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CSIR to showcase its technologies and innovations at Science Forum SA 2024

Publication Date: 
Tuesday, December 3, 2024 - 13:00

The CSIR will showcase research, technology, and innovation for humanity at this year’s Science Forum South Africa hosted by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, 4 - 6 December 2024 at the International Convention Centre. 

Contact Person

Kulani Chauke

+27 (071) 266 0019

kchauke@csir.co.za

The CSIR will showcase research, technology, and innovation for humanity at this year’s Science Forum South Africa hosted by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, 4 - 6 December 2024 at the International Convention Centre. 

Our researchers will engage with the public about the future of work, personalised chemo for African patients and reading for meaning in local languages like Sepedi. Members of the media and public are invited to interact with our Voyager robot, get behind the microscope and test our local language text-to-speech literacy app at the CSIR’s stand (EH18). 

We invite the media to engage with CSIR experts on research that improves the lives of South Africans, including: 

  • A literacy app for South African children: We are piloting the Ngiyaqonda! literacy app to help South African children read for meaning in their home language. The app draws on curriculum-approved content and the CSIR’s local language text and speech technologies to create thousands of sentences for foundation phase learners to play through.  
    More info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmQiqx8x0J8 [Video]
  • Skills for the future of work: Learning factories – The CSIR is setting up a network of learning factories at higher education institutions and in industries to teach hands-on fourth industrial revolution skills, including artificial intelligence, augmented reality, robotics and digital twinning. 
    More info: https://www.csir.co.za/learning-factory 
  • Personalised chemo for African patients: In a first for Africa, researchers are screening cancer tissue samples to find existing drugs that could be repurposed as effective chemotherapies for people of African descent.  Researchers are building a database using tumour samples donated by consenting patients at Steve Biko Academic Hospital, so that future patients in Africa can access personalised cancer medicines. 
    More info: https://youtu.be/KJ_yc-19U3I?si=o-a7iWYsjDgO9Jyg [Video] 

  


A mobile robot called “Voyager” is equipped with significant
processing power to run computationally complex tasks such as
mapping, path planning, localisation, and filtering. 


CSIR researchers (right) engage with a teacher (left)
in a primary school
in Mamelodi, Pretoria.

 

 

Members of the media are invited as follows:  

Exhibition dates:  

Wednesday 4 December 2024 08:00 – 17:30 

Thursday, 5 December 2024 07:30 – 13:00 

Friday, 6 December 2024 07:30 – 14:00 

  

RSVP and enquiries:  

For RSVPs contact:
Phetolo Phatsibi, CSIR Media Practitioner  
Email: PPhatsibi@csir.co.za 
Mobile: 0813968871 

For enquiries, contact:
Kulani Chauke, CSIR Media Manager 
Email: Kchauke@csir.co.za
Mobile: 0712660019  

About the CSIR:  

The CSIR, an entity of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, is one of the leading scientific and technology research, development and implementation organisations in Africa. Constituted by an Act of Parliament in 1945 as a science council, the CSIR undertakes directed and multidisciplinary research and technological innovation, as well as industrial and scientific development, to improve the quality of life of all South Africans. For more information, visit www.csir.co.za.   

 

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