faculty of informatics & design dean’s report

MS MEL HAGEN

On 1 January 2006 the new Faculty of Informatics and Design came into being, representing a unique combination of disciplines, from information systems, to visual and communication studies, to a wide range of design studies. The juxtaposing of this range of disciplines offers great potential for cuttingedge and meta-disciplinary research and, in the course of the year, researchers started exploring the potential for developing a new niche research area.

In particular, the faculty will be looking at focusing on the use of all manner of technologies specifically designed to facilitate human-information interactions, as ways and means of strengthening the relationship between information generation, information storage, and knowledge creation, within socially constructed networks.

This ties in well with research that is already being undertaken at both doctoral and master’s level in the fields of universal design, design for development, and medical applications.

The national and provincial governments have both increasingly come to recognise the primacy of information systems technology, and design, as prime drivers in economic development; this bodes well for future government support of initiatives in the faculty. In particular, the provincial government of the Western Cape has established a unit to develop policy and strategies within the creative industries which embrace both design, and aspects of information systems technology. This will extend the current relationship with the provincial government enjoyed by the faculty in respect of our joint initiative of the Cape Craft and Design Institute. The establishment of a FabLab (Fabrication Laboratory) in the institute, a programme funded by the national Department of Science and Technology and the provincial government’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism, and resourced by the Center for Bytes and Atoms of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), provides exciting product development possibilities, particularly for postgraduate students in the design disciplines.

The incorporation of one section of the previous Faculty of Business Informatics into our faculty has meant that, while the faculty builds its own capacity, the supervision of formal postgraduate qualifications is being partly serviced by the free-standing eInnovation Academy, the research arm of the former faculty. This year saw the awarding of one DTech and twelve MTech qualifications: eleven in information technology disciplines, and two in town and regional planning.

Over the past few years, the faculty has placed a strong emphasis on the development of research capacity and has actively encouraged the development of staff postgraduate qualifications. In 2006 one member of staff (e-Innovation Academy) obtained a doctorate, while several staff members from the faculty were awarded master’s qualifications by the institution. A further master’s degree was conferred on a staff member by the University of Cape Town. In addition, seven staff members were registered for doctoral studies, and 24 for master’s degrees.

This is the last research report that I shall be filing as Dean, and I am positive that, in going into the next academic year with a new Dean who will be required to have a strong research focus, the current progress will not only be maintained, but will accelerate.