Professor Elvis Fosso-Kankeu holds a doctoral degree in Extraction Metallurgy from the University of Johannesburg and is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Chemical and Minerals Engineering at the North-West University; academically he is very much involved with research as well as teaching in the fields of engineering and applied science.

Concerned by the challenges people are facing in South Africa as well as in the rest of the continent, he has dedicated his research to the monitoring of water quality and remediation of water pollution to improve the lives of people in a continent where access to potable water remains a challenge for many. Projects related to his research include the prediction of the dispersion of inorganic and organic pollutants from industrial areas into the surface-water sources, monitoring of surface-water quality, development of sorbents and investigation of their behaviour during the removal of pollutants, and photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants using synthesised catalysts.

Working with research groups at the University of Johannesburg and under the agenda of his own research group, he has enormously contributed to the field of “Water Quality”.

Major achievements include, among others, the publication of papers in nationally and internationally accredited journals and presentation at conferences all over the world. Recent conferences attended were organised by the International Mine Water Association (IMWA) conferences in Australia (2012), USA (2013), China (2014), Chile (2015), Germany (2016) and Russia (2019), where he also had the opportunity to be a member of the scientific committees and chaired sessions, and won the best paper in 2012 in Bunbury-Australia. He is also the conference co-chair of the International Conference on Advances in Science, Engineering, Technology and Waste Management, and co-editor of the conference proceedings books for the past three years. His recent awards include: achievement of NRF-rating status; awarding of the prize for the best young researcher of the Faculty of Engineering in 2015 – his research group was awarded the co-best group of the Faculty of Engineering in 2016 and 2017; and being awarded the NSTF Award (National Science and Technology Forum: largest science, engineering, technology and innovation awards in South Africa (known as the “Science Oscars” of recent times) Engineering Research Capacity Development, in 2019; and being finalist in the same year for the TW Kambule-NSTF (National Science and Technology Forum)

Award: Emerging Researcher and the NSTF-Water Research Commission (WRC) Award. In the teaching and learning field, he was awarded the Teaching Excellence Award (TEA) at the North-West University in 2019. In 2018 he was finalist for two national awards (National Science and Technology Forum), namely the TW Kambule-NSTF

Awards: Emerging Rese archer and the NSTF-Water Research Commission (WRC) Award. In recognition of his expertise in the field, he is continuously invited by international peers to review manuscripts. He is currently reviewing for more than 21 internationally accredited journals, among which Chemical Engineering Journal, Carbohydrate Polymer, Minerals Engineering, Journal of Environmental Management, RSC Advances, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research Journal, Journal of Hazardous Materials and Journal of Physics and Chemistry of the Earth. He has been serving as panel member for the review of proposals for the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa, the Water Research Commission (WRC) of South Africa and the African Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society (AAS/RS; based in Kenya and England respectively) for rating of researchers, funding applications and awarding of scholarships. He has also been serving as external reviewer of more than 20 theses from various universities. At several occasions, he has been member of the scientific committee for national and international conferences. He is equally a member of scientific bodies such as the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM), thw Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA) and the International Mine Water Association (IMWA).

He has published around 170 papers, including conference proceedings, journal articles, book chapters (16) and books (3); more than 100 of these were published in the last five years. Moreover, Prof. Fosso-Kankeu has a score of 28 on Research Gate with 879 citations (based on the researchers registered on Research Gate, he is among the top 25% in the world), with an H-index of 17 and more than 1000 citations on Google Scholar.

He has been able to secure research funds from the NRF, WRC and Eskom to carry out research. He is involved in the supervision of fourth year students, and master’s and PhD students at several universities. He is also the head of the Water Pollution Monitoring and Remediation Initiatives Research Group (WPMRIRG) at the North-West University, which has strong links with other research institutions around the country and abroad.

1. Head: Clinical Services (2013-2017) - responsible clinical leadership and governance of Interns, Community Service and Foreign health. Projects included the Belgian-South African Study and Consultancy Fund to study evaluate the province’s Routine Health Information Systems with the NWU.
2. Deputy Director General (2006-2013) - Overall management, leadership and strategic direction of provincial health services of over 20 hospitals and 350 clinics, Emergency Medical Services and strategic health programs such as MCWH&N, HIV/AIDS, TB and Chronic Diseases.

• Social franchise models for PHC clinics, now adopted by the National Department’s Ideal Clinic Program,
• Equitable funding formulae for District Health Care Services
• Facilitation of the establishment of the first mHealth system for Community Health Worker Ward-based Outreach Teams - which has been the benchmark for the National Department.

Dr Nompumelelo Obokoh (nee Masubelele) is currently serving as a Commissioner in the Presidential Commission for the 4th Industrial Revolution. She is also the Chairperson on the NRF Board.  Her job as the Divisional Manager for Innovation Support and Protection, also involves heading the Patents and Industrial Design registration and Policy & Outreach strategic portfolios at the Companies & Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC). Before joining CIPC, she was the Chief Executive Officer for AfricaBio, a Biotechnology stakeholder association.

Dr Obokoh has more than 15 years local and international experience in Biotech research, development, training and management. She has led a number of innovative agricultural projects addressing food security & poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa through small-scale farmer (especially women farmers) empowerment.

