News and Events – archive 2006

'Father' of mobile IP technology visits CSIR

The Meraka Institute - a national research centre managed by the CSIR - hosted a mobile connection expert, Charles E. Perkins, who gave a talk on Mesh and other ad hoc networks. The Mesh colloquium was held at the Institute on 11 September. Perkins, also affectionately known as a “father” of mobile IP technology, is a Nokia Fellow in the Network Technology Laboratory at Nokia Research Centre. He does research on mobile wireless networking and dynamic configuration protocols. Prior to this, Perkins worked at Sun Microsystems and IBM.

Meraka Institute partners with AITI-KACE on developer roadshow

“Localisation and Education” was the theme of a developer roadshow held jointly by the Meraka Institute (managed by the CSIR) and the Advanced Information Technology Institute of Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence (AITI-KACE). The five-day roadshow at the University of Education in Winneba, Ghana, took place on 8-13 August 2006 and drew representatives from ten countries. The objective of the roadshow was to provide an opportunity for educators and developers of free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) to interact, understand needs and assess existing FLOSS use to support education delivery in West Africa.

CSIR's computational science capability boosted by C4 supercomputer

The Meraka Institute recently concluded installation of a supercomputer known as the C4 (CSIR Cluster Computing Centre) at the CSIR. The Meraka Institute is a national research centre managed by the CSIR. The C4 system is intended as an infrastructure resource for the CSIR's researchers who will be using it for the computational aspects of their research.

NAP portal goes live

The live web deployment of the National Accessibility Portal (NAP) takes place on Monday, 17 July 2006. The NAP initiative will provide a one-stop information, services and communications channel to support everyone involved in the disability field - persons with disabilities, caregivers, the medical profession, and those offering services in this domain. The aim of the deployment is to allow NAP consortium partners to evaluate, use and populate the system with content and to provide feedback for future development. The partners working on this initiative are the Meraka Institute (managed by CSIR); the Office on the Status of Disabled Persons in The Presidency; the Independent Living Centre; the SA National Council for the Blind; the Deaf Federation of South Africa; the National Council for Persons with Physical Disabilities in SA; the QuadPara Association and the South African Federation for Mental Health.

Meraka Institute participates in National Youth Service Week Expo

On request of the Department of Communications, the Meraka Institute participated in the National Youth Service Week Expo from 13-15 June 2006. The event was organised by the National Youth Commission and held at the ELKA Stadium in Soweto. The Meraka Institute is a national research centre managed by the CSIR.

Meraka Institute's Kids Club project aims to make technology fun

The Kids Club project, which is being piloted by the Meraka Institute of the CSIR, gives children the opportunity to experiment with science and technology in a fun, relaxed atmosphere with none of the constraints and pressure to perform found in traditional classroom teaching. Merryl Ford of the ICT (information and communications technology) for Education Group within the Meraka Institute says, "Our extra-curricular activities let the children give free reign to their creativity and imagination."

Meraka Institute relocates Freedom Toaster to Menlyn shopping centre

Digital product aficionados will now have the option of making free copies of various Free/Libre and Open Source Software and other offerings at the Menlyn shopping centre. The Meraka Institute has successfully relocated the Freedom Toaster, previously in the foyer of Building 43 A, to Computer Corporation. The Meraka Institute is a national research centre managed by the CSIR.

Dr Andre Meyer from TNO in Holland visits Meraka Institute

Dr Andre Meyer of TNO's Defence, Safety and Security in Holland is currently on a visit to the Meraka Institute, a national research institute managed by the CSIR. Among many other things, Meyer's section is working on applications of "distributed intelligence" (DI), which covers technologies such as multi-agent systems, bio-inspired computing and semantic networks. They develop and apply these technologies for crisis management, traffic control, compound security, network-centric warfare, intelligence, etc. The goal is to support human and automated sense- and decision-making in order to improve performance in critical situations.

Meraka Institute represented at VoIP World Africa 2006

Yusuf Kaka of the Meraka Institute's Wireless Africa initiative recently participated in the VoiP World Africa Conference held at Sandton from 8-11 May 2006. Kaka, a specialist in wireless connectivity and MESH networking, participated as a panelist.