2011—A Year Since the World Cup!

June 2011 Volume 5, Issue 2

Informatics.doc Newsletter from the Department of Informatics

Special points of

interest:

Graduations

Sumarie Roodt

visits Harvard

Our latest interna-

tional visitor

JSE Bursaries for

Informatics

Under-graduates

April and September are the two graduation periods at the University of Pretoria. There are several different ceremonies during the-se periods for the various Faculties. The Department of Informatics participate in two graduations. The first falls under the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences and that is where our B Com (Informatics) and B Com Hons (Informatics) are awarded their degrees. The second is an Engineer-ing, Built Environment and IT occasion as the School of IT belongs to the EBIT faculty. MIT degrees and most of our doctorates are awarded at this ceremony. Over the past two years, while building con-struction is in process around The Aula, graduations have been held at the University of Pretoria Sports Arena in The Rembrandt Hall and the Autumn graduations all took place there between 4 and 19 April this year. The staff members from Informatics would like to congratulate the following students who graduated this year. We know that it

Informatics Graduates

has not all been “plain sailing” and that at times many of you have felt disheartened, exhausted and even rather bored. Various temptations which would have meant spend-ing time on family, fun, or financial gain have had to be ignored, Despite distractions you persisted and have achieved what you set out to achieve. We also want to thank those who supported you emotionally and financially. Our graduates are (The supervisors of the following students are given in brackets): PHD(IT) Geldenhuys Ilse (Carina de Villiers and Trish Alexander) MCOM (INFORMATICS) Heydenrych Philip Louis (Jaco Pretorius) Mulder Susan (Pieter Joubert) Visagie Sonja (Carina de Villiers)

Informatics

Graduates

2011

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Bester Izak Boucher Wihann Ryno Chanakira Lynden Takunda * Chapman Ryan Scott Dabrowski Xavier Adam Czeslaw De Braak Dominik René Dem Precious Tandie Denga Mbavhalelo Millicent Erasmus Marthinus Lourens Fourie Daryll Rudy Gahiza Pumla Donise Gomes Ricardo Jose Souza * Henning Madeleine Ismail Yasmin Kankinza Ken Kabongu Kelatwang Aria Mmaphefo Kennedy Mary-Anne Kgotsane Karabo Jackie Kocheapen Cherian Edathil Kraak Matthew Thomas Kruger Marike Leik Daming Lekutu Kagiso Letsoalo Palesa Makgomo Mbali Leung Mei Kin Lourens Andre Frederick Maake Deborah Mmabatho Makgamatha Rode Rhoda Malebye Thato Mamogobo Tshidi Lekubu Masangu Charlotte Thembi Mbethe Zandile Zanele Mkhonza Norman Saul Mogapi Gaopalelwe Monageng Gamongwe Titus Munyi Ester Jessica Wanjiru Nevondo Rendani Shadrack Ngomane Reabetswe Khanyisile Agnes Pauchcowrie Theodore Raboshakga Solomon Katlego Scholtz Morné Hein Sekwaila Letlhogonolo Matlhatlego Serufusa Sarah Gaita Sibiya Mpho * Steyn Barend Sebastiaan Strydom Chantel Todd Kelso Richard Tohlang Keke Tucker Jon Jeffrey Umukoro Aakparobo Victory * Van den Berg Heino Van Heerden Walt Van Niekerk Johannes Hendrik Vincent Jonathan Brian An asterisk alongside the name indicates that the degree was awarded with distinc-tion.

MIT Coetzee Cornelius Johannes Stephanus (Ian Strydom) de Agrela Tania Nativedade (Carina de Villiers) de Beer Mathys Jacobus (Trish Alexander) *Esterhuysen Carel Hendrik ( Neels Kruger) Lebotsa Maputle Abel (Trish Alexander) Lekota Faith Ruth Hilda (Henk Pretorius) Lo Li-Ting (Trish Alexander) MacPherson Ezra Paul

(Machdel Matthee) Makwabe Siyasanga (Trish Alexander) Mello Vincent Malesela (Neels Kruger) Mphatsoe Modisana Christopher (Johan van Loggerenberg) Mqoboli Ndibulele Clifford (Carina de Villiers) Msimanga Lerato Eunice (Awie Leonard) Mwapwele Samwel Dick (Kirstin Krauss) Nemanashi Mulalo Evelyne (Henk Pretorius) Phalatse Boitshoko Dorothy (Awie Leonard) Rambau Nkhangweni Lawrence (Hossana Twinomurinzi)

Graduates (continued)

Schwartz Anthony Marcel (Trish Alexander) Tandwe Lester (Carina de Villiers) BCom Informatics * Allen Judith Catherine Baker David Michael Bhana Ritesh K Borman Elaine Coetzee Johannes Hendrik Cooper Duane Curry Dean De Swardt Gaulaumi Jacobus Dlamini Ntando Samkethi Ebrahim Zubair Ismail Essa Farhaz Karima Simbiso Kwashirai Khuduge Thapelo Kroukamp Stephanus Andries Lemmer Marlou Loots Jacobus Matau Letjeke Princecharles Phoofolo Clement Majakathata Radia Sanjana * Reyneke Jeanine * Ricketts Nathan Timothy Srikissoon Tashveer Swanepoel Renier Swanepoel Willem Frederik Vilakazi Mlungisi Bongani Voigt Thanél Welthagen Christiaan Frederick HONOURS BCOM(INFORMATICS) Al Arjani Hasan Mesfer Falah Baloyi Jeffrey Vongani

