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| Bheki Twala |
German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, who was also known as the ‘prince of mathematicians’ in the late 1800s, referred to mathematics as "the queen of the sciences". In Latin, German, as well as English, the word corresponding to science means ‘(field of) knowledge’ and in this sense, mathematics is exactly that.
History confirms that mathematics arose out of the need to do calculations relating to taxation and commerce; to understand the relationships among numbers; to measure land; and to predict astronomical events. Mathematics has since been greatly extended and there has been valuable interaction between mathematics and science - to the benefit of both.
In commemoration of this ‘science queen’, World Mathematics Day is celebrated annually. It is commemorated this year on 4 March.
A safer South Africa with the help of robots
CSIR research scientist, Dr Bhekisipho Twala, involved in digital intelligence studies, knows the value of mathematics and its inextricable link to science all too well. Twala, who has a PhD in machine learning and statistics says, “Applied mathematics considers the use of abstract mathematical tools in solving concrete problems in the sciences, business and other areas. An important field in applied mathematics is data, which use probability theory as a tool and allow the description, analysis, and prediction of phenomena where chance plays a role.
Recently, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) or machine learning algorithms has proven to be of great practical value in solving a variety of robotics problems including robot execution failure prediction." Twala says, "Most techniques for predicting attributes of a robotic system require past data from which models will be constructed and validated. One of the major problems of applying AI algorithms in robotics is the unavailability, scarcity and incompleteness of data, i.e data for training the model. Most institutions do not share their data with other organisations and as such, a useful database with detailed data cannot be formed. In addition, surveys for collecting such data are sometimes small but difficult and expensive to conduct. My first goal is to improve the quality of the training data and in doing so; improve prediction accuracies produced by learning algorithms." An algorithm is a sequence of finite instructions where each variable affects the outcome.
He says, “In the South African context we do not have sound data that could be used for machine learning, which is also known as AI. As a result, the machine or robot will not be able to perform its required task. What I am doing is ‘cleaning the data’ to improve the quality and ultimately ensure that the application of AI for security and surveillance in South Africa is driven from informed data.”
Numerical analysis investigates computational methods for efficiently solving a broad range of mathematical problems that are typically too large for human numerical capacity. “Let me use the example of a robot programmed to pick up possible threats. Data would have been initially fed into the system with various attributes having been determined as a possible threat; be it a physical object such as a bomb or a person wearing an overhead coat. If the data are not sound, the robot execution tasks will be limited,” he explains. “We are presently using data collected internationally from CCTVs, videos and data from situations where the robots have failed in order to compile a set of informed data.” Twala’s current efforts in the quest for informed data will be modified at a later stage to the South African context.
Nothing artificial about his intelligence
Twala has over 10 years of experience in putting mathematics to scientific use in the form of data comparison, inference, analysis, and presentation to design, collect, and interpret data experiments in the fields of transport, medical, artificial intelligence, software engineering and most recently robotics. He received his doctorate from the Open University in the UK in 2005 and did his postgraduate studies and MSc at the University of Southampton also in the UK. “I received the British Council scholarship award in 1993 and this is how my journey to the UK began.” Twala has since travelled to over 30 countries during the course of his studies. “My favourite place in the world is the Grand Canyon in Colorado in the US. “If you believe in God and look at this amazing natural wonder, you would believe in Him even more.”
 | | Twala rubbing shoulders with Bob James |
He left his position as a Research Fellow at the School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics at Brunel University in 2006 and returned to South Africa where he was employed by Statistics South Africa. Twala has a significant track record of publications in conferences and journals spanning his 10 years in this field. However, his talents are not limited to academia. Twala is also a talented trumpet player! “I started playing the trumpet at the age of 11, and have found enjoyment in this instrument and jazz ever since,” Twala said. He says that his life was changed by Paul Bley’s All The Things You Are piano solo on Sonny Rollin’s 1963 album Sonny Meets Hawk. “All these decades later, I still think of it as one of the greatest solos in jazz history,” Twala continued. “Even a non-musician can sense something amazing is happening.” One jazz musician whom he greatly admires (“after Miles Davis, of course”, he says) is Bob James. “I was lucky enough to meet the man in person in Chicago in the US a few years ago.”
Twala started at the CSIR in July 2008 as a principal research scientist for digital intelligence that forms part of CSIR Modelling and Digital Science. “My plans for future research work will, of course, be influenced by the ideas and opportunities that present themselves here,” says Twala. “I will, however, continue to explore problems in the areas of knowledge discovery and reasoning under uncertainty. After all, data rule our world!”
CSIR Communication, Chiara Lincoln, email: CLincoln@csir.co.za |
