Durban University of Technology’s (DUT’s) 2024 Spring Graduation was a bedazzling celebration for the DUT’s class of graduates. The prestigious graduation ceremony was held at the Durban Exhibition Centre, 19 September 2024.
The ceremony showcased glitzy, bedazzling fashion attires and fancy hairdos. Tailored suits, designer dresses, bedazzled nails, the Faculty of Accounting and Informatics, Faculty of Arts and Design , Management Sciences, Applied Sciences, Engineering and the Built Environment and Health Sciences graduates dressed in bright and breezy Spring colours to ‘impress’ at the first graduation session.
Welcoming the guests and graduands was Senior Director: Corporate Affairs: Mr Alan Khan. He explained that a total of 929 students from the Durban and Midlands campuses will graduate, comprising of 524 women and 405 men.
“This means that 55.7% of the graduates will be women,” he said elatedly.
One of the dynamic lasses who had graduated was Tebatso Gorgina Moape, who was conferred her Doctor of Philosophy in Information Technology, earlier today. She spoke of her excitement upon graduating, also giving perspective on her research dissertation titled: Knowledge-based Word Sense Disambiguation for Setswana-English Machine Translation.
“We need more data for South African languages to ensure their representation in the digital and AI space, similar to English,” she emphasised, highlighting a critical issue in the landscape of South African linguistic and AI research.” Her sterling study has produced four publications and contributed to the worldwide collaborative DataScientia project involving experts from universities in Europe, Africa, Asia, and South Africa.
Going forward, she aims to teach the Pepper robot at the MICTSETA Centre of Excellence (DUT) to speak South African native languages. She will spend her time working at DUT’s AI Lab to develop the necessary datasets for this groundbreaking project.
Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Thandwa Mthembu shared his congratulatory message with the graduates by saying congratulations on reaching this important personal milestone.
“You demonstrated adaptability, agility and resilience characteristic of DUT people and the DUT Way. Earning your qualification is not only a measure of your academic potential. It also certifies your ability to cope with the abiding reality of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity that life is about the world over,” he shared.
Prof Mthembu indicated that the entire DUT community is truly happy that the graduates have reached their milestone. Be Different, Upended, Transformed! Be Creative. Distinctive. Impactful! Congratulations once again,” said Prof Mthembu.
Interim Executive Dean, Prof Jean Baxen shared her immense pride to all graduates, giving recognition to the positive role played by our staff from the academic, administration and support services at DUT,” she said.
Sharing her sentiments to the graduates was the President of Convocation, Ms Zama Mncube.
“Your journey to fulfil your dreams and harness that untapped potential begins now. I know you are certainly filled with mixed emotions-the ending of one chapter and the beginning of a whole new journey filled with a sense of hope and excitement for what the future holds. DUT has equipped you well for the world of work. Go forth and cement your place in society and continue to excel in all you venture out to do. As a proud alumnus of this university, you are connected to the DUT brand. Carry it with pride wherever your experiences and associations take you,” she shared proudly.
Pictured: The exciting stage was set for the graduates at the first session of the DUT 2024 Spring Graduation.
Photographer: Mnqobi Ngobese
Waheeda Peters
