By Akani Nkuna
The Science Forum South Africa 2024, which showcases cutting-edge research, technology and innovation for the betterment of humanity, is taking place in Pretoria from Thursday to Saturday.
It is hosted by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s International Convention Centre.
“Our researchers will engage with the public about the future of work, personalised chemo for African patients and reading for meaning in local languages like Sepedi,” said CSIR spokesperson Phetolo Phatsibi.
The CSIR has extended its to the public to engage with innovative technologies, including the Voyager robot and a text-to-speech literacy app, at its exhibition stand.
At the forum, renowned experts will share insights on research initiatives that positively impact the lives of South African.
They include:
• A literacy app for South African children: an app which draws on curriculum-approved content and the CSIR’s local language text and speech technologies to create thousands of sentences.
• Skills for future work: a network of learning factories at higher education institutions and in industries to teach hands-on Fourth Industrial Revolution skills, including artificial intelligence, robotics and digital twinning.
• Personalised chemo for African patients: researchers are screening cancer tissue samples to find existing drugs that could be repurposed as effective chemotherapies for people of African descent.
The CSIR is also currently piloting the Ngiyaqonda! literacy application, designed to support South African children in developing reading comprehension skills in their native language.
Phatsibi further outlined that the Voyager robot was designed with substantial computational capabilities, enabling it to execute intricate tasks including mapping, path planning, localisation and data filtering.
INSIDE EDUCATION
