News
Protection of South Africa’s most important water source areas is critical for a water-safe future and the reason why the CSIR and partners embarked on a research project supported by the South African Water Research Commission (WRC). In October, CSIR experts met with their private sector counterparts, as well as senior planners and policy makers within government departments, to finalise the delineation of South Africa’s national strategic surface and groundwater source areas.
A numerical model has proven successful in predicting rock mass response when mining the shaft pillars in mines. This will contribute to safer mining by enabling mining companies to avoid seismic events induced by this mining activity.
The model simulates the bore-and-fill operations calibrated against underground data to replicate the damage and observations around a selected sequence of holes.
The CSIR has completed research into making mining gear, in particular, self-contained self-rescuers, more suitable for the female form. The Mine Health and Safety Council awarded a contract to the CSIR to assess the ergonomic design of the current devices and make recommendations that will improve them.
The CSIR and Uber have signed a collaboration agreement to share expertise on the use of Uber transactional data and city transport models to help cities to plan better, including the effective evaluation of where transport infrastructure investments are most needed. South Africa has a transport-intensive economy and requires infrastructure and services that need to serve a dynamic population that include many people who are still being excluded from optimal participation in the economy due to transport barriers.
The CSIR website made its mark at the SA Publications Forum Awards by taking the 2nd runner-up spot in the Best Corporate Website category, while the careers edition of the ScienceScope was a finalist in the Best Design and Best External Magazine category. The ScienceScope also received certificates of excellence in design and communication.
SANReN herewith requests competitive proposals from South African universities to obtain the SANReN grant programme that is designed to financially assist post-graduate students performing research in the fields of computer network security. This grant programme is aimed at developing advanced research capacity and a pipeline of computer science/engineering graduates, skilled and knowledgeable in these areas.
CSIR Biophotonics research group leader, Dr Patience Mthunzi-Kufa was one of 20 young scientists selected and invited by the Department of Science and Technology to represent South Africa at the 2nd Annual BRICS Young Scientist Forum in China, Zhejiang University.