Position: Head of Department
Qualifications: M.Sc (UJ), PhD (University of Wollongong, Australia)
Email: lleenen@uwc.ac.za

Biography

Prof. Lousie Leenen received a PhD in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) from the University of Wollongong in Australia, and a MSc from the University of Johannesburg.

Prior to joining the Department of Computer Science at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), she was a Principal Researcher in Cyber Defence at the Council for Scientific Industrial and Research (CSIR).

She is the Chair of the IFIP Working Group, WG9.10 on ICT in Peace and War and has numerous publications in Artificial Intelligence Applications, Cybersecurity, Social Engineering, and Mathematical Modelling.

Position: Deputy Head of Department
Qualifications: B.Sc Hons (UWC), M.Sc (UCT), PhD (UWC)
Email: mnorman@uwc.ac.za

Biography

Dr Michael Norman is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of the Western Cape. His key research area is the software industry in developing countries and as such his PhD in Computer Science from the University of the Western Cape focused on the software development successes in a developing country such as India with the intention of determining what other developing countries could learn from this. A study of software development in the Western Cape region (Cape Town) has also been undertaken to determine the status thereof. Dr Norman recently started co-supervising projects in Cyber-security in collaboration with the CSIR as a mechanism to start to establish this within the department and primarily teaches software engineering at both undergraduate as well as graduate levels.

Position: Professor
Qualifications: M.Sc (Université Catholique de Louvain), M.Sc (US), PhD (KTH)
Email: abagula@uwc.ac.za

Biography

Prof. B. Antoine Bagula received a Ph.D degree in Communication Systems from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden, and 2 MSc degrees (Computer Engineering – Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), Belgium and Computer Science – University of Stellenbosch (SUN), South Africa).  He is currently a full professor of Computer Science at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) where he also leads the Intelligent Systems and Advanced Telecommunication (ISAT) laboratory. Prof. Bagula is a well published scientist in his research field which include interests in the Internet-of-Things and Tactile Internet, Machine Learning Techniques, Blokchain Technologies, Cloud/Fog computing, Network Softwarization (e.g. NFV and SDN), and Next Generation Networks including 4G/5G. For the last 10 years, Prof. Bagula has applied a combination of these research interests to the design and implementation of Cyber Physical Systems frameworks including: Cyber Physical Health Systems (CPHS), Cyber Physical Energy Systems (CPES), Cyber Physical Safety Systems (CPSS), Cyber Physical Water Systems (CPWS) and Cyber Physical Pollution Systems (CPPS).

Position: Senior Lecturer
Qualifications: B.Sc (UWC), M.Sc (UWC), PhD (UWC)
Email: mghaziasgar@uwc.ac.za

Biography

Dr Mehrdad Ghaziasgar is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). He received his PhD in Computer Science with a specialization focus on computer vision and machine learning for human gesture recognition from UWC in 2017. The PhD work commenced, and was successfully completed, in one year (2016). He has been (and continues to be) a grant holder and research group head within the Telkom/Openserve/Aria Technologies Centre-of-Excellence (CoE) at the department of Computer Science since 2010. He heads up the Assistive Technologies research group (ATRG) within the CoE. The group conducts research into applications of machine learning and image processing towards novel assistive technology systems within areas such as human emotion detection and recognition, facial expression detection and recognition, gesture tracking and recognition towards sign language recognition, novel human-computer interfaces, augmented reality interfaces, sentiment analysis for business intelligence, weather forecasting, among many others. Since 2010, Dr Ghaziasgar has supervised 9 MSc students to completion (6 with distinction) and co-supervised an additional 2 MSc students to completion. Furthermore, he has supervised 39 BSc Honours projects to completion. In total, he has initiated and supervised more than 45 assistive technology research projects to completion since 2010, many of which have resulted in fully functional proofs-of-concept. Two of these prototypes have won 1st place awards at the “Imagine Cup” Microsoft technology competition. Dr Ghaziasgar has authored or co-authored more than 20 publications that include peer-reviewed conference papers and one book chapter. Dr Ghaziasgar also serves as an expert reviewer for the Journal of Advanced Computational Intelligence and Intelligent Informatics and a number of South African Computer Science conferences. Finally, during his student days, Dr Ghaziasgar received a number of prestigious academic awards, two of which are: receiving the highest award for exceptional academic excellence by the Rector of UWC in 2011 and placing 1st in the UWC Science Faculty in 2007.

