News
The SABS’ (South African Bureau of Standards) has published 10 proposals that have been received for development of new standards and request you to comment on these proposals as part the drive to encourage wider stakeholder participation in development of national standards. This is to ensure that the standards developed in SABS technical committees are inclusive of all stakeholder needs and are relevant to national strategic priorities.
CSIR principal researcher Dr David Motaung has been appointed as affiliated associate professor in physics at the University of the Free State.
The world’s premier aerospace laboratories and research organisations were represented in South Africa at the end of October when the CSIR hosted the eighth summit of the International Forum for Aviation Research (IFAR).
The summit took place from 23 to 25 October and 38 participants from 17 member countries were represented.
Researchers from the CSIR are teaching the community of Stinkwater, in Gauteng, how to make their drinking water safe. A study that looks at the quality and use of the community’s groundwater revealed chemical and biological pollutants that may expose consumers to health risks when consuming the untreated groundwater.
Light metals experts at the CSIR have been instrumental in product development and improvement of light metal manufacturing processes. The research and development undertaken has the potential to add significant value to the aluminium value chain.
Protection of South Africa’s most important water source areas is critical for a water-safe future and the reason why the CSIR and partners embarked on a research project supported by the South African Water Research Commission (WRC). In October, CSIR experts met with their private sector counterparts, as well as senior planners and policy makers within government departments, to finalise the delineation of South Africa’s national strategic surface and groundwater source areas.
A numerical model has proven successful in predicting rock mass response when mining the shaft pillars in mines. This will contribute to safer mining by enabling mining companies to avoid seismic events induced by this mining activity.
The model simulates the bore-and-fill operations calibrated against underground data to replicate the damage and observations around a selected sequence of holes.
The CSIR has completed research into making mining gear, in particular, self-contained self-rescuers, more suitable for the female form. The Mine Health and Safety Council awarded a contract to the CSIR to assess the ergonomic design of the current devices and make recommendations that will improve them.
The CSIR and Uber have signed a collaboration agreement to share expertise on the use of Uber transactional data and city transport models to help cities to plan better, including the effective evaluation of where transport infrastructure investments are most needed. South Africa has a transport-intensive economy and requires infrastructure and services that need to serve a dynamic population that include many people who are still being excluded from optimal participation in the economy due to transport barriers.