Ambitious Alumnus gathers up Wisps to build a Hero (published September 2015)
NMMU BCom Hons graduate Alan Knott-Craig JNR - the man behind the Project Isizwe free Wi-Fi scheme in Pretoria and former boss of MXit and iBurst wants to build "the Capitec of telecoms" as he seeks to solidate South Africa's hundreds of small wireless internet Service providers (Wisps).
Knott-Craig has the backing of heavy hitters such as former First National Bank CEO Michael Jordan and Rand Merchant Bank CEO Mike Pfaff, Knott-Craig has raised funding to help Hero-Tel, , his new company, establish a national presence, partly through acquisitions of like-minded Wisps and partly through estsblishing a national brand under which third-party Wisps can sell their services.
Doctoral candidate undertakes unusual research (published September 2015)
NMMU graduate, academic and film fanatic Janelle Vermaak is
teering clear of stan dard subjects by engrossing herself in her passion - aliens. Her research includes meeting freaks, space aliens and horror-film stars.
This all being part of her quest to write a dissertation on "fandom" - the habits, like and dislikes of film buffs.
She first studied industrial psychology at Stellenbosch before realising that she did not want to help people in that context. She then completed a BA degree at NMMU then masters degree through which she found her calling in film studies and script writing.
Welding coup for NMMU engineering (Published September 2015)
SOUTH Africa's energy sector is set to save billions after researchers were granted international approval for the developement of ground-breaking sampling and welding technology earlier this month. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) gave approval for use of WeldCore ® - a friction taper hydro-pillar welding and repair process - in the country's power generation and petro-chemical industries.
The approval follows 15 years of research by NMMU's engineering technology station - eNtsa, which has driven a number of innovative engineering solutions.