Position: Senior Lecturer
Qualifications: PgDip (AIMS), M.Sc (UCT), PhD (UCT)
Email: oisafiade@uwc.ac.za

Biography

Dr Omowunmi Isafiade received both MSc and PhD degrees in Computer Science from the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa, and another masters level (PGDip) degree in Mathematical Sciences from the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), South Africa. Prior to joining the University of the Western Cape as a full-time academic, Dr Isafiade was a post-doctoral researcher under the National Research Foundation and the department of Science and Technology (NRF-DST) innovation fellowship. She is a well-published scientist in her research field, and her excellent work has garnered her considerable local and international recognition, obtaining numerous notable recognitions, grants and awards such as the NRF Research Excellence Award for Early Career/Emerging Researchers, NRF Young Researcher Y-Rating, UWC Research and Recognition Awards, prestigious L’Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science, UWC Science Faculty Best Early Career Researcher and Excellent Lecturer, an AIMS-DAAD fellowship, Paul G. Allen Family Price, Golden Key International Honour Society award, Google Anita Borg (Women Techmakers) scholarship (Zurich, Switzerland), Grace Hopper Scholarship (USA), Heidelberg Laureate Forum and German Scholars Organisation (HLF- GSO) Grant, amongst others.

Her research interests include but are not limited to data-driven decision support, applications of artificial intelligence to cyber physical systems, and immersive technologies in diverse computing settings and other smart environments, which are key streams of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). She has successfully (co-) supervised numerous postgraduate students, and is an active reviewer for credible international journal platforms, such as Crime Science Springer Nature, MDPI Information (Switzerland), and Journal of Computers, Environment and Urban Systems. She is a member of the Council on Higher Education of Lesotho and the founding Coordinator of the postgraduate diploma programme in e-Skills development (with Immersive Technologies) at UWC. She has served as part of the Technical Program committee at various conferences and a Co-Chair at the AfriCHI 2023 conference. She also serves as an external examiner/moderator for University of Mpumalanga, Cape Peninsula university of Technology and the Central University of Technology, among others. She is part of the UWC Institutional Operation Planning (IOP) Learning and Teaching Task Team (2021-2025), and a member of the Management Committee for the Open Serve/Telkom Centre of Excellence (CoE).

Dr Isafiade is passionate about using her skills in helping to dismantle barriers that keep women and the less privileged from entering the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) domain. Hence, she is consistently involved in the advancement of women in the STEM field by participating in various initiatives to support the cause. She chaired the team that resuscitated the women in Computer Science (WiCS) society at the University of Cape (UCT) and also created and led the effort to establish WICS at UWC. She has successfully facilitated the first Women Advancement Forum: International Exchanges, Research & Academia (WAFIRA) 2-day capacity-building workshop in Southern Africa hosted by UWC, in collaboration with AIMS and African Gong.

Position: Lecturer
Qualifications: B.Sc (UWC), B.Sc Hons (UWC), M.Sc (UWC)
Email: ahenney@uwc.ac.za

Biography

Mr Andre Henney obtained his M.Sc from the University of the Western Cape focussing on Embedded Systems. He is currently completing his PhD with UWC, working as part of the BANG research group, focusing on ICT solutions for the Deaf community using mobile phones. His current research interest is ICT4D, IoT, Networking and Cyber Security and the interworking of these fields. He currently holds the position of lecturer in the Department of Computer Science, University of the Western Cape. Prior to joining UWC as a Chief Officer, he was employed at the South African Post Office Trust Centre as a systems engineer.

Position: Lecturer
Qualifications: M.Sc (UKZN), PhD (TokyoTech Japan)
Email: cnyirenda@uwc.ac.za

Biography

Dr Clement Nyirenda received a PhD in Computational Intelligence and Systems Science from Tokyo Institute of Technology, an MScEng in Computer Engineering from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Malawi. He is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Computer Science at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). His research efforts and publications hinge on Computational Intelligence paradigms such as Fuzzy Logic, Evolutionary Computation and Artificial Neural Networks, and their applications in Communication Networks and Smart Environments.

Research Interests: Computational Intelligence paradigms such as Evolutionary Fuzzy Systems, Evolving (Neuro) Fuzzy Systems, Evolutionary Deep Neural Networks, Swarm Intelligence, Fuzzy Preference in Many and Multiobjective Optimization and their applications in Internet of Things, Next Generation Networks, Smart Water, Smart Energy, Smart Cities, Crime Prevention, Anomaly Detection, Prediction Systems, Pattern Recognition.

Position: Extraordinary Professor
Qualifications: BSc (Hons), DIC, PhD (London), PhD (Jyvaskyla)
Email: jonathan.blackledge59@gmail.com

Biography

Prof. Jonathan Blackledge holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics from London University and a Doctorate in Mathematical Information Technology from the University of Jyvaskyla. He has published over 300 scientific and engineering research papers and reports including 15 teaching and research books, has filed 20 patents and technologies to license and has been supervisor to 280 MSc/MPhil and 72 PhD research graduates. After a career in academia, industry and the scientific civil service, in 2008, he was elected to the position of Stokes Professor by the Science Foundation Ireland, becoming a citizen of the Republic of Ireland in 2011. With 30 years’ experience of research and development in defence related science and technology and the intelligence services, he recently retired from the Ministry of Defence as Colonel of Military Intelligence. He currently holds visiting professorships with a number of UK and overseas universities including the University of Wales, Technological University Dublin, Warsaw University of Technology, the University of Western Cape and the University of KwaZulu-Natal where he was previously Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, while directing research programs in industry focusing on post-quantum cryptography.  He is a Fellow of a number of UK Institutes and Societies including the Institute of Physics, the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, the British Computer Society, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, the Royal Statistical Society, the Energy Institute, the Royal Society of Arts, the Chartered Management Institute, the Institute of Leadership and Management and the Institute of Directors. In 2007, he was elected a Fellow of the City and Guilds London Institute for his contributions to work-placed based learning and in the same year was made a Freeman of the City of London for his contributions to economics. 

