Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology
Prof RF Sandenbergh, Dean
Telephone number: 012 420 2440
E-mail address: dean@eng.up.ac.za
Message by the Dean
Research is regarded as a primary driver of excellence and is an essential
part of the activities of the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and
Information Technology. It not only covers the spectrum of disciplines in
which formal programmes are offered in its schools of Engineering, the
Built Environment, Information Technology and the Graduate School
of Technology Management, but is closely aligned with the strategic
imperatives of government and industry.
The seven departments in the School of Engineering have active
research groups that conduct research in a number of research
focus areas that address issues of local and international
relevance. In addition, there are a number of research centres
and research chairs that are supported by industry, as well as
the Carl and Emily Fuchs Institute for Microelectronics, which
support the Faculty's research agenda.
The research focus areas of the Department of Chemical
Engineering include process modelling and control, applied
materials, environmental engineering, water utilisation, reaction
engineering, biochemical engineering, sustainable process
systems engineering and tribology. In the field of simulating
chemical engineering processes, contributions were made on
the optimisation of autogenous milling by optimising a set of
operational parameters to yield significant savings. Lead and
toxic metal-free detonators were developed for the mining
industry, and research was conducted on the use of layered
materials as benign functional additives as controlled release
vehicles for insecticides.
The research focus areas of the Department of Civil Engineering
include geotechnical engineering, water resources engineering,
structural engineering and transportation engineering. The
Chair in Railway Engineering is associated with the Department.
The Department recently acquired a geotechnical centrifuge that will greatly enhance its geotechnical modelling capabilities.
Contributions were made in research on collapsible soils, track deflection on heavy-haul railway lines, ground movements below
certain railway lines, the quality of concrete slabs, heat evolution in foamed concrete, and a sensitivity analysis in earthquake
engineering.
The Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering has research focus areas in advanced sensor networks,
bioengineering, control systems, electromagnetism, electronics and microelectronics, energy systems, industrial electronics and
electric drives, intelligent systems, lighting and vision, power systems, broadband wireless multimedia communication, and signals
and digital communications. In this Department, the Bioengineering Group conducted research on acoustic models of cochlear
implants. The Broadband Wireless Multimedia Communication Group worked on transmission scheduling for wireless mesh
networks. The Control Systems Group continued its work on the modelling, validation and control of an industrial fuel gas blending
system. The Advanced Sensor Networks Group conducted research on wireless sensor and actor networks, dynamic connectivity
in wireless underground sensor networks, and cooperative communication systems in underground tunnels. The Electromagnetism
Group analysed and designed various types of antennae for high-technology applications. The Electronics and Microelectronics
Group developed a variety of designs, including a switch-mode power amplifier and a wideband low-noise amplifier. The Energy
Systems, and Efficiency and Demand-side Management Group conducted research on models and applications in viral dynamics,
predictive control in power generation, and the energy-efficiency optimisation of belt conveyors. The Intelligent Systems Group
developed statistical gear health analysis and conducted research on the detection of land-cover change, and developed systems
for detecting new human settlements.
The Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering has research focus areas in resource optimisation, industry and functional
area application, business engineering and enterprise architecture. Contributions were made on optimisation problems in transport,
stochastic modelling towards inventory management and reliability modelling, and the optimisation of humanitarian logistics.
Research in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering was focused on physical metallurgy, welding and
corrosion, minerals processing and hydrometallurgy, and pyrometallurgy and refractory materials. The establishment of a Chair in
Pyrometallurgy promoted growth in the research activities related to high-temperature furnace technology, with a strong focus
on sintering technology, refractory materials, waste material treatment and process optimisation. Minerals processing research
remains directed towards iron ore processing and waste treatment, with a developing focus area in coal processing. Research
activities in physical metallurgy focused on microstructure development during processing, hot and cold working, and welding
metallurgy.
The research focus areas in the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering are centred around vibration monitoring
and diagnostics, vibration measurement and analysis, structural dynamic design and analysis, computational solid mechanics,
enhanced heat transfer, electronics cooling, micro-channel condensation, optimisation with constructal theory, off-road vehicle
dynamics, tyres and modelling. In this Department, the Dynamic Systems Group consolidated its research thrust in vibration-based
condition monitoring, and maintenance engineering and asset integrity management. New developments were focused on the
use of discrepancy analysis and waveform reconstruction for applications such as these. The Thermofluids Research Group made
contributions in the areas of convective heat transfer, design of heat exchangers using computational fluid dynamics and the
principles of constructal theory. The Vehicle Dynamics Group contributed to improving the dynamics of off-road vehicles by using
simulation and experimental validation.
