Arts Faculty as a unit for critical studies that will contribute to the academic discourse associated with visual culture artefacts and their related processes; to study the socio-cultural impact of the aforementioned through applied research and critical analysis; and promote a better understanding of the role of art and design in cultural, heritage, product development and human rights areas. There are three objectives, namely to foster closer co-operation between the research philosophies of the three departments; to nurture interdepartmental co-authorship of scientific papers and conference presentations; and to increase the output of accredited journal articles. The niche area is built around the strengths in the Visual Communication, the Fine and Applied Arts and the Fashion Design Departments within the Arts Faculty. In Visual Communication, we focus on misleading visual

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communication, and in particular, how marketers use text, pictures, graphics, ambiguous information and other variables to mislead consumers. The Department of Fine and Applied Arts uses theoretical frameworks such as post-colonialism, feminism, post-structuralism, critical theory and other means of critical engagement to investigate and interpret visual cultural artefacts and images, including craft, design, and fine art from a contemporary practice-based perspective. Such analyses can be situated in broader socio-cultural, socio-political, and human rights contexts.

Some of our recent doctoral students are:

Arianna van Heerden’s doctoral work, The flow brain state of painting and drawing artists, investigated whether there was an association between art making and the brain state known as flow. Over a period of time she interviewed, observed and performed electroencephalographs (EEG’s) on five participating artists in real-time in their natural environments. Her main finding was that the brain state, called flow, may be a significant driver of the art making experience, thus creativity. In positive psychology, flow, also known as being in the zone, is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energised focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterised by complete absorption in what one does. The study may serve as an example of the complimentary nature of combining art practice, psychology and neuroscience in studies on art making.

Waldemar Bussiahn, a senior lecturer at the Department of Visual Communication (Photography), looked at Colour landscape photographs as tools for wellness creation in health-care providers in a psychiatric environment. His research indicated colour landscape photographs to have the following positive results: enhanced staff involvement; greater co-worker cohesion; clarity with regard to the staff members’ daily routine; a more innovative approach to their work; a heightened experience of the lived work environment; a boosted general sense of friendliness; and a much more vigorous approach to their work. http://www.tut.ac.za/News/Pages/TUTArtsstaffshinesatgraduations.aspx

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A selection of recent publications:

De Lange, R.W. 2016. Misleading advertising: A case study of a marketer’s “prescribed by doctors” slogan. Critical Arts. 30(2) 187-199.

Du Toit, F. 2014. Interpreting images from South African family photographic collections of the Anglo Boer War period 1899 to 1902. South African Journal of Art History, 29(1): 27-38.

Kruger, R. 2014. City Walls to city streets: utopias of dissent. South African Journal of Art History, 29(1):119-137.

Malherbe, D. & Stevens, I. 2016. Arcadia, the landscape and the pool: reflections on selected South African paintings. South African Journal of Art History.

Sidogi P, 2015, Domesticity in select artworks representing the township experience, South African Journal of Art History, 30(3): 123-134.

Stevens, I. & van der Merwe, J. 2015. Anima and identity in artist and subject: installation artist Jan van der Merwe and painter Kevin Roberts, SA Journal of Art History, 30(1): 158-170.

Van Staden S. 2014. Review of “Creative Subversions: Whiteness, Indigeneity, and the National Imaginary,” by Margot Francis. The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, 44(4), 258-261.

CONTACT DETAILS OF NICHE AREA LEADERAssociate Professor R de Lange

Telephone: +2712 382 6185

Email: DeLangeRW@tut.ac.za

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FACulTy OF ENgINEERINg AND THE BuIlT ENVIRONmENTControl, Image Processing and Machine Intelligence

FOCUSThis niche area covers several domains related to modelling and control. In these domains, many tools are necessary to deal with the management of systems. These systems may be electrical, mechanical and all sorts of physical systems. Tools needed are both hardware and software. Basis mathematical tools are in the field of modelling and optimisation as well as others such as signal and processing and intelligent systems. The projects that are developed within this niche area may be classified under the following:

• Enabled environment and assistance to handicap• Wheelchair driving simulation platform• Exoskeletons• Image processing and smoothing• Maintenance of medical equipment• Water treatment and distribution networks

1. Enabled environment and assistance to handicapThe notion of assistance technology for handicapped persons is a world

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challenge. It is related to the development of devices integrating sensors and actuators to help persons in handicap situations. The objective is to serve as the aid for the evaluation of deficiencies, the aid to the re-education and the compensation using technical means for mobility. This mobility is essential for the proper insertion within the society of persons with physical disabilities.