Dr Obokoh obtained her PhD in Plant Molecular Biology from the University of Cambridge, Magdalene College UK, and has also worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Cambridge where she developed novel and high throughput technologies to decipher at the molecular and cellular level, the mechanisms of plant growth to improve agricultural productivity.

Furthermore, Dr Obokoh has worked in West Africa heading the 1st satellite office (in Abuja, Nigeria) of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), a non-for profit international organization. She oversaw and managed innovative public-private partnership programmes, and led AATFs strategic initiatives to ensure access and development of key proprietary agricultural technologies for small-scale farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.

She has also worked as a Senior Researcher in the Biotechnology Division at the Agricultural Research Council in Roodeplaat. During that period, she received competitive research grants from the National Research Foundation (NRF) and from the NRF/Royal Society (UK) for the South Africa-UK Science Networks to establish linkages and extend the collaboration with UK partners. She was also a recipient of the Rothamstead International - African Fellowship Programme that enabled her to pursue collaborative research in Aberystwyth, Wales.

• Banking Systems Training Consultant at FNB Shared Services HR L&D
• Micro Specialist at   Spar Group of Companies (South Rand DC)
• Retail Systems Training Controller at   Spar Group of Companies (South Rand DC)
• Senior IT Lecture: IT Technical Support at Primeserv: Stanford Business & Computer College

• North West University Enactus Business Advisory Board,
• North West University Information Systems Department (ISD) Industry Advisory Board

Prof Refilwe Phaswana-Mafuya, MASW, PGD (Epi), MSc (Epi), PhD, is the Deputy Vice Chancellor: Research & Innovation at the North West University. She was recently the Chair of the 9th SA AIDS Conference. Before joining NWU, she was Acting Executive Director/Research Director for the HIV/AIDS/STI/TB Research Programme at the HSRC. She was the Editor-in-Chief of SAHARA Journal and Honorary Professor at Nelson Mandela University.

She led/co-led innovative collaborative epidemiological studies in HIV & AIDS, HIV co-morbidities and chronic NCDs.

She received 2016/2017 NSTF award for significant contribution to research and its ouputs 15 years after PhD. She is an NRF rated scientist; fellow of Academy of Science of South Africa, African Academy of Science, Organization for Women in Science in Developing World. She is a Board/Council member of HEAIDS, NRF and ASSAF; member of German Research Foundation Panel on Infectiology and USAF RISG.

Previously, she chaired the SAHARA Conference; served as member of Secretariat of Global HIV Prevention, SANAC Key Populations, Think politically about HIV & AIDS, IAS Social & Political HIV Research, SADC HIV Prevention & Research working/advisory groups. She supported emerging scientists through NSTF Share 'n Dare Programme, SA Young Academy of Science & Southern Africa Young Scientists Summer Programme.

Dr. Happy Sithole is the Center Manager of National Integrated Cyber-Infrastructure System (NICIS). Amongst his responsibilities is to oversee the developments of High Performance Computing in the country, through the Center for High Performance Computing (CHPC), roll-out of broadband connectivity for all science councils and universities, through the SANReN and ensure long term data management for research community through DIRISA.

Dr. Sithole has a PhD in Materials Science focused on mineral extraction schemes using large-scale simulations. He has applied the simulation techniques in diamond mining industry, where he worked as Process Optimisation specialist. He has also worked in nuclear power plant design, as Senior Process Engineer.

His work in High Performance Computing includes strategic development of HPC and also technical level design of the HPC systems.

He is passionate on applications performance on HPC systems, and considers HPC systems development to be driven by the applications requirements. He has pioneered the development of skills in South Africa and the continent.

Dr. Sithole supports megascience projects such as the SKA and LHC projects. He sits in Steering Committees for HPC in different countries and also a Board Member of the National Library of South Africa, where he is the Chair of the ICT Committee. Dr. Sithole is also a member of the Steering Committee of ISC and SC.

He also participates in the Works stream focusing on Infrastructure and Resources of the Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution. He has presented invited and plenary talks in many meetings and countries.

Cyber-infrastructure developments in South Africa and their role in enhancing economic development and industrial competitiveness

South Africa has invested significantly on cyber-infrastructure in the past decade, and currently in a process of consolidating all these investments under the National Integrated Cyber-Infrastructure System (NICIS).

As we consider preparation of the country to the eminent Fourth Industrial Revolution, it becomes clear that cyber-infrastructure will play a critical role in the country’s success in efficiently harnessing the available technologies. At core of all these, will be the readiness of the country, in terms of infrastructure, skills and readiness of the industries.

In this talk we will explore the status of the country in these areas, and also highlight some of the early signs of where we are, and what decisions should we take to prepare ourselves for the future.

Monnamme Tlotleng was born in Lotlhakane village, Mahikeng, in Bophuthatswana, now North West Province, South Africa. He matriculated from Letsatsing Science High School in Unit 9, Mmabatho. Tlotleng joined the CSIR National Laser Centre (NLC) in August 2011, as a doctoral student, holding a Professional Development Program (PDP) Scholarship from the Department of Science Technology (DST). Before then he was an intern at the Department of Energy in the Coal and Gas Directorate after he had completed his Master of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand. During his stay at the Energy ministry, Monnamme developed the strategy on shale gas fracking and amendments to the Gas Act of 2001.

