Author Archives: Lauren Kansley

About Lauren Kansley

Lauren is a Communication Officer in the Marketing and Communication Department. She writes stories about general news and the faculties of Health and Wellness Sciences and Informatics and Design. Tel: +27 21 953 8646 Email: kansleyl@cput.ac.za

Paper dress wins big at JnB met

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From a single paper flower, an impressive win at the most prestigious fashion event of the country bloomed.

Former Architectural Design student Hermien Greef constructed a dress made entirely of paper and snatched the first place in the Most Elegant Couple prize at the JnB Met this year.

Hermien says her love of origami started after she bought a paper flower from a craft shop then deconstructed it to see how it was folded. After that the paper folding bug bit and she now creates customised wedding décor and is setting up a family business called Plank Create.

Hermien’s design, a three tiered pleated dress with elaborate flower detail, took approximately three weeks to make and was modelled by her former CPUT classmates Jehan Bhikoo and Jochen Smidt von Wuhlisch.

BTech Fashion Student Thabo Mondreki‘s denim focussed designs also featured in the Most Elegant Couple competition when he won automatic entry to the segment after winning first place in a competition hosted by organisers at Cavendish Square prior to the event.

New appointments

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The finance structures of the institution have been given a vital boost thanks to two recent Director level appointments. Gregory Otieno takes over the Procurement reigns while Vincent Jones will be the first Director of Internal Auditing appointed at CPUT.

The recent protest action and the impact of a 0% fee increase in 2016 will see all departments tightening their belts making both their portfolios even more critical to the smooth financial management of the institution.

Otieno says he is excited to join the higher education sector since the bulk of his experience to date has been in corporate procurement fine tuning his expertise in logistics, supply chain and operation management.

“Having worked within the private business environment I longed for an opportunity to expand my experience within the public space and CPUT offered that opportunity. My impression of CPUT as an institution is that it comprises a society of great minds and people,” he says.

Far from being a number cruncher working behind the scenes Jones will be an integral advisor to the Vice-Chancellor on all issues of potential financial risk to the institution.

He brings 12 years of internal audit, risk evaluation and governance and forensic investigation skills to his new position and joins CPUT directly from National Department of Trade and Industry where he spent seven years in a Director position.

“Since the university never had an in-house Internal Auditor, I am looking forward to applying my knowledge and experience in establishing internal auditing practices and to develop a vision for a strategic internal audit process, addressing the key strategies and risks facing the institution.”

Sweet Music

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A residence choir formed to keep students away from the lure of bars and bad influences is hitting all the right notes.

The City Edge choir is not even one year old yet but performed at the most recent graduation ceremony in September and the Jakes Gerwel Commemorative lecture at UWC.

Choir Master Monde Cindi lives at the City Edge residence with his wife Vuyiswa who is the house mother. Having previously managed the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Choir for three years Monde says he was inspired to start something similar at the residence when he saw how lonely the students were and how easily influenced they were.

“The students came here but then they were too independent and yet lonely at the same time. The aim was to build a home away from home,” he says.

The Cindi’s enjoy a passionate love of music and together they decided to harness the potential of the students.

“I told them that if they ever wanted to practice singing they should just come and call me. They did and that is how we started,” says Monde.

Running the choir with a fatherly hand has seen its numbers swell to 40 and it has also attracted members from other CPUT residences in Cape Town.

First year HR student Zintle Sqanqalala says the choir has expanded her horizons.

“Before this I would not have known where the Bellville Campus is, or what the Vice-Chancellor or a graduation ceremony looks like. It has made me find my feet at CPUT much quicker,” she says.

If you are interested in inviting the choir to perform at your event then email Monde at cindim@cput.ac.za

Lifestyle and Wellness fever hots up

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The Staff Lifestyle and Wellness event is coming to a campus near you during the last week of September.

It is the same Discovery Wellness event that has traditionally been hosted at the institution but this time a variety of other vendors have been invited to showcase their wares.

This includes holistic offerings, financial and physical wellness classes and advice and a variety of discussions and workshops on things like hearing loss etc…

Training and Development Manager Shahieda Hendricks says they have worked hard to grow the event at no extra cost.

“Everyone who is showcasing at the event is doing so at no cost. We have opened the doors to the whole campus community so that it can be a more exciting experience which people want to linger at,” she says.

There will be fantastic free gifts for the first staff members to complete their basic health checks like glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol.

An invitation was sent to all inboxes but staff who have not RSVP’d are very welcome to attend regardless.

Attend at the venue closest to you anytime between 9am and 3pm.

  • Cape Town campus- Multi-purpose Hall- 28 September
  • Bellville campus- Sports Hall- 29 September
  • Mowbray campus- Staff Room- 30 September
  • Wellington campus- Gym- 1 October

New technology helps fight against cancer

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The treatment of cancer in Africa has just been given a major boost thanks to a joint venture between CPUT, the University of Cape Town and Varian medical systems.

Research shows that cancer is on the increase in developing countries and an estimated 10 000 more radiotherapy units will be needed by 2050. This will require more trained radiotherapy treatment personnel who are able to deal with the specific needs of cancer patients in Africa. To meet the anticipated demand Varian Medical Systems has developed an educational programme called Access to Care and collaborated with CPUT and UCT to teach and facilitate its inaugural Pan-African rollout.

The training programme will be hosted at Groote Schuur Hospital which is home to clinical training of UCT’s radiation oncologist and medical physicist programmes and CPUT’s radiation therapist programme respectively. In industry, graduates from these programmes work closely with each other in the integrated treatment of cancer.

