Back from IEEE Africon Conference

I am back from Windhoek, Namibia where I presented a paper and co-chaired one of the technical sessions. I arrived in Windhoek at about 10:00hrs on 27 September, 2007 after a few hassles with traveling arrangements and connections.I managed to co-chair a session in the afternoon of the same day. The Chair was Mr Vinaye Armoogum from University of Technology Mauritius. He has become a great buddy already. I was, however, late for my presentation which I was supposed to have done a day earlier. I had to see the Program chair who asked me to present my paper in one of the remaining sessions on the closing day of the conference. Coincidentally, the session chair for the session was Professor Fambirai Takawira, my former head of School at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Vinaye, the guy with whom I chaired a session was also presenting in the same session. Being the last day of the conference, the attendance for this session was not good. My presentation was alright but not much better than the SATNAC 2006 one. Maybe, I am saying this because in my SATNAC 2006 presentation, I had a bigger audience and better feedback. In Windhoek, most people were just listening! After the conference, I spent a few days in South Africa and then came back to Malawi two days ago.

One great thing about the Africon conference is that, unlike SATNAC, it attracted a good number of participants from other continents.In my few days at the conference, I had seen a Mexico based professor, who presented his paper in the same session with me. I had also interacted and forged potential friendships with some guys from Slovenia, Europe. It was also great for me to chat with Dr John Ryan from Mzuzu University. We had lunch together.This gave me an opportunity to learn more about the MSc program in Information Theory, that he is coordinating at Mzuzu University. I will review this program on this blog in the coming weeks.

In conclusion, let me congratulate the IEEE Africon organizing committee for staging such an eventful conference. I hope the guys organizing the IEEE Africon 2009 conference, which will take place in Kenya, will make it even better. Let me also call upon all those African electrical, electronics and computer engineers, who have not yet joined IEEE , to join this institute and actively take part in its events. Africa misses out a great deal by your lack of participation in IEEE activities.

Update on my MScEng graduation

I arrived in Durban on Sunday morning after travelling over night. I was warmly welcomed by Pastor Mandevu and his wife at their home in Malvern. That same morning, I attended a church service where Pastor Mandevu was ministering. On Monday morning, I went to the Howard College Campus, where the Faculty Officer confirmed to me that everything was in place for my graduation.

On Tuesday morning, brother Micky, a member of the Water of Life Church in Durban gave us (Pastor Mandevu, his wife and I) a lift to the Westville Campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the venue of the graduation ceremony. I met my Zambian buddy, Joseph Kang'ombe Makasa who was also graduating with an MScEng in Electrical Engineering. It was nice to meet Joseph at this function. I entered the graduands' section of the hall with him while Pastor Mandevu and his wife went to the section prepared for guardians and relatives. The event, itself, was brief. It was nice walking up front there and having the MScEng degree conferred on me by the Acting Chancellor, Prof Malegapuru Makgoba with photographs being taken. I then went on to collect my paper. A number of photos were also taken outside the hall after the event. After that, brother Micky picked us up and we had our lunch at his home in Morningside. We went back to the pastor's home around 4 O'clock. The photos of the graduation event will be posted here later.

Meanwhile, I am still in Durban. I will go back to Pretoria tomorrow. I will then proceed to Malawi where I will be staying for the time being. Now, I really need to embark on my permanent head development (PhD) studies. Answers to questions like where and when will I do my PhD studies will be given later.