School of Consumer Intelligence and Information Systems (SCiiS) College of Business and Economics NOVEMBER 2022 NEWSLETTER | VOLUME 11
2 Message from the Director As we say goodbye to the 2022 academic year, we invite you to join us in celebrating what the SCiiS Team has been able to accomplish in the second semester of the year. The pages of this newsletter make me a proud member of the team. Our community, consisting of local and international academics, administrative staff, students, and public and industry partners, has proved again that sustained excellence is what we can continue to expect from our combined strength. Our students rose to the challenge again this semester, winning many awards at national and international hackathons. These awards highlight the spirit of curiosity and innovation that characterises students who study with us. Well done to the Head of the Technopreneurship Centre, Mr Ronny Mabokela for, being at the forefront of nurturing many of our students to contribute to societal well-being through tech innovations! Our School’s commitment to impactful research is widely recognised. In this regard, let us celebrate with the Department of Marketing Management for retaining the number 1 position in Africa for research in the field of marketing management. Supporting this are the impressive results of Honours students from the Department of Marketing Management in winning all three top positions in the highly competitive annual College of Business and Economics (CBE) Honours competition. We are truly delighted with our research achievements! Growing the number of doctoral-level qualified academic staff has been a key part of our efforts to ensure high academic performance in the School. This semester we celebrate with four of our academics – Dr Mthobisi Nhlabathi, Dr Sithembiso Khumalo, Dr Martha Winter, and Dr Tinofirei Museba – on attaining their doctoral degrees. Allow me to highlight the Department of Applied Information Systems (AIS) for leading the way on this. To our industry partners, thank you for the varied ways in which you continue to enrich our academic offering. Be it through industry projects, guest lecturing, funding support, etc., our School greatly values the role that you play as our partners in advancing the frontiers of knowledge while generating mutual value that ultimately benefits society at large. Enjoy reading these and many more stories in this edition of the SCiiS newsletter. Prof. Mercy Mpinganjira Director: School of Consumer Intelligence and Information Systems
3 Student News Marketing scoops all three top spots at the CBE Honours poster competition! The much-awaited annual College of Business and Economics (CBE) Honours poster competition took place on 18 October 2022 in the Nadine Gordimer Hall at the University of Johannesburg’s Auckland Park library. The event began with a light breakfast and an introduction of the CBE and the adjudicators. Thereafter the competitors took turns to present their work. A total of twenty groups representing different departments within the CBE participated in the competition. After the adjudicators had deliberated on the quality of the posters and presentations, they announced the winners, with teams from the Marketing Management department taking all three top positions. First position was awarded to Hamzah Anwar Kajee, Andzani Hilton Mavulwana, and Sharlene Reddy, who were supervised by Prof. Ilse Struweg. Their poster was entitled “Female customers expect more from a sale than merely a discount”. Second position was awarded to Deborah Olaleye, Sanelisiwe Gumede, Sanum Nannan, and Bjorn Hufkie, who were supervised by Prof. Daniel Maduku and Prof. Mornay Roberts-Lombard. Their poster was entitled “A little trust goes a long way: What influences customers trust in retail banks”. Third position was awarded to Michael Masola, Onalenna Mogale, Joseph Mothei, and Elane Vrey, who were supervised by Prof. Christine De Meyer-Heydenrych. Their poster was entitled “Customer repurchase intention towards online retailers – A Gen Y perspective”. The Department of Marketing Management is elated at this excellent performance by its Honours students, as this is the first time that all three top positions have been won by students from one department. When asked what each of the winning groups thought about the whole competition, this is what they said: “This experience was incredibly enriching, as we were empowered with skill to visualise research and express it in an impactful manner. Our presentation and public speaking skills were also strengthened, which positively impacts our future careers as marketers” – Overall winner group “From nonbelievers to becoming selfassured that we really did it. Hard work truly pays off. Thanks to the BCom Honour’s Research Poster Competition for making us believe in ourselves” – First runner-up group “What we learnt from this experience is that preparation and time management are important elements that lead to success. However, teamwork played a bigger role in achieving this milestone” – Second runner-up group
4 Success of work-integrated education in AIS The Department of Applied Information Systems (AIS) is all about creating fun and innovative ways to support and develop future leaders in the virtual gaming industry. The Enactus University of Johannesburg successfully registered a social enterprise for six AIS students. The enterprise targets children between the ages of six and 14 to teach them how to code and then create African indigenous games. E-sporting activities will be introduced to their clients (gamers) using games that the students create. The social enterprise intends to commercialise the games that will be created through Google Play and Apple Store. The students presented their project ideas on UJFM on 4 August 2022. They were also interviewed by SAFM on the same day. This project, together with other Enactus projects, was presented on 6 September 2022 at the University of Namibia for potential international collaboration.
