Students will get the chance to showcase their research at this year’s South African Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (SATNAC), to be held at the Spier WineEstate in the Western Cape from 1 to 4 September.
SATNAC is recognised for the platform afforded to young scientists and engineers to share views on key challenges facing the industry and to discuss the progress achieved in their applied research. This year, the conference will host 70 full paper presentation; 20 work in progress presentations and 25 poster presentations from students at the 16 Telkom Centres of Excellence (CoE).
Alphonzo Samuels, Telkom’s managing executive for Network Infrastructure Provisioning and conference chairman says: “SATNAC offers these students the ideal opportunity to showcase their research and network with industry leaders. The conference also provides industry the opportunity to come and see these future industry leaders in action.”
The Telkom CoEs have been established across the country, at various universities, making it the largest coordinated research effort in the ICT sector in South Africa. To date, the programme has produced approximately 2500 Doctoral and Masters level graduates.
In the last year, 41 Telkom bursars conducted their research at the various Centres of Excellence. This year, 15 of these students completed their research and have been employed at Telkom. Currently, 33 Telkom bursars are conducting their research at the 16 CoEs across the country.
“It is often said that there is too little interaction between academic institutions and industry,” says Samuels. “SATNAC provides that opportunity for industry to influence tertiary institutions to become more outcome-focused and prepare engineers for their roles when they enter the workplace.”
Further information on the conference is available at www.satnac.org.za .