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December 2018At 3:07AM on the 27th of December 2018 (South African time) a Soyouz rocket successfully launched ZACube2 from the Vostochny cosmodrome. The satellite started communication with the ground station at around 9:00AM. Telemetry confirmed that all the systems were working correctly.
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On Friday, November 16, 2018, during the F'SATI Executive Management Board, a new "Memorandum of Agreement" was signed for the development of the institute. This agreement finalizes the setting up of a structure change that should allow the reception of new partners.
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On the photo we can recognize the representatives of CPUT (Professor Marshall Sheldon, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Technology, Innovation and Partnerships ) UPEC (Prof. Laurent Thevenet, vice-President International Relations), CCIR Paris Ile de France (President Jean-Paul Vermes) and TUT (Vice Chancellor Professor Lourens Van Staden). |
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Dr Nico Steyn from F'SATI@TUT and Tsholofelo Modise from the Department of Electrical Engineering (TUT) received the second prize in the Medical Division of the Gauteng Accelerator Programme (GAP) Innovation Competition 2018 for their robotic rollator. These smart robotic rollator applications are for gait mobility and rehabilitation practices. The benefits of this prize are a R200 000 seed funding and the advantages of incubation at the Innovation Hub. |
| Dr Nico Steyn and Tsholofelo Modise at the 2018 GAP Innovation Awards |
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| Sunchaser III at the Sasol Solar Car Challenge 2018 |
TUT participated in the 2018 Solar Car challenge which took place between the 22nd and the 29th of September 2018 from Pretoria to Stellenbosch. TUTs Sun Chaser III performed exceptionally well at the Sasol Solar Challenge 2018 with an impressive 2397km covered over a period of 8 days.
The Sun Chaser III team had to endure the harsh weather conditions and came 1st amongst South African participants and 4th place overall. In addition, the Sun Chaser III team was awarded the African Spirit Award for the most kilometres covered by a South African team in one day, the prestigious ISF (International Solarcar Federation) achievement award for exemplifying the mission of the ISF by raising awareness of the imperatives of sustainable transport through innovation, and promoting the concept of “Brain Sport”.
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| Participants at the F’SATI research workshop with the Segway Loomo that was demonstrated on the last day of the workshop. | |
During October 2018, F’SATI held a research workshop at the Tshwane University of Technology. The purpose of the workshop was to allow all F'SATI TUT and CPUT partners to present their research activities in the themes of the Institute and to consider the possible creation of new projects. The workshop was attended by all the current French Partners (UVSQ, UPEC, ESIEE Paris, University Montpellier) as well as a collaborators from Purdue University in the USA. The research workshop covered four main themes: Water Infrastructure Management, Space Technologies, Enabled Environment and Assistive Living (SARChI chair), and topics on Innovation.
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| Minister of DST, Mrs Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, and Nyameko Royi, Senior Engineer, in the clean room with ZACube-2 |
On the 17th of April 2018, F’SATI at CPUT held a send-off ceremony for the ZACube-2 satellite. The event was attended by approximately 120 guests, as well as print and electronic media. The keynote speakers were the Minister of DST, Mrs Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane and the Ambassador of France to South Africa, H.E. Mr Christophe Farnaud.
During November 2017, a collaborative meeting was held at F’SATI TUT to discuss potential collaboration projects in the domain of the F’SATI SARChI chair at TUT. The meeting was attended by Prof. Eric Monacelli from the LISV laboratory at UVSQ, Prof. Eric Matson from Purdue University in the USA and staff from F’SATI TUT.
The development of a collaborative project within the domain of ‘Living Laboratories’ that focuses on the development user-centred systems that integrate various actors for the support of the user is considered.