5 Information Management PhD students! The Department of Information and Knowledge Management is proud to showcase two of its recent PhD graduates, Dr Tyson Mabunda and Dr Margaret Basson. Dr Mabunda did his studies under the supervision of Prof. Tanya du Plessis. The study explored the potential of knowledge management as a change enabler in academic libraries in the digital age. The main contribution of Dr Mabunda’s PhD study was the development of a change intelligence model to assist academic libraries to manage change better through the application of knowledge management as a solution. Tyson holds BA (Information Science), BA Honours (Information Studies) and MCom (Business Management) degrees from the University of Johannesburg (UJ). His research interests centre on knowledge management, change management, academic libraries, open access to knowledge, and scholarly communication. He is currently a Director of Open Scholarship at the North-West University (NWU). Prior to joining NWU, Tyson was a manager of E-Research and Scholarly Communication at UJ. He worked as a team leader of Circulation and Access Services, and as an information librarian in the UJ Library and Information Centre. The doctoral study empowered Tyson successfully to lead the project on research data management at UJ in 2018 and 2019, acquiring most of the ideas while writing the literature review chapters of his doctoral thesis. The PhD: Information Management has played an important role in preparing him for his career growth. Dr Margaret Basson holds a PhD in the field of Knowledge and Information Management. She also holds a BCom in Industrial Psychology and Organisational Development, and a Master’s in Business Leadership (MBL) degree from the School of Business Leadership at the University of South Africa (UNISA). Her formal studies exposed her to attaining knowledge in the fields of industrial psychology, corporate strategy, and leadership. She is currently the Head of Analytics at the Standard Bank Group, Global Markets Technology, and has acquired experience in a variety of other industries. Over time, her interest has led her to conduct research into the visualisation of the skills gap between the industry and higher educational institutions. Supervised by Prof. Tanya du Plessis and Prof. Roelien Brink, Margaret’s study, entitled Developing a skills hub in the process of knowledge exchange between partners, explored the need to visualise the skills gap between industry and higher education. A participative action research process was applied to facilitate collaboration between the various knowledge partners. Its main contribution was the development of a skills hub in the exchange of knowledge between partners. As the Founder of a consulting and training company, Margaret aims to contribute to facilitating collaborative initiatives between the job seeker, the workplace, and educational institutions to address the skills gap. She hopes that, through this collaboration, the unemployed could become more employable. She also believes that skills are the ability to do something well, and therefore need to be valued more than just having knowledge. BComMarketing Honours team-building On 15 July 2022, Dr Nicole Cunningham organised a team-building session for the marketing honours students at the UJ Hockey Astro. The session aimed to develop better connections between the students and lecturers. The session began with discussions on the students’ experiences of the first semester. They enjoyed discussing their goals, and reviewing whether they had attained them, as well as some of the challenges they were facing and how best to overcome them. ‘The Fun People’ facilitated the teambuilding games. Students were split into four groups. The games assisted with increasing interpersonal relations as well as releasing some of the pressures the students were facing with their studies. After the games were concluded, the marketing lecturers prepared a lovely lunch for the students, which fostered further connection between them all.
6 Marketing and Coca-Cola industry project Dr Lubbe’s BCom Marketing Management third-year students participated in an Industry project in which Coca-Cola provided a real-life problem that had to be solved through a research project. The research project required students to investigate gamers aged 18 to 32 in order to determine their gaming habits and their soft drink beverage consumption behaviour. Questionnaires were used to collect data that was then captured, coded, and analysed. Students worked in groups, and reported their research findings in a written research report that included a marketing strategy that had to be aligned with their findings. The top 10 assignments were sent to Coca Cola for evaluation, and the company chose the three winning groups. This year’s winning group members were Qhama Elihle Yozi (group leader), Londeka Maseko, Ithabeleng Tsolo, Nkako Chokoe, and Junior Senyolo. Second place went to Meegan Hansel (group leader), Sania Majeed, Koketso Maredi, Riande Juliana Janse van Rensburg, and Jason Shaw. The third place was taken by two groups that were joint winners: Nikhail Haripersad (group leader), Keamogetswe Boikanyo, Muzingaye Ncube, and Thabang Matsetsela; and Banathi Lukhuleni (group leader), Kervilyne Rensburg, Lehlohonolo Mathekga, Wenzile Vilakazi, Sanelisiwe Ntuli, and Kyle Spinola. The Department of Marketing Management congratulates the winners. We are proud of you! And a huge thank you to Coca-Cola for the opportunity. The DSA-UJ WIL Project closes on a high note! The Marketing Management Department has an awardwinning work-integrated learning (WIL) programme in which marketing and retail students are required to sell products as part of their direct sales management project. The students are taught the theoretical knowledge about direct selling during the first semester, and are then required to put this knowledge into practice in the real world. The Marketing Department signed an agreement with the Direct Selling Association (DSA) as their industry partner. This year, they had three companies from which the students could choose: Avon, Justine, and Table Charm. These companies came to the campus every Friday to assist the students in reaching their sales targets. This project also runs live on an app that was developed by Prof. Marius Wait and Prof. Abejide Ade-Ibijola and that won the Vice Chancellor’s ‘Innovation of the Year’ award in 2019. The Head of the Department of Marketing Management, Prof. Marius Wait, is glad to report that this year’s turnover of the DSA-UJ Project was R 1.5 million, which meant that R 375 000 went back to the students in the form of sales commissions. This is indeed a success story!