The benefits of this assistance technology domain include training of students and social innovation. It is also an element for diffusion to other participants or countries confronted with the same needs. Some postgraduate students have already started their work in this domain. The platform will serve as a basis of more students at both master’s and doctorate levels. This will lead to peer-reviewed publications in conferences and international journals.

This research area involves participants from various domains, e.g. electrical engineering, electronic engineering, control, mechatronics and mechanical engineering, information and communication technology, and architects. It also necessitates collaboration with professionals in the health sciences (physiotherapists, medical doctors, etc.). Research in this domain has led to the attribution to TUT of a SARCHI research chair by the NRF.

2. Wheelchair driving simulation platformThis project concerns the study of a platform for the simulation and evaluation of main driving tasks of handicapped persons. It is mainly oriented towards the driving of electrical wheelchairs and cars. The access to the mobility is essential for the autonomy of persons from the social and psychological point of view. However, this access necessitated the capacity of coping with the various constraints related to the aptitudes and needs of each person. This goes from the definition of the driving aids to the training phase. The objective of this project is to elaborate on the methodology based on robotised simulators integrating virtual reality to place persons in a situation close to everyday operation.

The methodology proposed includes the following steps: analysis, design of the adapted assistance and the evaluation of the wheelchair driving

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i.e. to evaluate the needs by estimating aptitudes of the person. Following these steps, in partnership with the specialised therapist, is a complex task in today’s situation.

3. ExoskeletonsWheelchairs are today the preferred means for providing mobility for physically handicapped persons. In many cases, however, this is not sufficient. Although, a person may move from one place to another, upon arrival, he will need to either transfer to another place (such as a bed) or to get to a standing position to interact with his environment.

The wheelchair is also not the most convenient way for moving from one place to another. A more convenient way is to give the real movements such as lower limbs prosthesis or exoskeletons. Other exoskeletons concern assisting arm movements.

In this work, we concentrate on several aspects, namely

• Develop a leg exoskeleton, which includes the development of the mechanical system as well as the control of such a system.

• Create a gait model to control the movements as close as possible to that of the human displacement.

• Develop a device that assists a person in a wheelchair to get to a standing position.

4 Image processingIn the past few years, mesh representation of images has attracted a lot of research interest due to its wide area of applications in image processing. Mesh representation showed encouraging results for image segmentation, reconstruction and compression. It was demonstrated, for example, that a graph-based approach may perform better than the widespread JPEG 2000 standard in compressing images.

In the mesh framework, an image is represented by a planar graph embedded in a 2D Euclidian space in which the nodes represent the pixels and the edges reflect the connectivity. The image gray levels define labels for the vertices.

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This work revisits the Laplacian mesh smoothing, a technique for fairing surfaces, almost exclusively applied to 3D images. In the Laplacian mesh smoothing approach, energy is defined for a surface and the smoothing aims to minimise it. Using the reformulation of the method in and the strong properties of the sparse representation, we show that the Laplacian mesh smoothing may be applied with success to 2D images.

The second application is based on the idea that while the sampling points in an image are distributed uniformly, the information in an image does not follow a uniform distribution. Some regions are of equal intensity and require very few points, while edges and texture would benefit from having a greater number of points. This approach is also used for the development of image compression techniques.

5. Maintenance of medical equipmentThis project addresses the medical equipment maintenance problem from a different perspective and uses mathematical modelling to optimise maintenance strategy of medical equipment. Mathematical models are much more flexible than empirical approaches (RCM, CBM) and can incorporate a wide variety of assumptions and constraints and the great advantage of the mathematical approach is that the outcomes can be optimised and maximum reliability or minimal cost can be achieved.

In this work, a global model is proposed to measure the probability of equipment being available using real data extracted from maintenance history of selected medical equipment such as infusion pumps, ventilators and anaesthesia machines. The survival analysis approach is used to develop a model that measures the survival of equipment as a function of maintenance and age of equipment. The model is analysed using both real and simulated data and the findings confirm the validity of the proposed model.

