Ingenuity and innovation were the order of the day when final-year Mechanical Engineering students displayed their design projects at an Open Day on October 28 at UKZN’s Howard College campus.

The projects – the final result of a year of intense work – are a test of the students’ ability to survive as mechanical engineers and form the pinnacle of their tertiary achievements.

The plight of vulnerable and marginalised children in South Africa with developmental disabilities and autism spectrum disorders  was discussed when the Dean of UKZN’s Faculty of Health Sciences, Professor Sabiha Essack, and delegates from Autism Speaks recently met with South Africa’s First Lady, Tobeka Madiba Zuma.

The aim of the meeting was to encourage the First Lady to champion this cause as it is in line with the vision A Better World for All advocated through her organisation, the Tobeka Madiba Zuma Foundation. The Foundation has a particular focus on vulnerable and marginalized groups.

Clinicians, registrars, allied health sciences students and health researchers often experience challenges writing up their first clinical protocol.

With this in mind, UKZN academics, Dr Colleen Aldous and Ms Tonya Esterhuizen and a University of Pretoria colleague, Professor Paul Rheeder, recently published a book titled: Writing your First Clinical Research Protocol.

Published by Juta, the book provides exercises, notes and examples to assist students conducting clinical research for the first time.

A team from UKZN’s Traditional Medicine Laboratory were prize-winners at the Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) Expo held at Mahikeng in the North West Province.

Team UKZN exhibited research work on the use of traditional medicines in the fight against HIV, tuberculosis, diabetes, and cancer. They received a prize for their stall which was ranked in the top 10 at the expo.

The expo opened with a keynote address delivered by the Minister of Science and Technology, Mrs Naledi Pandor, who said she had been impressed by the range and quality of the indigenous products on display.

Politics in the United States is today more polarised than ever before because of the election of Barack Obama – an event which surprised most Americans as they had not expected a black president in the White House so soon.

This is according to Professor Kerry Haynie, an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Duke University in the United States, who was addressing UKZN’s Centre for African Literature Studies (CALS).

UKZN students of the Opera Studio and Choral Academy (OSCA) performed their first full opera production, Gianni Schicchi, on the Howard College campus wowing audiences with exceptional stage presence and vocals.

Gianni Schicchi is a famous Italian opera composed in 1918 by Giacomo Puccini. The opera opens with the mourning of the passing of rich Uncle Buoso. Only his family knows of his death and is gathered around his bed where he lays lifeless. They pretend to weep but very soon real tears fall as they read Buoso’s will.

Dean of UKZN’s Faculty of Health Sciences, Professor Sabiha Essack, has been re-elected as Chair of the South African Committee of Health Sciences Deans (SACOHSD).

The committee, which works closely with the National Department of Health and Higher Education, unanimously elected Essack for a further two-year term.

SACOHSD consists of Health Sciences Deans from universities and universities of technology in South Africa. These institutions offer health sciences programmes which require registration of graduates with the Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa (AHPCSA)...

ICampbell Collections eNyuvesi yakwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) ibibambe usuku olubizwa ngeSpecial Collections Open Day, lapho umphakathi uthakasele amagugu abo amane omlando achaza kabanzi umlando wegugu ngalinye.

Ngaphansi kweSpecial Collections e-UKZN kukhona i-Alan Paton Centre & Struggle Archives, iGandhi-Luthuli Documentation Centre, iCentre for African Literary Studies neCampbell Collections. ISpecial Collections ibalulekile ngoba igcina umbhalo ongatholakali kalula onomlando ongasetshenziswa abacwaningi ukubheka ngezikhathi ezidlule.

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The College of Health Sciences recently hosted the 4^th Pfizer-University of KwaZulu-Natal Young Health Scientists Research Symposium which provides a platform for young health scientists at undergraduate and honours level to present their research in a national competition.

Winners are selected by a team of national adjudicators in the categories of community-based, clinical and laboratory-based research. This year, the University of Free State (UFS) scooped first prize in two of the categories.

UKZN has renewed its Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (the University of Amsterdam) which is designed to encourage direct contact and co-operation between the two institutions.

South Africa is the first country in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA) grouping with which Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam has built and nurtured a relationship.

The partnership is an enabling conduit for possible partnerships in the European Union's Erasmus Mundus programme which UKZN has been a beneficiary with Eurpean partner institutions.

The merits - and demerits - of cellphones, Twitter and Facebook were in the spotlight at a recent Democracy Forum on the Pietermaritzburg campus.

Four Masters students from different disciplines made presentations and engaged with the audience answering questions on the issue under the topic: “Are youth using Cellphones, Twitter, Facebook etc to build democracy, equality and social justice, or are social networks a new “opium of the people” distracting youth from bigger social concerns?

Being born a woman or a man in any society is more than a simple biological fact… it is imbedded with social implications.

This was among the issues discussed at a recent UKZN seminar presented by visiting academic, Dr Petra Jonvallen, who was hosted by the Discipline of Criminal Studies and Criminology on the Howard College campus.

Jonvallen is an Assistant Professor in Gender and Technology at Lulea University of Technology in Sweden.

UKZN’s Alumni Relations Office launched the Medicine Student Chapter to a group of excited third-year medical students at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine (NRMSM).

Student Chapters are in line with a University-wide campaign to encourage students to play an active role in their student/alumni bodies.

Addressed by a fellow alumnus and a member of the University’s Convocation Executive, Dr Thavan Padayachi, the students were excited by the opportunities of proposed further interaction with the private practice sector.