7 Tshikuvhe Phetho at the Russian Olympiad 2022 The Russian Olympiad is an intellectual competition among university applicants that offers a real chance to be admitted to a university past the entrance exams and to receive either a state scholarship or a significant discount on tuition. The Olympiad is organised by the Association of Global Universities, in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudichestvo). The competition is aimed at talented foreign students who would like to enroll in master's and postgraduate programmes in Russia for free. Tshikuvhe Phetho, a final year Advanced Diploma Business Information Technology student in the Department of Applied Information System,s was one of 11 South Africans chosen to participate in the Russian Olympiad 2022, which took place from 7 to 16 October 2022. “It all started when I challenged myself to join a hackathon that was organized by the Empire Partner Foundation, where we were solving challenges that SMMEs face daily. The opportunity to participate in the Olympiad was sent to the WhatsApp group. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, I wrote the online test and made sure I followed their requirements so I could get the opportunity to fly to Russia for the finals, and possibly get a scholarship to study in any university of my choice in the Russian country.” Tshikuvhe says that studying business information technology challenged her never to limit herself, and awoke her curiosity to learn more from all over the world in order to come up with mind-blowing IT solutions. Moments she will never forget about her trip to Russia were how they welcomed the participants with cultural dance and song, and the welcome address from all the directors from the different continents. To watch her journey in pictures, click HERE. Every single day was a gift, and she learnt a lot from the games and overall competition, which saw her winning five prizes. She passed tests in (1) analysing financial fraud using graphics systems, and (2) transparent blockchain, and received a diploma for both. She also obtained (3) a certificate for making it to the second final stage of the Olympiad in financial security; and (4) received a certificate for participating in the sports programme of the second international Olympiad in financial security. She also received a gold medal and a smart watch for being one of the five best winners in the Olympiad from South Africa, which saw her winning a full scholarship to study at any university of her choice in Russia in 2023. She has decided to study a bachelor’s in computer science. Once that is completed, she will articulate into a postgraduate qualification. Well done, Tshikuvhe – we are excited for you, and wish you the very best for your new journey ahead! Caitlin Rooskrantz wins bronze at the 2022 Commonwealth Games! BCom Marketing Management first-year student Caitlin Rooskrantz is at it again. This time she won bronze in artistic gymnastics at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. We asked her to share how this experience was for her, and this is what she had to say: “The Games were an absolutely great experience. I went there with a massive goal of leaving with a podium finish and, by God’s grace, that is exactly what I accomplished – among other historic achievements in the gymnastics field. We were there for a duration of almost two weeks. And I was part of the five-member team to achieve the massively great achievement of finishing an incredible fourth place in the team final. This was the first time that our women's artistic gymnastics team had such a high finish at the Commonwealth Games, let alone coming so close to a podium finish behind Team England, Australia, and Canada. Our team qualified for every final, and as an individual, I managed to qualify for the all-around final! I finished in ninth place in the all-around final, and my teammate Naveen Daries achieved an incredible historic sixth place finish. The last stretch was the bar final. After performing one of the best routines of my career thus far, I managed to walk away with a bronze medal after an intensely tight final. History was made once again for our team, as I became the first South African woman to medal on the uneven bars at the Commonwealth Games. It was an incredibly huge and emotional moment for me, getting the privilege to stand up on that podium in the middle of a packed arena with nothing but joy and pride in my heart.” Well done, Caitlin! It is such a pleasure to watch your journey and see you constantly rise and shine. We are proud of you!
8 SCiiS students participate in the ‘Africa by Bus’ initiative – Travel is a form of education in itself Ten students from the School of Consumer Intelligence and Information Systems (SCiiS) participated in the UJ ‘Africa by Bus’ programme. Of the 10, six students from the Department of Applied Information Systems (AIS) (Thandeka Nkutha; Lerato Tlhako; Surprise Ngoveni; Dakalo Nyambeni; Dikeledi Matloa; and Sanah Rasethaba) were selected to participate in the Africa by Bus initiative, arranged by the School of Management in the College of Business and Economics (CBE). Four students from the Department of Information and Knowledge Management (Oratile Mogwera; Refilwe Nkosi; Basetsana Ngwato; and Celokule Ngcamu) were selected, and one student (Nosipho Ndebele) was from the Department of Marketing Management. Overall there were 34 excited students in the bus, with the others coming from other schools in the CBE. We asked Dakalo Nyambeni, one of the AIS students, to share what the travel experience entailed. This is what she had to say: “Africa by Bus has been assisting students in travelling and learning about various cultures and nations since its establishment in 2017. I was one of the students chosen from Applied Information Systems to go to Namibia and study what they are doing better and what we as a department can take and apply. I was nervous about the unknown because I had never been out of my country before, but I was also thrilled about seeing and doing new things. The main thing I wanted to learn was what the University of Namibia was doing differently with regard to their infrastructure and IT department. On September 7, 2022, we went to the Windhoek Independence Museum and learned about the history of Namibia. It was difficult to hear about the genocide of the Nama and Herero tribes in 1904-08. The ‘Their blood waters our freedom’ memorial is a commendable tribute to remember and respect the victims. The Namibian tourism industry taught me the value of involving all stakeholders in order to achieve whatever goals we may have as a country. I also learned that it is critical for any professional with business plans to bring in investors who understand the business they are building. As a young lady, Mr Pedros’ words encouraged me to look into starting my own business. It is critical for us to be entrepreneurs as young people in order to create jobs and reduce our high unemployment rate. This experience taught me the value of involving all stakeholders, regardless of their power grid, in order to improve the country and its economy. Mr Pedro showed me that, as an entrepreneur, you must be willing to adapt your product offerings to current trends as technology evolves in order to remain profitable and relevant in the market you operate in.”