The analysis using survival approach reveals that conducting preventive maintenance on the selected medical equipment has a significant impact on survival of equipment and has reduced failure rate. This will contribute to the debate on preventive maintenance manufacturer’s recommended

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intervals and might lead to the revision of maintenance strategies implemented by hospitals and clinical engineering practitioners. Based on the above survival model, two approaches are proposed to solve maintenance scheduling problem. Firstly, maintenance scenarios are proposed and analysed, giving a cost-effective analysis of the problem. Secondly, a mixed integer programming model is developed. This model is then solved using CPLEX and compared with a Greedy Algorithm solution. The analysis shows that the Greedy Algorithm gives the same solution as the one by MILP.

6. Water treatment and distribution networksA very important part of water treatment plant is the coagulation process. It is necessary to run this process optimally to get the water to respect the quality necessary for the drinking water and at the same time minimising the usage of the coagulants. In this work, the modelling and control of the process is considered.

This project has started lately and the main objective is to assist municipalities in improving the operational conditions and the planning in water distribution systems. The project runs in collaboration with the CSIR and may be divided in the following sub-projects.

• Leakage detection in water distribution networks

• Pressure control in water distribution networks

• State estimation in water distribution networks

• Parameter estimation in water distribution networks

• Demand estimation in water distribution networks

CONTACT DETAILS OF NICHE AREA LEADERProfessor Y Hamam

Telephone: +2712 382 5356

Email: hamama@tut.ac.za

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FACulTy OF INFORmATION AND COmmuNICATION TECHNOlOgyInformation and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D)

FOCUSThe focus is knowledge generation and technological innovation in employing the science and technology of computing to address sectorial socio-economic developmental challenges nationally (South Africa) and regionally (Africa), balancing local action with global thinking. The resulting technological innovations are software artefacts such as electronic, e.g. e-Agriculture, e-Health, e-Education, e-Governance, e-Communication, and the developmental challenges, including food security, efficient services delivery in healthcare, education, governance, communication, etc. The Research and Innovation (R & I) activities cover basic and applied research, through to innovation and commercialisation activities, ensuring appropriateness and relevance of research results to the socio-economic context of their use.

OBJECTIVES• To provide research-based, ICT-enabled solutions in response to

national and regional socio-economic challenges;

• To provide an incubator for postgraduate study in clearly defined

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Computing Science and Technology (CST) areas of strength, contributing to producing well rounded postgraduates who are attuned to the needs of the economy;

• To contribute to R & I capacity development with staff qualification improvement in the field of CST;

• To provide a platform for national and international strategic partnership for advancement of knowledge and human capital development in the field of CST, and partnering communities in ICT-enabled sustainable development;

• To provide a platform for attracting R & I financial and human resources that address the R & I resource capacity deficit in the ICT faculty; and

• To strive towards establishing a sustainable Centre of Excellence in ICT4D.

PRODUCTS OR SERVICES• Formal specification e-tools for proving software correctness and

reliability;

• e-Decision Support Systems for students’ academic decision making;

• e-Health system interoperability middleware innovation;

• Ontological framework with Ontology management software tool for Systems of Innovation;

• e-Pedagogical tool and technique for CST Education;

• e-Agriculture Cloud Computing Software innovation artefact;

• Software and hardware innovation artefacts for enhancing social networks security;

• Virtual Reality enabled e-safety technology innovation;

• Cloud-enabled e-Agriculture software innovation tools for Farm Management;

• Data Science and Business intelligence educational decision-making software innovation;

• Rural e-health and Telemedicine services delivery software innovation;

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• Computational thinking skills acquisition courseware;

• Indigenous computing systems;

• Innovations in immersive environment technologies; and

• ICT human capital and knowledge advancement products.

CONTACT DETAILS OF NICHE AREA LEADERProfessor S O Ojo

Telephone: +2712 382 9118/9689

Email: ojoso@tut.ac.za

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FACulTy OF THE ARTSReconstruction of the Past and Crafting a New Multicultural South African Landscape through the Arts

FOCUSThe focus is on bringing together researchers and supervisors in the disciplines of Dance, Music, Theatre and Technology to reconstruct the past and crafting a new multicultural South Africa.

The field of inquiry is delimited to the following interdependent and interrelated topics:

1. Dance, Popular Culture and National Memory in the Townships of the New South Africa

Ever since the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment, scholars and politicians alike operating within the field of humanities have recognised the fundamental connection between popular performance culture, memory and the nation.

