The Hon. Mosibudi Mangena has been the Minister of Science and Technology of the Republic of South Africa since April 2004. He is also President of the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO) since 1994.
In 1971 he joined the South African Students Organisation (SASO) and was elected onto the Students Representative Council at the University of Zululand. The following year he moved back to Pretoria and joined the Pretoria branch of the SASO as Chairperson; he participated in the SASO literacy campaign in the Winterveld area; he became head of quality control laboratory in a brick-making factory at Olifantsfontein; and he was the convener of the interim structure of the Black People's Convention (BPC) in the Pretoria area until elected at its inaugural Congress as National Organiser. In 1972 he was imprisoned at Robben Island for five years for his political activities and on his release in 1978 was ordered to remain under house arrest in Mahwelereng for 5 years. After a period of exile in Botswana, where he became Chairperson of the Botswana region of the Black Conscious Movement of Azania (BCMA), followed by a move to Zimbabwe, he returned to South Africa and became the President of Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO) in 1994.
Minister Mangena was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1999; he was Deputy Minister of Education of the Republic of South Africa from 2001 – 2004. He was the first Patron of Sowetan-Telkom Mathematics and Science Teacher of the Year awards, and the founding chairperson of the South African National Literacy Initiative (SANLI) and Masifundesonke Reading Campaign in 2001. He was conferred upon by the Vaal University of Technology an Honourary Doctorate (Technologiae Doctoris) in 2008 in the field of applied sciences in recognition of his service and invaluable contribution to the social upliftment of both the region and the country.
He received the BSc degree (Honours) from the University of South Africa, and the MSc degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of South Africa. He is the author of four books: On Your Own (September 1989), Quest for True Humanity (1996), A Twin World (1996), and My Grand Mother is Permanent (2004).
Over the last decade, some Korean enterprises have emerged to become global players in their specialized products. How have they achieved such a tremendous technological progress in a short period of time? Dr. Choi explores this question by examining the characteristics of technological innovation activities at major Korean enterprises.
The presentation begins with a brief review of the stages of economic growth and of science and technology development in Korea. Then the existing literature, explaining the Korean innovation model, is dealt with to proceed to establishing a new framework in the Korean innovation model. Korean firms have experienced the following three sequential phases and thus the Korean model at the firm level can be coined into the “path-following,” “path-managing,” and “path-creating.” Then, the stylized facts in the second phase of “path-managing” are discussed, as the empirical evidence of the model, in the areas of memory chip, mobile phone, shipbuilding, automobile, and steel.
However, Korean firms now face a paradigm shift in the modes of technological innovation to efficiently implement the third phase. To achieve a remarkable progress once more as they did in the past and to sustain the growth momentum, Korean firms should challenge new dimensions such as distinctive architecture, creative manpower, and a unique R&D system among others. Dr. Choi also articulates the most critical issues in S&T policies such as the cultivation of world-class manpower, reform of policy measures, upgrade of infrastructure and so on under the policy framework of PPP (public-private partnership) within the Korean context. Finally, some lessons from the Korean experience in innovation studies are addressed.
Dr. Youngrak Choi is Chairman of the Korea Research Council of Public Science & Technology (KORP). From 2002-2005 he was the president of STEPI (Science & Technology Policy Institute) in South Korea. He was the president of the Korean Society for Technology Management and Economics (KOSTME) from 2002-2003, and from 1999-200 he was the Vice President of STEPI. From 1997-1998 he was the head of the Dept. of Policy and Planning at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). Dr. Choi received a B.S. in Forestry from Seoul National University; an M.A. in Public Administration from Seoul National University; and a Ph.D. in Public Administration from Roskilde University in Denmark. He is the President of the Korean Society for Technology Management & Economics and a member of the Presidential Advisory Council for Science & Technology.
The energy challenges in the world of today are placing significant attention on the utilization of resources other than oil. At the southern tip of Africa an organization exists that for various reasons has optimized the conversion of coal/ gas to liquids technology and has risen in stature/ prominence to the extent that today, recognizing that significant challenges still exist, it is succeeding in perfecting and striving to reach new frontiers with the technology that it applies in the conversion of coal and natural gas to liquid fuels. The presentation will place appropriate emphasis on the history and uniqueness of the Sasol organization and the position that it has created through the application of technology. It will also describe in a condensed manner how the technology has been developed over time, where and how it is applied and how intellectual property created is protected/managed. Lastly the presentation will provide a glimpse as to how the company, through the application of technology, intends to explore new frontiers and go global in an energy-focused international arena.
Mr. Willem Louw has worked at Sasol Technology in varying positions since 1985. From 1985 to 1989 he was Senior/Principal Cost Engineer responsible for the management of cost estimating, cost control, planning/scheduling and economic evaluations required for capital projects managed by the Secunda office of Sasol Technology. He was Manager of Project Services and New Venture Projects (1998 – 1994), responsible for the cost engineering function in the Secunda office of Sasol Technology as well as the development of major capital projects undertaken by the Secunda office. From 1994-200 he was Manager/General Manager, responsible for the engineering and project management office of the Sasol Technology Division located in Secunda, South Africa.