9 The Technopreneurship Centre won a total of 12 hackathons in 2022! The Technopreneurship Centre (TPC) attended and participated in a total of 15 hackathons, and won at 12 of them (two international and 10 national) in 2022. Read all about their victorious and inspiring spree throughout this second semester below: Security summit hackathon In June 2022, TPC students participated in a two-day hackathon focusing on developing solutions to protect South African citizens from malicious identity theft. This hackathon is hosted annually by ITWeb in collaboration with Geekulcha, and is sponsored by the tech firms Snode Technologies and Telspace Africa, and by the Northern Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism, among others. This year’s event aimed to help young talent to sharpen their cybersecurity skills and to provide participants with opportunities to enter the job market. The event saw more than 60 hackers − made up of tertiary students, cyber security enthusiasts, and young professionals – competing to identify vulnerabilities and create applications and solutions to protect digital citizens and firms from cyber threats. The UJ TPC team ‘SecureIT’ (Lerato Tlhako and Angelic Mokoena) were the second-place winners, scooping up a R10 000 cash prize. They developed a web application that uses artificial intelligence to generate passwords for users' accounts across different online platforms. The duo were also named ‘best female hackers’, and received an internship opportunity with Snode Technologies. HackCorruption – TPC team emerge victorious at an international hackathon Accountability Lab (AL) and the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) hosted 100 virtual and in-person participants for the innovative Tech4Good event between 22 and 24 July 2022. HackCorruption is a people-powered hackathon to unearth anti-corruption solutions. The judging panel declared five teams to be the overall winners with solutions that addressed a lack of transparency in public procurement processes and established creative whistleblowing platforms and open data dashboards. Among the five teams, the TPC team ‘Tech Stars’ (Lerato Tlhako, Lethabo Makopo, and Angelic Mokoena) were named one of the victorious teams. Tech Stars created a smart dashboard that allows citizens to monitor local budget allocations, tender awards, and implementation progress, along with a whistleblowing function to report allegations of wastage and fraud. The winning teams are now eligible for financial support of up to $10,000 to build prototypes of their ideas at a bootcamp for a period of three months. Participants were drawn from South Africa, Lesotho, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, and Kenya, with more than 40% of them being women. The hackathon was supported by the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) at the US Department of State, through the AntiCorruption Solutions Through Emerging Technologies (ASET) programme. ASET advances the US’s strategy on countering corruption, and the hackathon took place in conjunction with the Summit for Democracy Year of Action. SATNACCyberHack – New TPC startup to be incubated by Telkom Telkom FutureMakers hosted ICT university students who took part in Telkom’s SATNAC Cyber Security Hackathon on 19-21 August 2022. This hackathon was held on the theme of “Fraud management: Innovating against digital identity theft, business e-mail compromise and insider threat in a cloud-based world”, and aimed to counter the rise of fraud across all business sectors, including SIM-swap fraud and business e-mail compromise. Left to right: Mmathebe Zvobwo, Managing Executive for enterprise and supplier development, Lethabo Makopo, Lerato Tlhako, and Angelic Mokoena (TPC students), and Nontobeko Gumede, broadcast journalist and TV presenter.