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We were very happy to welcome an old friend, Ojelanki Ngwenyama, as a visitor to the department during April. We kept Ojelanki very busy - he presented a series of lectures to the M Com students and our staff:

Designing Quantitative Research

Qualitative Research Practice 1:

Principles of Deductive Data Analysis

Fundamental Principles For Developing Your Thesis:

Developing Systematic Argumentation for Knowledge Claims

He also had a series of personal meetings with Ph D stu-dents and their supervisors, some of which were over lunch! Despite the heavy schedule we also managed to fit in some purely social time with him in the evenings. Professor Ojelanki Ngwenjama is Professor of Ted Rog-ers School of Information Technology Management at Ryerson University and Director of the Institute for Re-search on Technology Management and Organizational Learning. He has been a friend of the Department of In-formatics and a frequent visitor since the mid 1990s hav-ing met Prof Dewald Roode at IFIP 8.2 (International Federation for Information Processing, Working Group 8.2 - Organization and Societal Implications of Infor-mation Systems) conferences which he has been attend-ing since 1986. As reported in a previous newsletter, Ojelanki received an Honorary Doctorate from the Univer-sity of Pretoria in 2009. For the past two years he has spent several months each year at the University of Cape Town presenting courses in

Prof Ojelanki Ngwenyama Visits

Informatics

Research Methodology to their senior students and ad-vising Ph D candidates and this has meant that he could easily visit us for a few days as well. According to the AIS web site rankings of eminent IS re-searchers and academics, Ojelanki is ranked 33 for his publications over the last 5 years and 91st over the past twenty years. This ranking is calculated using the number of times he has been published in the top IS journals, namely, MISQ, ISR, JMIS, JAIS, EJIS, ISJ. He also has thirty-six papers listed in the ISI Web of Knowledge, the most well-known and oft cited of which is: Ngwenyama, OK, Lee, AS 1997Communication richness in electronic mail: Critical social theory and the contextual-ity of meaning. MIS QUARTERLY 21 (2):145-167 We note with interest another paper which he co-authored with Helana Scheepers and her husband, Rens. Helana was a lecturer in the Dept of Informatics before emigrating to Australia. She is now an Associate Professor at Swin-burne University of Technology in Melbourne. Her hus-band has a Chair in Information Systems at Deakin Uni-versity. Rens Scheepers, Helana Scheepers, Ojelanki Ngwenya-ma 2006. Contextual influences on user satisfaction with mobile computing: findings from two healthcare organiza-tions. European Journal of Information Systems (15)

We trust that Ojelanki will continue to visit South Africa and the Department of Informatics regularly.

Ojelanki

Ngwenyama

talks with the

M Com class

about

research

method-

ologies

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Understanding 21st Century Stu-dents By Sumarie Roodt When standing in front of a class of under-graduate students, it can be rather overwhelming as today’s learners have vastly different learning preferences. These stu-dents want learning environments that are active, social and learner-centred. Leading-edge research is taking place at the Mind, Brain and Education institute at Har-vard’s Graduate School of Educa-tion, where researchers are study-ing this phenomenon. They are running a course called Connect-ing the Mind, Brain and Educa-tion where the institute will help practitioners to apply current re-search to challenges in their own teaching, research and curriculum development. I expect to gain a firm understanding of the links between cognitive science, neuro-science and educational practice.

This will help me better understand how I can create an optimal learn-ing environment for my students. The course runs from June 20th until June 24th 2011 at the GSE’s campus in Cambridge, Massachu-setts, USA. There is also a sub-stantial volume of pre-course work that has been assigned to the par-ticipants. During the week of June 27, I will be spending time with researchers from both Harvard and MIT discussing our research inter-ests and endeavours. I am fortunate to have a very sup-portive Head of Department, as well as a Dean of the Faculty of EBIT, who between the two of them managed to secure funding for me. The process did not hap-pen overnight though, with initial discussions starting over a year ago – just goes to prove that per-sistence does pay off!

Off to Harvard JSE Bursaries

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange is a very generous supporter of undergraduate students in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. This year 37 stu-dents received bursaries, and three of the-se are planning to major in Informatics. They are: Mr Thapelo Khuduge Ms Siphiwe Mahlangu Ms Lerato Khumisi Ms Nikki Groenewald, Academic Coordina-tor from the Dean’s office needs to be thanked for the role she has played in identifying top students. Neo Mndebele, a Senior Human Resource Officer from the JSE, in charge of the JEF (JSE Education Fund) attended a recep-tion at the university and addressed and congratulated the students who received bursaries. The Department of Informatics would like to thanks the JSE for their support to our students.

JSE Bursary recipients with Nikki Groenewald (centre front) and Neo

Mndebele from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (far right)