Mr. Louw was the Integration Program Manager for the Sasol Condea Integration Program resulting from the intent to and eventual acquisition of Condea from RWE/DEA in Germany (2000-2002). From 2002-2003 he was General Manager, Sasol Olefins & Surfactants, responsible for the functionalities of Technology, Information Management and Safety, Health & Environment in the newly formed chemical division in Sasol after the acquisition of Condea. In 2004 he was General Manager of Sasol Technology International/Managing Director Sasol Synfuels International, and in 2005 he was General Manager, Engineering and Project Management.
Since 2006 Mr. Louw has been Managing Director responsible for the whole of Sasol Technology, i.e. R&D, Technology Management, Process Commercialisation, Engineering and Project Management, and the enabling cluster supporting the above.
Mr. Louw received the B. Engineering (Civil) and the M. Engineering (Civil) from the University of Stellenbosch.
Dr Johan Slabber is Chief Technology Officer at the PBMR (Pty) Ltd. He holds a D.Sc., Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Pretoria and also studied at the Oak Ridge School of Reactor Technology in the United States. He worked as General Manager, Reactor Technology at the Atomic Energy Board of South Africa, Chief Systems Engineer at IST in Pretoria and he also worked at the Safeguards Department of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna before joining PBMR.
Electric utilities face a daunting challenge in global warming. Yet utilities are particularly ill prepared to constructively participate in developing solutions. Utility research and development budgets, never strong, have been decimated in the last 15 years. Utility research and development capabilities have withered. And the challenges—carbon sequestration, non-carbon power sources, energy efficiency, and smart grid technologies—while never more clearly defined, remain unsolved, and loom larger given the emergent global consensus for climate change action.
Bonneville Power Administration—once a leader in the development of electric power technologies, system operations analytics, and energy efficiency research—abandoned all research in the 1990s. Since 2005 Bonneville has returned to a leadership role, establishing a public research direction through technology roadmaps, tripling its research budget, and adopting modern research portfolio management methods.
Terry Oliver will detail some of the key challenges facing the industry, discuss the changes needed in electric utility research engagement, and provide specific examples from Bonneville Power Administration's experiences. His talk will challenge the global electric utility industry to re-engage in a robust public research portfolio, designed to bring the industry into the forefront of solving utility related climate change challenges.
Mr. Terry Oliver has worked globally to advance energy conservation and renewable energy. He has worked for Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) since 1981. In the Pacific Northwest, USA, he managed one of the world's largest residential energy conservation programs, the PNW Residential Weatherization Program; led ground-breaking research on community-based energy conservation applications in the Hood River Conservation Project; and established two enduring icons of energy efficiency innovation, the Lighting Design Lab and the Energy Ideas Clearinghouse. In 1992 he moved to Bangkok, Thailand, to lead the Asia Regional Office of the International Institute for Energy Conservation (IIEC). In 2000, Mr. Oliver returned to BPA where he worked on BPA's EnergyWeb concept and its application to the Pacific Northwest. As part of this effort he helped create BPA's Non-Wires Solutions initiative, participated in EPRI's Intelligrid grid architecture initiative, and led the GridWise Alliance Demonstrations Working Group. In June 2005 Terry was appointed Bonneville Power Administration's first Chief Technology Innovation Officer, responsible for re-energizing, focusing, and managing BPA's research and development activities.
Service systems fail all too frequently. `Overdue, over budget and disappointing' are the words frequently used by organisations to describe their experience in the development and commissioning of complex information systems enabled services. More considered analyses question anticipated productivity gains, and in the longer term, a failure of service provision to track the changing requirements of the organisation. As a major supplier of IT and IT-enabled services, Hewlett-Packard has invested heavily in developing and understanding of the reasons that services fail to delight, as well as developing technologies and management processes that mitigate against failure. This paper describes a (predictive) model-based approach to service-systems analysis that aids in understanding the goals, the specifications and dynamics of a service system. Our contribution is a model-based service discovery process and technology that can be used to dramatically improve inter-stakeholder communications, provide a design and management infrastructure that is robust to the inevitable changes that affect any commissioning organisation, and lay the grounds for more sophisticated cost-benefit analyses than are currently commonly used. We draw on a number of large-scale (multi-billion dollar) service projects to illustrate the application and benefits of this approach to service discovery and management.
Dr. Richard Taylor has worked for HP Laboratories for 11 years, covering a diverse range of research areas including embedded systems design automation, embedded operating systems, ink- and laserprinter design, and performability engineering for complex systems. For the last three years he has worked for and been a technical lead of the Services Sciences Research Group, based in the UK, developing technologies, processes and training materials that enable complex services to be analyzed and managed. Much of this work has been 'action research' in combination with HP business groups and their customers.
He is regularly invited to give keynotes to conferences and workshops in the area of services sciences, and he has represented HP within UK and European government organizations, studying how research in this area should be encouraged and funded. He acts as a visiting professor at the Universities of Manchester and Warwick, teaching graduate-level courses in the area of services analysis and design as well as supervising research students.
Along with Chris Tofts he is preparing a book commissioned by Springer Verlag, Managing Complex Service Systems, as part of their new Service Science: Research and Innovations in the Service Economy research series.
Dr. Taylor holds a Ph.D. in analytic sciences from the University of Manchester and an MBA from the University of Bath. With over 21 years of research experience in complex systems design and implementation, he has published more than 75 technical papers and 65 patents (granted/submitted) in the areas of complex systems design, services and business processes. He is a chartered engineer and a chartered mathematician.