10 The SCiiS TPC team ‘SecureIT’ (Lethabo Makopo, Angelic Mokoena, and Lerato Tlhako) were the overall winner of the SATNAC Cyber Security Hackathon, and were awarded a prize of R80 000. SecureIT devised an intelligent system that mitigates human error during the SIM-swap process through sophisticated AI technologies and virtual SIM automation. The team were allowed to pilot their solutions with Telkom and Amdocs. They were also allowed to be part of the Telkom FutureMakers Enterprise Development Accelerator, and have registered ALL SecureIT as an official business entity. Furthermore, the team was interviewed on SABC TV’s The Globe programme to talk more about their winning solution. To watch their interview, click here: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=GJCfMRAEnm8 First-year BIT students win first prize at the Blockchain Innovation Bootcamp and Hackathon The largest blockchain innovation bootcamp and hackathon in South Africa took place at the University of Johannesburg (UJ). With the common goal of enabling enterprise blockchain adoption, UJ’s Technopreneurship Centre (TPC), in partnership with QuidPro and Crypto Valley Venture Capital (CVVC), hosted the first-ever three-day blockchain innovation bootcamp and hackathon event on 20-22 July 2022. This innovation bootcamp and hackathon was a success, attracting interest and bringing together 200+ students, investors, innovators, developers, experts, decision-makers, and academics under the theme “Harnessing the power of blockchain technology through various industry applications”, with the support of many other ecosystem partners. The winning team, Hackchain, a team of first-year Business Information Technology (BIT) students (Caleb Diba, Sabelo Ndlovu, Edson Madzinga, and Kundai Mhandu) from AIS were declared the grand prize winner for developing a healthcare industry solution focusing on disease screening (HIV, STIs/STDs). GirlCode Hackathon – First runner-up in the women-only hackathon GirlCodeHack is an annual event that was hosted this year over the first weekend in August, in celebration of Women’s Month. It is an event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers, and project managers, collaborate intensively on software projects with a specific goal. The SCiiS TPC team (Angelic Mokoena, Lerato Tlhako, and Lethabo Makopo – third-year Business IT students), under the mentorship of the Head of the Centre, Mr Ronny Mabokela, were declared the first runner-up in the GirlCode hackathon. The team developed an AI-powered technology solution aimed at alleviating sexual harassment in the workplace by using machine-learning algorithms to detect any malicious behaviour. The hackathon aims to make a difference in society by ensuring that women get to collaborate, learn, and help one another to continue their journey in the tech space. Power to Act hack The SCiiS TPC team (Sifundo Ngubane, Itumetse Sephula, and Sandile Mabuza) participated in the Rivonia Circle Power to Act hack in collaboration with Geekulcha on 13 and 14 August 2022. The Power to Act hack is a platform for 100 coders, strategists, engineers, and graphic designers to create tools to enable and empower activism and civic participation in South Africa. This hackathon aimed to design a platform that would connect active citizens, encourage participation in policy engagements, and empower people with information about how they can participate in building a better future in South Africa. The Power to Act hack defined four challenging tasks for participants to design: a democracy builder communities manager platform, a policy communities engagement platform, a civic education empowerment platform, and an activist campaign builder. The SCiiS TPC team were declared the winners of the hackathon after developing an mPower tech solution that satisfied the requirements of the activist campaign builder.
11 BCom Honours Marketing students’ Clover field trip Below is a piece by BCom Hons Marketing Management student Vyaksha Madodhari Singh on their fun-filled excursion to Clover South Africa’s factory. This is what she had to share about their experience: “The BCom Honors Marketing Management students, class of 2022, were lucky enough to be invited to Clover SA’s factory in Olifantsfontein on 12 August 2022 to help us with our Hons Advanced Strategic Marketing project this semester, lectured by Dr Lubbe. The day started very excitingly with all the students travelling together in a school bus, just like the good old days. Once we arrived at the factory we were welcomed by the kindest staff, everyone was waving and had the biggest smiles on their faces… we knew it was going to be a great day ahead. We headed into the auditorium room where we learnt some history about the Clover brand (did I mention that a pop quiz got thrown at us out of the blue? But we did not mind because there were prizes involved ). Among all the interesting facts we absorbed about Clover, all we could think about was “when are we going to get to taste everything!!!”. Soon enough, our wishes came true. Beside us were these big doors that led into this spacious room filled with so many yummy treats. There were some yummy chicken strips and malva pudding by the Clover Classic Custard stand, Krush juice, Tropica flavours (some of which I never knew existed), Sip Up dairy snacks, a Clover cheese stand with the tastiest Gouda and crackers ever, some delicious Super M, the creamiest Bliss yoghurt, and of course we had to try their new Go Nuts peanut butter!! After all the yummy treats we got to the good part, the factory tour. We were so intrigued by how big the factory plant was and how many different machines were there. It was a little intimidating to see the amount of work that goes into creating a juice box or even a bottle of milk. We even learnt that Clover has ladies who ‘taste’ every single bottle of milk to make sure it tastes correct! I had no idea there was so much science behind a glass of milk. Did you know that you can decide when the milk expires?? It depends on a technique that involves high temperatures in which the expiration of the milk can be altered. Cool, right? Anyways, it was a fun-filled day with lots of treats and learning. Just when we thought it was all over, we still got Clover goodie bags that had every single product we tried on the day… I wish I knew this before I tried to eat everything in sight in the tasting room. Clover has the sweetest staff, and even sweeter yoghurt… It was a great day!”
12 Project IT day To encourage academic excellence, the Department of Applied Information Systems hosted their annual (virtual) Project IT day on 19 and 20 October 2022. his year’s judges were Jessica Tandy, partner at Bizmod Consulting; Shaivar Girdhari, an AIS Master’s student specialising in blockchain and its uses/applications in healthcare; Nomfundo Nkosi, ICT graduate; Kutloano Ngema, a cloud solutions architect-engineer at Microsoft; and Junior Innocent Manganyi, programme coordinator. Like any other project presentation day, the students were filled with great anticipation for the day, and they exhibited a collection of IT projects that included business analysis presentations and software applications. The winning group, Ace Tech, was made up of third-year development software students, Brendon Chiriga, lulama Sammy Nkuna, Palesa Kumalo, Angelic Danielle Mokoena, Lerato Tlhako, Lethabo Makopo, Tshikuvhe Phetho, Gerald Simbarashe Macherechedze, and Amos Tategula. Their winning web application is called ‘Save-a-Drop’, which uses technology such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and machine learning to analyse and collect data from water systems. The web application monitors the water pressure, and alerts users about potential pipe leakages. The application has an embedded water flow meter integrated with an Arduino that will be installed in residential water meters, which would help to detect early infrastructure aging. The web application solves the major issue of water loss that South African citizens at large face, as one of the reasons for water wastage is poor infrastructure. Residents and municipalities are unable at times properly to detect infrastructural damage on time (pipes are hidden, and so forth). Save-a-Drop aims to make it easier to see these issues by helping to analyse water trends, detect damaged water systems (pipes), based on the water flow/pressure analysis, and provide all the knowledge about anything related to water that users need. The group was asked to share what their experience was like, and this is what they had to say: “Project Day 2022 was what we could call ‘New fish in the water’, mostly because we went with an unclear knowledge of how things were going to be; however, we were well prepared for anything. We struggled in the beginning with connectivity issues, which led us to switching servers. This put us under pressure but, because of the great team support and trusting each other, we were able to manage our time and work, and stayed focused throughout. Overall, it was great success, and all our hard work and dedication paid off in the end.