Monnamme holds a doctoral degree in engineering, in the field of Materials Science and Engineering, from the University of Johannesburg. His thesis focused on the development of a bio-composite coating of titanium and hydroxyapatite which would serve to bio-integrate and fuse human tissues to the artificially 3D printed titanium implants. It took him at least two and half years to complete his doctorate

In 2015, Dr Tlotleng was appointed a full-time member of stuff at the CSIR as a Senior Researcher. He was also appointed an Associate Researcher by the University of Johannesburg in the Department of Mechanical Engineering Science. He has effectively supervised and co-supervised students, locally, and from Botswana University of Science and Technology. Monnamme serve as a reviewer for many international science and engineering journals and co-organise a symposium in the Annual Meetings of The Minerals, Materials and Metals (TMS).

He has served as a Secretary and board member of the Black Scientists, Technologists and Engineering Professionals (BSTEP) and a member of the adjudication panels of the National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF). In 2017, Dr Tlotleng received the Young Innovation NSFT Recognition Award for the bulk borehole water supply system he built, in collaboration with Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) and University of Johannesburg (PEETS), for the community of Lotlhakane village.

Mr Cecil Masoka has worked in the private sector and consulted for government. He joined the public sector in 1999 working for Provincial departments and National departments including the Department of Public Service and Administration and National Department of Health. In 2003 Mr Masoka joined the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and was responsible for establishing its donor, private sector and philanthropic unit.

Between 2007 and 2012 he was seconded to the South African Embassy in Tokyo, Japan as the DST Senior Science and Technology Representative. He has worked closely with international funding agencies and championed some of the human capital development programs in the science, technology and innovation sector. Mr Masoka also established strong and sustainable relations between government and international private sector partners in supporting socio-economic impact programs that contributed to economic development and sustainable employment creation. He is currently the Director for Multilateral Cooperation at the DST.

She is a Corporate Specialist for the Line Engineering Services department within Eskom’s Group Technology Division.  She graduated with a Bsc in Electrical Engineering from the Universiti Teknologi Petronas in Malaysia in 2004 and a Master in Electrical Engineering at Wits in 2018. She has been registered as a Professional Engineer since 2008.

She is a member of two Technical Groups (TC 7 and 11) at the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and a member of Working Group B2.59 at the International Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRE). She serves in the following roles at Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA); she is a member of Council, Chairperson of the Stakeholder Relations Committee, previous Chairperson of the Policy Development and Standards Generating Committee, previous vise-chairperson of the Electrical Engineering Professional Advisory Committee and a member of the Central Registration Committee.

She is also a member of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE). She has over 14 years’ experience that is dominated by high voltage (HV) power transmission lines design. Competencies include operating, maintenance, performance improvement and refurbishments. Tumisang has a strong power lines background and has vast experience in heading large multidisciplinary projects.

Her Master in Engineering is titled “Consideration to use High Surge Impedance Loading Lines (HSIL) in place of Series Compensation on High Voltage Transmission Lines”.

She has published four papers from this research work, one at 20th International Symposium on High Voltage Engineering conference (ISH), one at CIGRE 8th Southern African conference and two at Power-Gen & DistribuTECH Africa conference. Tumisang was finalist at the Standard Bank Rising Star Awards, won Engineer of the Year in 2017 at the SAIEE, Technology and Engineering Award for the Eskom Women Advancement Program in 2017, Eskom’s Chairman Award in the category Customer Satisfaction in 2012 and Engineer of the Year in 2010 at Eskom.

Prof Khumbulani Mpofu is the Founder, Director, Rail Manufacturing Centre for Entrepreneurship Rapid Incubator (one of the 10 incubators mentioned during first SONA 2019) and the Gibela Research Chair in Manufacturing and Skills Development, TUT.

In the past he has served as Head of Department – Industrial Engineering, TUT, Senior Lecturer, Research Leader, Postgraduate Coordinator, TUT, Visiting Researcher University Ljubljana, Slovenia and lecturer, Research Leader, Postgraduate Coordinator, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa.

To date he has guided to completion more than 5 Doctoral and more than 20 Masters students have been examined and passed examinations from He has also contributed to more than 30 Journals, more than 75 conference papers, more than 10 book chapters and more 4 patents to date have been published and register respectively by Prof Mpofu. Over thirty presentations at conferences, guest lectures, locally, regionally continentally and globally have been given.

In raising funds he has also been recognized 6 times at national awards (National Science and Technology Forum, Southern African Institute of Industrial Engineers, Standard Bank-Rising Star) and more than five times in the University for Research Excellence since the beginning of his career.

To date he has been award funding totaling to the tune of over R50 million (~US$5 million) for research, innovation, incubation and commercialization activities.

• Design for Additive Manufacturing
• Polymer Additive Manufacturing
• Topology Optimization
• Bio-printing
• Metal Additive Manufacturing and many more