At present, cancer treatment in Africa is largely done using 2D treatment methods. The installation of advanced technology will allow radiotherapy departments in Africa to move towards more radical 3D treatment methods.  The VERT system is the first installation of its kind on the continent. Using it, expert participants will be able to use the 3D images and case studies to isolate cancer treatment to the affected areas more effectively and understand complex theoretical concepts easily in a real world setting.

Working much like a flight simulator the VERT equipment gives the user a myriad of real-life scenarios like crashed equipment, complex patient case study treatment set-ups and quality assurance system checks. It provides innovative and realistic 3D imaging and even real-time sound effects. Housed in an ultra-modern training facility, radiation therapists, medical physicists and cancer specialists from across the continent will be able to access specialised training twice a year for three week sessions.

Two Segways for facilities team

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The Wellington and Bellville facilities teams are slightly more agile thanks to the addition of two Segway scooters.

The upright scooters have already been causing quite a stir when they have been spotted around the Bellville campus.

Chief Horticulturalist Douglas Curran says the Segways are a more effective way of travelling around campus quickly.

“We are trying to save on petrol costs and eventually we want to charge them using solar stations,” he says.

For insurance and safety purposes users need to do a special drivers course and be licensed to operate the machine.

 

Too fit to quit

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The Winter break was anything but restful for staff of the CPUT Fitness Club based at the Bellville campus.

The first phase of the CPUT Lifestyle and Wellness programme was launched in July and aims to get as many staff members as possible to embrace fitness.

Classes are hosted by Joy of Movement Fitness Solutions who have decades of experience working in commercial gyms and running their own fitness studio in Bellville.

The launch was kicked off with a fitness assessment which was attended by a record number of eager staff members. The assessment included a weight, height, stretch and girth measurement then concluded with a running, squat, push-up and sit-up evaluation.

This information was used to evaluate the general group fitness and will also track the progress of individual members as they work towards their year-end fitness goals.

Staff physical wellness will eventually be rolled out campus wide but a lack of facilities has stalled this progress.

Head trainer Lee Van Der Bergh says CPUT staff members have a golden opportunity to harness their own fitness goals within the comfort of their own work environment.

“We have all the facilities right here and Joy of Movement is about turning back the years and reminding you how good it felt to move and be fit,” he says.

Sessions change regularly but include bootcamp on Mondays, fighting fitness and self-defence on Tuesdays and cardio and toning on Thursday.

If you are interested in joining the Bellville class contact Lauren Kansley at kansleyl@cput.ac.za.

 

Write and reap the rewards

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A few academics have recently grasped the opportunity of contributing to The Conversation Africa and are reaping the rewards for their effort.

The website is aimed at bridging the divide between academics and journalists by making research more understandable and widely publicised on media platforms.

Academics register and declare their research interest or suggest a topic and then work closely with an experienced editor to produce a news article which gets published on the site.

Director of F’Sati, Prof Robert Van Zyl knows first-hand the benefit of getting published on The Conversation Africa. A piece he wrote on the space race in Africa was republished in a full page article in the Mail and Guardian, was declared an Editors pick by Tech Central and was also published on the World Economic Forum’s website ahead of their African conference in Cape Town.

Van Zyl says he never expected that much traction from one story and is already planning his next one.

“It just shows what an article on The Conversation can mean,” he says.

Prof Janet Condy was the first person from CPUT to get published. She wrote a very personal piece on her experience using digital storytelling to overcome racial barriers in the classroom.

Condy says all academics should register and at least attempt to write a story.

“If I can do it so can everyone. The benefits of this kind of platform is that my research can get out to many more people faster than if I had to publish it. It’s great that we can share snippets of our research with interested people,” she says.

Register on The Conversation here http://bit.ly/1KZaoy9

Check out the website here https://theconversation.com/africa

Three musketeers say farewell

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Collectively they have 138 years of nursing experience and at their retirement party these three nursing sisters made sure they passed on at least some of that knowledge to eager CPUT students.

Martha Petersen, Maureen Ross and Mareldia Patton started out their nursing careers together over 46 years ago and this month also officially ended it together.

The bulk of their years were spent working the wards of Groote Schuur where they trained countless nursing students- first from Western Cape College of Nursing and more recently from CPUT which is due to officially take over the college in 2016.

The trio were given an official send off at the recent International Nurses Day which was celebrated at the Athlone Campus- although Patton is expected to delay her retirement until a replacement for her is recruited.

She told the gathered trainee nurses that being a good nurse meant being mindful of the smaller details like your appearance.

Petersen told the audience that she has enjoyed a graduation party in the very hall they were gathered.

“All the nurses wore white and our partners wore black and we had the party right here in this hall when it was still called the Nico Malan,” she says.

The women are fondly referred to as The Three Musketeers because they always moved together throughout their careers.

Patton told the audience she had never taken a day of sick leave in her entire career.

“When I had a cold I just thought about the poor people I nursed and how they were really ill,” she says.

“That always made me get up and go to work.

Petersen echoed her sentiments and  says nursing was not a job but a passion.

“We are there when life begins and we are also there when it ends. We are awesome,” she says.

 

 

 

Do good first

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With research at the core of all CPUT practices ethical considerations are becoming a far more ingrained feature of how we work.

The inaugural Ethics Day was recently celebrated at the institution to commemorate the 10-year-long journey CPUT has been on towards becoming more ethically considerate.

The day featured addresses focused on sensitive topics like environmental and animal ethics as well as business ethics and data integrity.

In his closing address Prof Shaun Pather told the gathering that the event was a milestone in CPUT’s journey and that while we tackled some challenges along the way many more faced the institution.

CPUT’s ethical direction is governed by the Senate Research Committee, which has structures within each of the six faculties.