13 IKM student recognition initiative The Department of Information and Knowledge Management (IKM) celebrated the top five Information Management students in each year of study – that is, those in first-year, second-year, third-year, and Honours-level Information Management. IKM strives to celebrate academic excellence wherever possible. The department believes in acknowledging and encouraging students to continue or get on the path of excellence. The top students' names are below. First year: Mzwake Magadla; Suzanne de Koker; Khushi Ilyas; Carla Riah Way; Mohammed Yusuf Saiyad. Second year: Mphoentle Ntipe; Kashveer Sewjalal; Tanaka Ashley Kundai Mushayabasa; Nokwazi Tracy Mona; Lucas Ndaba. Third year: Miguel Roberto de Sousa, Phumlane Kenny Hlongwane; Zenzo Matiza; Bontle Morake; Bonolo Blessing Mpisekhaya. Honours: Kshani Reddy; Anirusha Ganesh; Steven Kadima; Sria Telukdarie; Owami Manganyi. Third-year Diploma Marketing students receive internships for their winning marketing plan campaign! On 21 November 2022, third-year Diploma Marketing students presented their marketing plans to the Government Communication and Information Systems (GCIS) at their head offices in Pretoria. The GCIS team consisted of Kopo Ndlovu (Deputy Director: Research and Information Centre), Mashupe Mashainoke (Assistant Director: Research and Knowledge Management Centre), Bongani Tshabangu (Marketing Assistant: Marketing and Distribution), and the GCIS panel from Marketing, Research and Media Buying. The purpose of this industry project was for the students to develop creative and impactful marketing plans that could assist GCIS in creating awareness and engaging with its target audience about its services and the socio-economic opportunities provided by government. This meant that students had to select oneof the segments in the government segmentation model (i.e., rooted realists, city seekers, safely suburban, metro mobiles, and cosmopolitan capital) of GCIS, and propose a workable marketing plan to enhance public service interaction and communication. A total of five groups (consisting of six students each from the Auckland Park Bunting (APB) and Soweto campuses) were given an opportunity to pitch their marketing plans; only one group was selected as the overall winner. The winning group was from APB Campus, and consisted of Shanice Jones, Shungu Binda, Tshiamo Monyemangene, Yusuf Moosa, Gracia Muya, and Kody Pillay. The winning group was offered an internship opportunity to work with the marketing team at GCIS to implement their proposed marketing plan, starting in January 2023.
14 NEMISA Datathon 2022 in collaboration with the TPC The Technopreneurship Centre (TPC) hosted the final activity of 2022 with a National Data Science Innovation Hackathon (Datathon) in partnership with the National Electronic Media Institute of South Africa (NEMISA) – an entity of the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) under the leadership of Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni. The NEMISA Innovation Datathon was hosted physically and virtually in five provinces: Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West, Limpopo, and Free State provinces. TPC was the leading partner of the NEMISA Datathon in Gauteng Province, which took place at UJ’s Auckland Park Campus from 25 to 27 November 2022. The theme of the Datathon was “Scaling data skills for multidisciplinary impact”. It aimed to bring together government, academia, industry, organised labour, and civil society to deliberate on how big data and its applications could improve decision-making and policy adoption. Head of the TPC, Mr Ronny Mabokela, said “As the head of the TPC, I am thrilled by the incredible work of the centre. Our students are working tirelessly to develop innovative solutions and to showcase their talent. The centre has done excellent work, to the extent that its success continues to encourage even our first-year students to start participating in this type of innovation hackathon with the aim of upskilling themselves”. A total of 430 people registered for this event, with Gauteng Province having the largest number of participants (210) and the most teams. Congratulations to The A Team (Kenan Kasongo, Malebo Moleleki, Sanah Rasethaba, Aaron Kibambe, Ibrahim Lukombe), a group of third-year Business Information Technology students from the Department of Applied Information Systems, who were declared the overall winner of the Gauteng NEMISA Datathon 2022. They developed an AI-driven chatbot called Falsify, which is integrated with WhatsApp to detect and prevent the spread of fake news on social media. The aim of the solution is to prevent defamation of character, harm to a company’s reputation, and related social issues that could be caused by fake news. Team Digital Surfers (Olatomiwa Akinlaja and Keneilwe Goeieman) were declared the first runner-up of the NEMISA Datathon. They developed an interactive dashboard that focuses on education, job opportunities, and skills development. The competition’s next stage will take place in Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal in February 2023, when the winners from the respective provinces will compete for R100,000 towards the improvement of their solution and the incubation of the winning solution. The CEO of NEMISA, Mr Trevor Rammitlwa, strongly suggested in his opening address that, as an organisation, NEMISA was delighted to partner with the University of Johannesburg, and that they would continue to do so, as the relationship has been extremely valuable. Prof. Mercy Mpinganjira, Director of SCiiS, said: “We really appreciate the support and collaboration from NEMISA. This is an excellent opportunity for our students to acquire the necessary skills to disrupt the job market. Furthermore, we want our students to excel and develop solutions that can solve societal challenges”.
