New Centre of Excellence in Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at Wits

Minister of Science and Technology, Derek Hanekom launched a new Centre of Excellence in Mathematical and Statistical Sciences at Wits University.

This is the 14th centre that has been established by the department and the National Research Foundation since 2004.

The centres are leaders in research in various areas of national interest. They have been established to improve delivery of appropriate human resources and knowledge capacity, and to propel the country’s research excellence and capacity development.

Hanekom said the centre would afford better tools that would help in the understanding of complex and dynamic systems in earth and environmental sciences “[The centre] will devote a considerable share of its energy to earth and environmental sciences,” he said.

Director of the centre, Prof. Fazal Mahomed said, “Our network has grown. This [centre] gives us an opportunity to push the forefront of research and open up new areas of research.”

The centre is also expected to make contributions to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) initiative, a radio telescope development in this country and Australia, which will boast a data collecting area of about one square kilometre. “… From which we anticipate data analysis challenges unlike anything humankind has ever seen before,” said Hanekom.

He said the volume of data generated by SKA each day, would be of the same order of magnitude as the equivalent of 100 million personal computers.