The Department of Mining Engineering has research focus areas in rock engineering, safety, environmental engineering and
explosives engineering. Contributions were made in rock engineering with the development of a new approach to simulate crush
pillar behaviour in a tabular layout as typically used as support in gold, and more extensively, in platinum stopes. Safety-related
research included a contribution on the potential of the use of incident reconstruction simulations to avoid mine incidents, since
virtual reality education and training offers the advantage of exposing employees to different hazards in a safe environment,
and to safely simulate the potential outcome of unsafe acts when exposed to these hazards and risks on a daily basis. Research
in environmental engineering included a project on the utilisation (rather than release) of mining-induced methane gas into the
atmosphere. To reduce its inherent danger and to mitigate its global warming impact, a carbon credit project under the clean
development mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol was also developed and implemented to capture and destroy methane in
underground mines.
In the School for the Built Environment, research was conducted in three departments: Architecture, Construction Economics
(including the Real Estate programme) and Town and Regional Planning.
The Department of Architecture has research focus areas in environmental potential, housing and urban environments, and heritage
and cultural studies. Contributions were made on the origins of the southern African building regulations, recycling of the Thesen
Island Boiler House as a hotel, the life and homes of Catharina of Paliacatte, stone cladding as artificial ruin for triggering nostalgia,
the dialectic of ruin, the emergence of a Lowveld architectural style, and the importance of heritage plants and plant relics for
historical places, and old gardens as a source of new ornamental plants.
The Department of Construction Economics conducts research in the following areas: procurement methods, social housing,
land rights, facilities management, quantity surveying practice, resilient cities, real estate curricula, finance and maintenance,
construction information, classification, specification, and project management, and building cost analysis. Contributions were
made to the development of sustainable human settlements with an extensive interdisciplinary review of literature on the
attributes of ecology, sustainability and implications for built environment research.
In real estate, a model was developed to determine the relationship between property share prices and underlying asset values,
compare short-term fluctuations with company value, obtain driving forces of company growth and identify information that
could be used to assist in property valuation. The variables that drive property demand were investigated using statistical fits
of historical macroeconomic variables applied to a South African context to explain recent residential property activity. A risk
management framework was developed and the importance of everyone in an organisation being involved in the management of
risks was highlighted.
The Department of Town and Regional Planning has the following research focus areas: strategic development planning, sustainable
settlement planning, design and maintenance, mining, planning law and sustainable human settlement, the creation of safe,
responsive and enabling urban spaces, and planning methods and techniques. Contributions were made on the need for a balance
between transformation and service provision in state infrastructure investment and development spending.
The School of Information Technology made research contributions in its departments of Computer Science, Information Science
(including publishing and book history) and Informatics.
The research focus areas in the Department of Computer Science are computational intelligence, computer and information
security, theoretical computer science, software engineering and computer science education. The Computational Intelligence
Research Group developed new, biologically inspired optimisation algorithms. Models of the foraging behaviour of ants were used
to develop a self-adapting behavioural particle swarm optimiser, where individual search behaviours self-adapt based on the local
search environment. Models of the cemetery organisation behaviour and the division of labour behaviour observed in ant colonies
have been used to develop new algorithms for distributed load balancing in computer clusters. A number of strategies have been
developed to self-adapt control parameter values used in particle swarm optimisation, eliminating the need to manually tune
problem-dependent parameters.
The research focus areas in the Department of Information Science are knowledge management, information processes, meta-
context of information, and book and publishing studies. The Department is coordinating an ongoing interdisciplinary research
project to innovate the curriculum for information literacy. This project has created a stimulus for research because of the new
possibilities in the different fields of research, enhancing creativity, and developing a positive staff morale and intrinsic motivation.
Book history focused on the ability of adolescents with hearing loss in special schools to access and use academic material. The
annual book publishing industry survey reports for 2009 and 2010, as well as the Book Publishing Industry Annual Survey Broad
Trends Report, 2008-2010, were completed. Research on information behaviour in various contexts was continued, including
librarian management.
The research focus areas in the Department of Informatics are information systems and organisation, information systems and
education, and information and communication technology for sustainable development. Each focus area is associated with one
or more International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) working groups. A highlight in the information systems and
organisation focus area was a project that focused on the development of a framework to be used in the design of financial trading
applications in the South African investment banking environment.
Research in the Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM) is focused on technology and innovation management, project
management, maintenance and physical asset management, and systems and lifecycle management. In project management,
contributions were made with the investigation of the state-of-the-art status of current project management approaches followed
in South Africa with the aim of aiding in positioning South Africa to ensure that all possible revenue streams are obtained during the
transition to a green economy. In technology and innovation, studies were done on human language technology, the performance
of science parks and how they contribute to innovation outcomes in South Africa, and on technology roadmaps in the mining
industry. In energy research, an assessment was done of the technological sustainability of biodiesel development in South Africa.
Prof Roelf Sandenbergh
|
