UKZN alumnus and former Constitutional Court Judge Zakeria “Zak” Yacoob delivered a webinar entitled Fake News, Lockdown and Unintended Consequences to more than 250 participants on the Zoom platform. In his presentation, Yacoob said the government should treat Ministers in the same way as poor people. ‘Let us punish
Dramatic Rise in COVID-19 Infections Expected in SA Later this Year – Top Scientist
It is improbable South Africa will be able to prevent the exponential spread of COVID-19 with the full impact of the disease likely to hit the country only later this year, says renowned UKZN Epidemiologist, Professor Salim Abdool Karim. Speaking during a data@breakfast Zoom presentation, Abdool Karim – also Director of CAPRISA and Chair
What creates consciousness? (SAFM – The Focal Point Podcast)
Betony Adams unpacks quantum research that might add to the discussion of what creates consciousness, she will also tell us more about theories that appear to indicate the role of quantum effects in the brain’s structural mechanisms and how progress made in the wider field of quantum biology might be relevant to the specific case
SA scientists on breaking the Covid-19 code
Durban – A team of world renowned scientists based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal has launched a fundraising campaign to support the analysis of Covid-19 data – which could provide vital research and insight on the spread of the virus across both South Africa and globally as the world battles to contain the devastating
Quantum Research Chair Appointed as New Director of National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Science
Professor Francesco Petruccione, the South African Research Chair for Quantum Information Processing and Communication (QIPC) and founder of UKZN’s Centre for Quantum Technology, has been appointed the interim Director of the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Science (NITheCS) as of the first of April. Speaking of his appointment, Petruccione said, ‘Today, amidst
Open Data Analysis in Epidemiology Helps Control Outbreaks
Pro Vice-Chancellor of Big Data and Informatics and South African Research Chair in Quantum Information Processing and Communication at UKZN, Professor Francesco Petruccione recently hosted a breakfast seminar titled COVID-19 Genomics and Epidemiology. The seminar was presented by renowned UKZN bioinformatician, epidemiologist and Director of KRISP, Professor Tulio de Oliveira. The presentation highlighted the
Will Africa miss the next computational revolution?
One may argue that the future of quantum computing is rather uncertain. Its success rests heavily on the development of large-scale quantum devices that can perform universal computation. That being said, the allure of potential quantum computing applications has enticed many researchers to develop quantum algorithms, some of which can be run on the noisy
Big Data daily update for COVID-19 in Africa: Epidemiology & Genomics
Together with the Big Data group of UKZN, we started a daily update of the data on COVID-19 in Africa. All of the scripts for generation of the data is deposited open in repositories as all any data developed by our team. The report is written and compiled by a group of virologist, epidemiologist and
Big Data for Science and Society Flagships Project Workshop Promotes Transdisciplinary Research
Every researcher knows that working together across academic disciplines is notoriously hard. Even seemingly related scientific fields – such as computer science and information technologies – are often divided by barriers such as different languages, academic cultures and approaches to problem solving. And it does not get better when we consider fields as
data@breakfast 28 February 2020 photos
Photos from data@breakfast 28 February 2020 can be seen here.