Therefore, the proposed project falls within the broad subject of performance culture and the construction of identities in contemporary South Africa. The project follows in the footsteps of a similar field based research I recently concluded focusing on the representations of

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dominant masculinities and the female subaltern at selected historical monuments and national heritage sites in South Africa.

However, unlike the previous research, the proposed project focuses on popular traditional dance culture in the townships of contemporary South Africa. It approaches traditional township dance culture as lived performance which can be read as a repository of national memory. The research intends to investigate the extent to which popular traditional dance culture in the townships of South Africa has continued to serve as a reminder of the people’s indigenous cultural performance traditions even as it has metamorphosed over the years spanning the country’s troubled years of apartheid right

up to the present. I also intend to analyse the extent to which this popular traditional dance culture has been appropriated in order to speak to the social aspirations and aesthetics of the new South Africa, post-apartheid. I therefore analyse manifestations of national memory in traditional South African dance as popular culture.

I intend to use the ethnography of performance, personal interviews and direct observation of the work of popular traditional dance troupes in selected townships in South Africa.

2. Umhlanga Reed Dance: A Comparative Analysis of the Zulu and Swaziland Festivals

For the past few years, I have concentrated effort on doing research within the rich cultural terrain of Swaziland, one of the countries in Southern Africa (SADC region). In consideration of the cultural richness of Swaziland and its proximity to South Africa and connection with the Zulu tradition, I have placed emphasis on two practices – Incwala and the Umhlanga. My research on the Incwala ritual celebration ended in 2011 and I managed to publish my findings in an accredited journal – (“Swazi Incwala: The Performative and Radical Poetics in a Ritual Practice.” South African Theatre Journal, Vol. 25, N0. 2, 2011: 89-100).

As NRF Rated Researcher, my “Ongoing and Planned Future Research,” a sort of contract I have signed with the National Research Foundation is to centre-stage the use of African traditions and cultural practices to boost theatre/drama productions in South Africa. Emphasis in this area of

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research is premised on the fact that the apartheid government neglected the traditions of the natives and promoted eurocentric kind of education and research. Theatre departments benchmarked and modelled their practices on what obtained outside of the African continent. With the end of apartheid, universities are viewed as key instruments in the agenda of change and transformation. Hence, my resolve to pursue a research career in this sphere of endeavour.

Umhlanga Reed dance is an annual celebration and age-old tradition observed in both Swaziland and South Africa. As a researcher, I am compelled to compare the modus operandi of the festivals in the two countries. The major aim is to find out how the ingredients from this festival could be incorporated in modern day theatrical performances. Also, the research shall foreground the activities of the royalties during the festivals in line with contemporary world view in relation to male-female relationship (Liphovela). In 2015, the Swaziland Umhlanga will start on 27 August until 2 September (see attachment). I request the Faculty of the Arts niche area to fund this research initiative as it forms a major part of its mandate.

3. Deficient Vocabulary in Earlier Writings on Indigenous African Musical Practices

Contemporary studies have revealed a plethora of distortions and misrepresentations in the meanings, functions and performance contexts of some of the South African indigenous cultural practices. This is evident in research that was done primarily by western missionaries as well as the ethnographers that came with and after them mainly to conduct research on the history, cultures and traditions of the indigenous communities of South Africa. It occurred on a large scale around the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This project has confined its focus on the indigenous cultural practices of Vhavenda communities around the Vhembe district of the Limpopo province in South Africa. The aim of the study is to contest the distortions and misrepresentations on the indigenous cultural practices of indigenous African language groups of the Limpopo province in South Africa. It does so by interrogating a number of the nomenclature and clichés that arose out of the literature

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from this missionary and ethnographic enterprise. The primary objective is to redress the resultant perceptions and the stereotyped phrases or statements that were borne out of the ignorance that prevailed during this missionary and ethnographic enterprise, and to reposition the facts.

The study is not aimed at undermining the efforts of the earlier writers, but to positively critic their writings in order to redress the resultant negative perceptions their writings have undoubtedly created about the so-called music of the “others”. The primary objective is to redress the ignorance that prevailed during this missionary and ethnographic enterprise and the resultant perceptions and the stereotyped phrases or statements that were borne out of this, and to reposition the facts for the benefit of scholarship.

