Well hello, stranger
Our University holds a yearly Flash facts Competition. It is an opportunity for Post Grad students (Honours, Masters and PhD) to share their studies with the rest of the Campus. It's a perfect opportunity to network and see if you can collaborate with someone else. You are only allowed one presentation slide and 3 minutes to wow the audience. It's basically an elevator pitch, since the students who win receive funding for future research.
The first round is held within each department, where 3 students are selected for the faculty round. The faculty round includes departments in Natural Science, Agricultural Sciences and Building Sciences
Our department is very small and we only had one student that wanted to participate. Jenna focused on a case study in Namibia since she herself was born and raised in Namibia. It was truly inspiring and I learned a lot from her presentation. She focused on the importance of planning for the informal. We as planners tend to plan an area and wait for the people to come, but with the informal, the people are already there. So we need to learn how to plan when the people are already there.
Jena in her natural habita. She also won the student Building Science category and ended with 8 out of 45 students. We are extremely proud of her.
First and Second place winners in the student Building Science category, along with our Professor (middle).
This competition is not only for the students but for the lecturers as well. Mr Thomas and I both participated and represented our department.
Mr Thomas did a study on the need for more active urban planning education. In other words, we need to shift to more practical education in our field. It is important for students to understand the theories, but they also need practical experience when they enter the planning world.
Mr Thomas is very straight to the point and still had 1 minute left when he finished. The crowd was very engaging and asked a ton of questions.
I focused on the importance of public transport in our city. Why it is important and how we as planners can assist the industry within our city. South Africa is known for the Minibus Taxi Industry and this informal mode of transport presents the country with many challenges. Even though we face challenges, the Minibus Taxi Industry plays an important role in the lives of so many South Africans. Nearly 70% of residents make use of minibus taxis every day to travel between their destinations.
But the planning in regard to the informal industry is extremely poor, infrastructure is lacking and it's difficult to manage such a large informal industry. So the goal behind the research is to see if we can possible provide a framework or strategy to provide better future planning for the informal transport sector in South Africa.
I get very anxious whenever I need to speak in front of a large group of people (ironic I know), but people also tell me slow and steady wins the race. Recently I adapted a new phrase, "low and slow" for I have a tendency to speak very loud and quickly. It has helped a lot.
The anxiety that I had washed away a bit since some of my students came to support me. It's wonderful to see that we are inspiring these young minds.
All the staff members presented their current studies and research.
I think this competition shows students that hard work and dedication goes a long way. It is a way to interact with other departments in our facility and we get to see all the exciting research that's happening on our campus. I really enjoyed all the presentations and was amazed by the Mathamatic students and our Astrophysicists. I'm looking forward to seeing what our students will contribute to the science field one day.
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