15 How to approach a pricing strategy Jani Menikou and Barbara George from Clover presented to the BCom Honours in Marketing Management students on 8 October 2022. Jani, senior brand manager at Clover, delivered an insightful presentation on how to approach a pricing strategy as part of the students’ strategic campaign for their industry project. The students asked questions about competitor pricing, margins, how to approach pricing if a new product is to be launched, and how to approach pricing for different target audiences. We all concluded that pricing in today’s difficult economic times is complex, and should be well-researched and planned. Elements of brand management Barbara, also a senior brand manager at Clover, presented on the elements of brand management, and explained the steps involved when a campaign is developed for a specific brand. She also explained how a campaign’s success will be measured, and provided students with tools they could use to measure success. Dr Isolde Lubber, senior lecturer in the Department of Marketing Management, said: “We want to extend our gratitude to Jani and Barbara for the time spent in developing wonderful presentations and for their time, especially on a Saturday, to share their expertise and experiences with our students. We appreciate you!” Guest lecturers Bringing industry into the classroom The power of object-oriented programming in C# On 11 October 2022, Mr Vincent Majavu was invited as a guest lecturer to address the first-year Development Software students. Vincent’s lecture focused on the power of object-oriented programming in C#, and highlighted the benefits and importance of applying the theoretical skills in software development while being openminded about the evolving industry. Mr Majavu is a software engineer with 14 years of professional experience in the IT industry, and holds an advanced diploma in software engineering. He has worked on projects of all sizes and DevOps maturity, which is a journey towards a frequent and more reliable release pipeline, automation, and stronger collaboration between development, IT, and business teams. From his experience of working with tech startups, to working on software in the online gambling industry and financial sectors. His passion for well-architectured software and effective collaboration has seen him present at the Durban Agile meet-up group on technical and leadership topics. He is currently a technical lead at Old Mutual, working on distributed cloud systems at scale.
16 Key roles of a Scrummaster On 19 September 2022, the thirdyear Development Software students were treated to a guest lecture by Thandi Rankoko, a Scrum master at Standard Bank. She got into the field as a project manager for six years, and then upskilled herself and excelled in the Scrum space. A Scrum master is accountable for the Scrum team's effectiveness, and leads a team using Agile project management through the course of a project. Her lecture discussed the key roles of a Scrum master and how graduates could enter the field through shadow work and by applying themselves in the world of work from a graduate level. Social media management On 13 and 14 September, Kingsway and Soweto Campus Information Management students had a guest lecture on social media management by Nontokozo Mokoena, SCiiS marketing manager. Nontokozo’s lecture covered social media strategy planning, the integration of online platforms, social media marketing fundamentals, and the different types of content that is valuable for social goals. Students were very interactive, and asked questions about influencer strategies and monetisation on different social media platforms. Strategic Marketing students present their marketing campaigns to ABSA’s branding team The third-year Strategic Marketing students presented their marketing campaigns to the branding team of ABSA as part of their industry project on 17 November 2022. The ABSA team consisted of Brunella Boamgard (Head Group Brand Integration and Acting Head Corporate Brand Execution), Sherrie Dyer-Bracher (Senior Specialist Corporate Brand Execution), Casey Monteiro (Senior Specialist Group Digital Channels and Content), and Audrey Naidoo (Senior Specialist Digital Strategy). The purpose of this industry project was for the students to develop a campaign that would differentiate and enhance ABSA’s competitive position in a social or environmental space. In this way, the students were tasked with proposing and pitching a creative and implementable purpose-led campaign that could enhance the image and reputation of the brand. Three groups (consisting of six students each) delivered their presentations to ABSA, and only one group was selected as the winner. The winning group was that of Liam de Wet, Matthew McLean, Hendrik Pieterse, Josephine Stanley, Divan Slabbert ,and Diketso Sumbana. The winning group has been given an opportunity to present their marketing campaign to one of the creative agencies that work with ABSA, and will be awarded an opportunity to attend master classes on how to develop and implement a marketing campaign. Congratulations!
