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New research lab to become operational in April

6th March 2015

By: Pimani Baloyi

Creamer Media Writer

  

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Information technology services company IBM’s new IBM Research – Africa lab, in Johannesburg, will start operating next month, IBM Industry global industrial products GM Dirk Claessens tells Mining Weekly.

The company last month announced its plan to establish this laboratory to expand its African research capability.

IBM had a joint stand with mine technical services provider MinePR at the 2015 Investing in African Mining Indaba.

Claessens believes that the indaba assisted in highlighting the “well-timed” new laboratory project. He says the lab will focus on advancing the use of big data, cloud and mobile technologies to support South Africa’s national priorities, drive skills development and foster innovation- based economic growth.

The ten-year investment programme – facilitated in conjunction with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Science and Technology – will result in the establishment of a new research facility at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). The project is planned to eventually include other African countries.

As part of that project, IBM’s South Africa-based researchers will partner with local universities.

Although the project will start at Wits, Claessens says, IBM plans for the lab’s research to help develop and include other institutions of higher education – research institutions, innovation centres, start-ups and government agencies.

The new lab will be located in the Tshimologong precinct, in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.

The lab’s new South African research team will be led by Dr Solomon Assefa, formerly a research scientist at IBM’s flagship Thomas J Watson Research Centre, in New York’s Yorktown Heights, in the US.

The South African lab’s focus areas will include digital urban renewal, healthcare transformation and “big data for big science”.

In terms of digital urban renewal, the lab’s inner-city location will enable it to explore the role of advanced digital technologies and IBM’s big data analytics in urban renewal. Mobile technologies, global positioning systems, cameras and sensors will be used to reimagine the delivery of services such as transportation, energy and security, explains Claessens.

In helping to transform healthcare, IBM natural resources centre of excellence director Magda Honey tells Mining Weekly that the researchers will explore new approaches using big data analytics and cognitive computing to increase the efficiency, scalability and effectiveness of healthcare in resource- constrained environments, not only in South Africa, but also in Africa.

She cites that IBM Research – Africa has engaged with the KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV.

Big data for big science will entail new researchers contributing to the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope project, which aims to answer fundamental questions about the origins of the universe and assist in its mapping.

Meanwhile, Claessens says the Mining Indaba was also the perfect platform for IBM and MinePR to showcase their newly established, jointly developed solution that amalgamates the technicalities associated with mining and optimises technical systems used in mine planning and functioning.

He says the companies recently completed a pilot project on the functioning of the solution at a South African platinum mine.

“With the exposure that we received at the indaba, with various mine managers coming to our stand to view our solution, we are confident that it will perform positively on the market.”

The 2015 Investing in African Mining Indaba took place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from February 9 to 12.

Edited by Leandi Kolver
Creamer Media Deputy Editor

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