Prof Renette BlignautThe top educator in the Africa category of the SAS Awards is employed right here at the University of the Western Cape (UWC).
Recently, Prof Renette Blignaut was one of eight global educators who were honoured by SAS, a leading analytical software company that invests greatly in education worldwide, in an award ceremony in Orlando, USA. Her fellow winners on Wednesday, 7 May, hail from Poland, Spain, America, Canada, Brazil, Malaysia and Australia, with Prof Blignaut being the Africa representative.
Prof Blignaut has been recognised for excellence in education and impact on shaping the future of Analytics, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. The company has honoured her as part of its Academic Programme for Educators. But, it is not the first time she has received such an honour from the company. In 2021 she also won the SAS Thought Leader Award.
The familiar face at UWC, known for heading up the UWC Department of Statistics and Population Studies and now managing UWC’s Data Science postgraduate programmes, said: “I’m honoured to be recognised as one of eight educators in the world for their contribution to education in the fields of analytics, data science and AI.”
She said education is a team effort, and “I’m honoured to share this award with my UWC data science colleagues”.
With 33 years of academic experience and more than 75 peer-reviewed articles, Prof Blignaut has received many accolades, but is grateful for being honoured with such a significant award.
