CUT Annual Report 2011

62
| CUT ANNUAL REPORT 2011
Memorandum of Understanding: CUT and MERSETA
In September 2011, CUT and MERSETA undersigned a MOU. The purpose of the collaboration between CUT and MERSETA is to exploit
their respective organisational strengths for the benefit of the socio-economic development and advancement of the Central Region.
The MOUs can be seen as the outcome of various consultative processes between CUT and the partners and the signing of the MOUs
served as an important milestones to demonstrate the value of these partnerships in driving CUT to strive for even higher goals and
making the institution’s endeavours a continuing success story.
There are joint partnerships and collaborative projects in place in various areas, such as:
• The Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology is involved in joint partnerships and collaborative projects in various
areas, such as (1) IT Hub in Welkom under the auspices of the School of Information Technology, and the Contractor Development
Programme in collaboration with the Free State Provincial Government (FSPG); (2) Software development project in collaboration with
the Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE), based at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), as part of an international
co-operation agreement with the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University in the USA.
• Schools in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology had talks with industry partners and government regarding the
possible implementation of a course in Sustainable/Renewable Energy, to be included in research activities and integrated into the
new curriculum.
• The Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, in collaboration with Texas A & M University and Norman Borlaug Institute
for International Agriculture, held a workshop in May 2011, which was the first in a series of training sessions in the Soil Water
Assessment Tool (SWAT) aimed at strengthening the capacity of SWAT modelling in South Africa and on the African continent as a
whole.
• As part of the international exchange programme, two students visited Ulm University in Germany for a five-month period, while two
students from Aalen University of Applied Sciences in Germany visited the School of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering
for a period of two months.
• Discussions between the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Pretoria (UP), the Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and CUT staff led to the identification of collaborative projects and interactive discussions
on process monitoring of metal laser sintering and the analysis of powders for metal sintering.
The Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences offered a number of short courses during the year under review:
• Radiography: Short course in breast imaging, 22 to 25 March and 13 to 15 June 2011.
• Radiography: Short course in conflict, quality, control and gentle imaging, 28 to 29 October 2011.
• Dental Assisting: Short course in mouth-guards, 16 April 2011.
• The Faculty also hosted an international conference on Geophagia, 19 to 21 October 2011.