The study is conducted through collecting and documenting data of the indigenous musical practices of Vhavenda and comparing notes from the various available sources, previous literature, our findings from participatory observations and the open-ended (sometimes convergent) interviews and discussions.

OBJECTIVES• To improve our arts, culture and heritage through technology.

• To enhance the role of creative industries in engendering social cohesion, enhancing nation building and contributing to economic growth and development.

• To reconstruct our past and craft our new multicultural South African landscape through the arts for social cohesion methods.

PRODUCTS OR SERVICES• All areas of the performing arts endemic (prevalent) in the

communities around South Africa will be collected, documented, published and promoted.

• Postgraduate students in the niche area and the members of the broader community will be empowered in knowledge and practice of the performing arts through the creation of accessibility to this heritage and

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• Dialogue will continuously be encouraged in order to generate continuous research.

CONTACT DETAILS OF NICHE AREA LEADERProfessor G Mugovhani

Telephone: +2712 382 6600

E-mail: mugovhaning@tut.ac.za

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FACulTy OF ENgINEERINg AND THE BuIlT ENVIRONmENTApplied Refrigeration and Thermal Energy Systems

Focus

This research niche area, featured by thermal energy which is the core part in the entire energy sector in terms of energy sources, energy conversion, energy transport, energy storage, energy utilisation, and climate impact, focuses on the development and application of energy efficiency technologies on refrigeration, heat pump, and thermal power systems.

The applications of technologies under the niche area in domestic, commercial, and industrial sectors include heating ventilation and air-conditioning (space heating and cooling, HVAC) and indoor air quality, water heating, cold chain (commercial refrigeration), biomaterial drying, industrial energy transport, and thermal power generation. The energy sources involved in the focus area include the non-renewable energy sources (fossil fuel) and renewable energy sources (air source energy, geothermal energy, and solar thermal energy).

This niche area strives to provide postgraduate education, training, research and development focusing on the energy efficiency of refrigeration (including heat pump) and thermal energy systems. It

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therefore operates on the basis of postgraduate student projects, which are completed in partial or complete fulfilment of the requirements for a particular postgraduate degree. These projects are structured on a competency-based approach and promote excellence in accordance with the mission of the Tshwane University of Technology.

The goal of the niche area is to establish a national research centre at Tshwane University of Technology on the modern refrigeration, heat pump, air-conditioning, cold chain, and building energy technologies. The strategy is to obtain the goals of improved quality of life and wealth creation through current and future research and development, building human capital, technical progress and business performance.

The proposed niche area will embark on a community outreach programme where the relevant technologies will be used to ensure the food security and safety, higher energy efficiency of the refrigeration and heat pump systems, and the environmental protection.

Products and services

1. Refrigeration systems and equipment (Cold Chain)• Cold chain monitoring and management

• Energy saving technologies

• Cooling and freezing, cold storage, refrigerated transport, and refrigerated display

• Composite materials

• Renewable energy powered refrigeration systems

2. Heat pump systems (space cooling and heating, water heating, and biomaterials drying)• Heat pump space cooling and heating

• Water heating for domestic and industrial applications

• Biomaterials drying (foods, fruits, vegetables, woods, etc.)

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• Solar thermal, air energy and geothermal energy powered heat pump systems

• Process control

3. Environmentally and climate friendly alternative refrigerants with zero ozone depletion and global warming potentials• Hydrocarbons (HCs)

• Carbon Dioxide (CO2)

4. Energy efficiency of power plant• Thermal cycle innovation

• Combustion

• Economiser

• Piping system

• Turbine

• Cooling system

• Waste heat recovery

• Geothermal power systems

5. Industrial thermal energy systems• Design and analysis of industrial thermal energy systems

• Optimisation of thermal energy systems

• Waste heat recovery

• Recovery and uplift of lower grade energy

• Process control of thermal energy systems

6. Building energy and indoor air quality• Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC)• Indoor air quality

• Water heating (solar thermal, heat pump, and instantaneous water heating)

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• Building insulation

• Geothermal

• Process control

CONTACT DETAILS OF NICHE AREA LEADERProfessor Z Huan

Telephone: +2712 382 5286

E-mail: huanz@tut.ac.za

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Directorate: Research and Innovation

Tshwane University of TechnologyB20-131, Pretoria Campus, Staatsartillerie Road

Private bag X680, Pretoria, 0001Tel: +27 12 382 5890Fax: +27 12 382 4409