Position: Extraordinary Professor
Qualifications: MSc (Geneve), PhD (Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden)
Email: jrglitho@uwc.ac.za

Biography

Prof. Roch H Glitho (https://users.encs.concordia.ca/~glitho/) received a PhD degree in Tele-informatics from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden, and three MSc degrees (Computer Science: University of Geneva, Switzerland; Pure Mathematics: University of Geneva, Switzerland; and Business Economics: University of Grenoble, France). He is currently a full professor and Canada Research Chair at Concordia University, Montreal Canada. He is also a Professor Extraordinaire at the University of Western Cape. Prior to joining academia, he worked for almost a quarter of a century in industry and has held several senior technical positions (e.g. senior specialist, principal engineer, expert) in Sweden and Canada with the telecommunications equipment manufacturer Ericsson. He has also held several leadership positions with IEEE (e.g. Editor-In-Chief of IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials, Editor-In-Chief of IEEE Communications Magazine; IEEE Distinguished Lecturer). His current research interests include Cloud / Fog computing; Network Softwarization (eg NFV and SDN), Internet of Things, Content Delivery Networks; 4G/5G; and Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D).

Position: Extraordinary Professor
Qualifications: MS Computer Science (Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona), PhD Computer Science (UCT, South Africa)
Email: btucker@uwc.ac.za

Biography

Prof. Tucker is a senior member of BANG, a research group that investigates Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions for marginalised and poverty-stricken communities; together with those communities. Notable BANG projects include Zenzeleni which was South Africa’s first community-owned and run rural ISP; and SignSupport, an app suite co-designed with and for Deaf communities to empower them to communicate with any type of people in their own language, signed language. We call this work ICT for Development (ICT4D) and we are interested in the social, technical, economic, legal and managerial aspects of such efforts. Prof. Tucker has lectured ICT4D, Operating Systems and Computer Networks at Honours, and HCI (human computer interface), Operating Systems, Computer Networks and Databases at 3rd year; and also gave our 1st year programming (in Java) course for a number of years. He is an Associate Editor for ITID; has won a number of awards at UWC (long service; teaching, research, innovation and community engagement excellence); has graduated 99 postgrads whilst full-time at UWC 1998-2021, including 10 PhDs and 26 MScs by thesis; and has over 130 publications. He sits on the Board of Zenzeleni Networks and continues to work with BANG on ICT4D efforts. Prof. Tucker moved to Stellenbosch University as of June 2021.

Courses

Undergraduate
CSC311 (Human Computer Interface): syllabus

Honours
Honours ICT4D: syllabus

Research
BANG
Zenzeleni
SignSupport

Position: Extraordinary Professor
Qualifications: Medical Computer Science (Heidelberg University), Doctoral DR. Sc. Hum
Email: uklauck@uwc.ac.za

Biography

Prof. Ulrich Klauck holds a diploma degree in Medical Computer Science from Heidelberg University and Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences (1985) and a doctoral degree (Dr. sc. hum.) from Heidelberg University (1991). He is currently Professor in the Department for Computer Science at Aalen University and vice dean of the Faculty for Electronics and Computer Science. He has founded the Department of Computer Science and was head of the department from 2000 to 2006 and from 2010 to 2014. From 1996 to 2001 he was vice rector for research and international affairs, until May 2017 he was member and vice director of the board of directors. He is currently Dean of Study of two Master’s Programs, one of them being Machine Learning and Data Analytics. Before joining Aalen University of Applied Sciences, he worked as a scientist for Bruker Analytical Instruments (Karlsruhe, Germany) in the area of pattern recognition and analysis of MR spectra. Prof. Klauck is teaching image processing, pattern recognition, machine learning and data analytics. He was leading several research projects and industrial projects in the area of image processing and pattern recognition. He is also head of a small company for technology transfer (STZBAI, Steinbeis Transferzentrum).

Position: Emeritus Professor
Qualifications: BSc; HDE (Stellenbosch); MSc (South Africa); PhD (Pretoria)
Email: iventer@uwc.ac.za

Biography

Professor Isabella Venter is a South African citizen, who obtained her doctoral degree in 2000 from the University of Pretoria. She held positions at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University and the Business School of Stellenbosch University before joining the Computer Science department at the University of the Western Cape.  She acted as Chairperson of the department from 2005 to 2017 and is currently still the chairperson of the Management Committee of the Telkom/Aria Technologies Africa Centre of Excellence.  Her research interest is Computer Science Education, Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Information Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D).