What is the Centre of Excellence?
The Nelson Mandela University/Telkom CoE seeks to contribute to the Nelson Mandela University mission by developing postgraduate students and research through its engagement with its industry partners. This engagement will result in an increase in the number and quality of people with appropriate skills for the Computing industry, and also stimulate industry to increase its financial and intellectual involvement in research, development and innovation.
The objectives of the entity are to:
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Produce high level(masters, doctoral, and other postgraduate) human resource appropriate to the ICT and PC industry.
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Perform strategic, pre-competitive or applied research.
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Promote empowerment of previously disadvantaged communities within ICT and energy research and development.
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Promote a public understanding of telecommunications, networks, and related information technology. Also to promote a public understanding of PV and energy related matters.
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Develop capacity to undertake contract research and industry training
Currently the Nelson Mandela University CoE consist of three units.
The Nelson Mandela University CoE Units are sponsored by Telkom, Ingoma Communication Services (Lambda), Dartcom and FibreCo. The National Laser Centre (NLC), African Laser Centre (ALC) and Square Kilometer Array South Africa (SKA-SA) also supported fibre-related activities in the OFC unit. This PV project focus is on the collaboration between Telkom and NMU and had initial associated financial support from TFMC (now Bidvest Facilities Management).This sponsorship has allowed for the purchasing of high tech equipment to be used for postgraduate research.
SATNAC (South African Telecommunications Networks and Applications Conference) is the flagship of the Telkom CoE programme. It is the annual event for Industry, Academia and Operators to publish on matters concerning achieved in applied research in the Information Communications and Technology (ICT) sector. SATNAC prides itself on being an ideal forum for postgraduate students to highlight successes achieved on their research. As many industry leaders also attend the conference, SATNAC as proved to be an excellent networking platform for the telecoms industry.
For more information, please visit www.satnac.org.za