As Sub-Saharan Africa develops rapidly, it is estimated that the continent will need millions of engineers just to reach a single Millennium Development Goal, that of access to safe water and improved sanitation. However, there is a serious shortage of engineers—and also of scientists, health professionals and technicians—in nearly all of Sub-Saharan Africa’s 48 countries. […]
Read More… from Higher Education in Science and Technology is Critical for Africa’s Development
With a notable percentage of the young population under 25 years of age and about to enter the job market, economic development can be pursued by maximising the labourforce. Makhtar Diop, the vice president of World Bank in the African region, said this yesterday in Kigali during the inaugural session of the forum on Higher […]
Feeling guilty about the hours you’ve wasted on Candy Crush Saga? Relax. A mathematical analysis of the notoriously addictive video game reveals that it belongs to a class of fiendish computational problems – and playing it might one day help solve them. Read more: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25204-addictive-candy-crush-video-game-is-officially-hard.html#.UyLAQs75FZc […]
Read More… from Addictive Candy Crush video game is officially hard
Why has David Moyes had such a horror show since taking over as Manchester United manager last summer? From our armchairs, the diagnosis has been relatively straightforward: taking over from a legend is inevitably a fool’s errand; anyone replacing Sir Alex Ferguson was doomed before a ball was kicked. Moyes inherited a patchy squad with too few players at the peak […]
Read More… from How computer analysts took over at Britain’s top football clubs
With the growing recognition that knowledge and innovation are critical contributors to national wealth and welfare, postgraduate education — specifically doctoral training —has become a priority for African higher education. South Africa’s National Research Foundation launched its PhD project some years ago with the specific intention of ramping up the number of doctoral graduates produced annually by the South […]
The number of girls in ICT is on a steady rise thanks to the numerous awareness campaigns and other programmes in the country. The once male-dominated field is now attractive to women as well and those who have excelled are doing alot to encourage their compatriots. […]
What a difference a year makes. Over the last twelve months, sales of smartphones surpassed feature phones for the first time, global mobile subscribers hit close to seven billion, and data traffic grew by 80% – thanks largely to emerging market growth. As the year draws to a close, the developing world is not only […]
Read More… from Top 10 Predictions for Mobile Technology in 2014
As part of our new series on PhDs and development in Sub-Saharan Africa, SciDev.Net is collating data over a range of issues – from postgraduate enrolment and gender equality to the links between PhDs and economic growth. We aim to gather and visualise the statistics underpinning stories about doctoral investment and growth on the continent. Read more […]
In this podcast, recorded in Johannesburg, South Africa, Adam Habib, vice-chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand, talks about the relationship between PhD research and Africa’s future social and economic development. He argues that, as developing nations become ever more dependent on knowledge-based industries, the need to have high-quality skills, innovation and outputs becomes increasingly […]
Read More… from Q&A: Doctoral research and economic growth in Africa
At a computer in her office at the Havard School of Public Health in Boston, epidemiologist Caroline Buckee points to a dot on a map of Kenya’s Western highlands representing one of the nation’s thousands of cell phone towers. In the fight against malaria, Buckee explains, the data transmitted from this tower near the town […]