SWAT had the great pleasure of hosting the group of students from the Stellenbosch Media Lab at our offices today.
The Stellenbosch Media Lab is a joint initiative between Naspers and the University of Stellenbosch. The Naspers/MIH group is sponsoring research into New Media at the university, and offering students exposure to the group’s internet-related activities.
You can find more information on the program by looking at this application form. Although applications for 2009 has closed, you might want to consider applying for a bursary on Masters or Doctoral level for 2010 and beyond. We encourage all South Africans with an excellent academic record, a creative and innovative approach, and an overwhelming interest in new media to apply for one of these bursaries.
So….what is SWAT’s connection to the Media Lab ? SWAT has been tasked by the MIH group to be the direct liaison between MIH and the University of Stellenbosch. We perform the relevant management functions on behalf of the group, and we liaise closely with the students and management team from the Labs. How closely can be seen in the pictures below:
Learning about feedalizr
Mike Raath giving the students an in-depth look at feedalizr, and the technology behind the application
Learning about scrum
Leon Coetzee explains the scrum development process
Product strategies
The team giving Otavio Ferreira invaluable feedback on a new SWAT product (watch this space for the launch of this product…)
Communication is a two way street of course, and each of the students presented their topics to the entire SWAT team.
Academic work
Philip Perold presents his thesis subject.
The cutting-edge work being done by the Media Labs students enabled a lively discussion to follow each of the student’s presentations – subjects ranging from the mathematics of social graphs to hot new ideas for immersive games were explored.
The day was very successful from SWAT’s point of view – we learned a great deal, and once again affirmed our commitment to enabling and promoting cutting edge technologies within the MIH group.
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April 2nd, 2009 at 11:27 pm
It was a great pleasure indeed, and the feedback received will definitely improve the product we’ve been developing. Thank you! I wish we could spend more time together. Let’s keep the conversation going, and find even more synergy amongst our researches.