17 Availability of internship programmes, and how to position yourself in the relevant industry Nomfundo Nkosi, founder of Technical Technicalities and a senior QA automation engineer, was a guest lecturer on 2 September 2022 for the third-year Development Software students. Her lecture discussed the availability of internship programmes for third-year students and how they can make their CVs stand out as they apply for work. She also addressed the importance of networking and engagement to build beneficial relationships in the work space. And on 24 August 2022, Sandile Nhlapho talked to the third-year students about the importance of being able identify yourself as an individual, and how to use that to position yourself in the relevant industry of your choice. Sandile explained how personal values contribute to work ethics, and the benefits of students using the knowledge and experience they have acquired at university, as that assists in building confidence and a good work ethic. Government segmentation model On 1 September 2022, a team from the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS), led by Ms Kopo Ndlovu, attended the third-year Marketing class to present the government segmentation model and to engage with the students about their intended industry project for the semester. As part of the collaboration between GCIS and the Department of Marketing Management, students are required to develop workable and creative marketing plans that could be implemented by GCIS in providing services to their stakeholders. Data science workshop On 3 September 2022, the Marketing Management Department, in collaboration with the Technopreneurship Center (TPC), held an impressive four-hour long #PowerBI master class for the Honours Marketing Management students, to assist them with their strategic marketing management industry projects. A big kudos to the University of Johannesburg in their effort to incorporate #4IR into all aspects of learning, which includes students outside the science domain. Special credit to Dr Isolde Lubbe, who organised and facilitated the master class. BCom Honours Marketing students were exposed to the fundamentals of #PowerBi and data analytics in general, which includes data cleaning, data modelling, data expression, data visualisation, and data interpretation. Thank you to Mr Ronny Mabokela (Head of the Technopreneurship Centre) for his expertise in organising the session by allowing professional postgraduate students to handle the master class. Special thanks to the trainers and to the assisting team: Vincent Rammai, Zainab Yaqub, Sandra Asagade, and Lanrewaju Fajimi.
18 Staff news Staff qualifications! Well done to Dr Mthobisi Nhlabathi, lecturer in the Department of Marketing Management; Dr Sithembiso Khumalo, lecturer and Deputy Head: CEP & Online in the Department of Information and Knowledge Management; Dr Martha Winter, administrator; and Dr Tino Museba, lecturer in the Department of Applied Information Systems, on attaining their Doctor of Philosophy degrees. Dr Nhlabathi obtained his PhD in Marketing at the University of the Witwatersrand, and his thesis, entitled Predictors of rental preference among Generation Y: A case of Sandton, South Africa, was prepared under the supervision of Dr Freddy Mgiba and Dr Neo Ligaraba (both academic staff at Wits). Dr Khumalo qualified for his PhD in Information Management at the University of Johannesburg, and his thesis, Strategic information management system for commercialisation dynamics of entrepreneurial universities, was prepared under the supervision of Prof. Tanya du Plessis. Dr Winter obtained her PhD in Sociology at the University of Johannesburg, and her thesis, entitled Marriage, gender, and international labour migration: A comparison of immigrant and transnational Malawian couples in South Africa, was prepared under the supervision of Prof. Grace Khunou and Prof. Kezia Batsai. Last, Dr Museba qualified for his PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering Science at the University of Johannesburg ,and his thesis, Adaptive machine learning algorithms for streaming data associated with concept drift, was prepared under the supervision of Prof. .Fulufhelo Vincent Nelwamondo and Prof. Khmaies Ouahada. Department of Marketing Management maintains its number one spot, five years in a row! The Department of Marketing Management was ranked number one in South Africa and in Africa for research in the field of Marketing Management. The department was first ranked number one in 2019 after a review of Scopus and Web of Science data, and has impressively maintained their first position five years in row!
19 With almost 100% of its staff having PhDs, AIS is leading the way! The Department of Applied Information Systems (AIS) held a celebratory luncheon on 24 October 2022 with Mteto Nyati, Chief Executive at Altron, as the guest of honour. The luncheon was inspired by the fact that AIS is celebrating its ‘almost there’ goal of 100% PhDs among its staff. This is a huge achievement, and the strategic objective is for all of its staff members to have PhDs by 2024. AIS has 20 academic staff and three support staff. There are currently only five academic staffmembers who need to complete their PhDs: two are awaiting their final results, and the remaining three might graduate in the first cohort of 2023. Renewed memorandum of understanding with the Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm in Nürnberg, Germany The Department of Marketing Management renewed its memorandum of understanding with the Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm in Nürnberg, Germany in 2022. To enhance the relationship between the two institutions, the Department of Marketing Management hosted Ms Ann-Kathrin Lauer, the Exchange Programs Coordinator from the Country Advisory Unit at the Technische Hochschule Nürnberg Georg Simon Ohm, who visited the Department on 4 October 2022. Fruitful meetings between Prof. Ilse Struweg (Departmental Coordinator: Internationalisation and External Scholars), Ms Ann-Kathrin Lauer, and UJ’s International Office will lead to stronger ties and some mobility options. Watch this space for more exciting news! Teaching innovation booklet for the 21st century Congratulations to Prof. Roelien Brink, Deputy HOD (CEP, SLPs and Online) in the Department of Applied Information Systems on being profiled for her teaching innovation initiatives. She is featured in the booklet Teaching innovation for the 21st century: Showcasing UJ teaching and learning 2021. You can read the article HERE, on page 20.
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