Prof Pius Owolawi Head of Department Computer Systems Engineering.
Prof Pius Owolawi has been rated number 444 among the top 500 researchers in Africa. This award is well-deserved as he has submitted 102 scholarly outputs during the period of assessment, 195 citations, and Hirsch number 9, which is an author level metric, measuring the productivity and citation impact of the publications of a scholar. The rating is done by SciVal, a web-based analytics solution that provides comprehensive access to the research performance of more than 20 000 research institutions and their associated researchers from 230 nations worldwide. SciVal is based on the publication database called Scopus.
Prof Owolawi obtained a Bachelor of Technology (B Tech) honours degree in Applied Physics and Electronics from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria; a Master of Science (M.Sc.) and PhD in Electronics Engineering from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.. In addition, he holds a certificate in the Management Development Program (MDP) from the University of Stellenbosch Business School, and an advanced Diploma in Remote Engineering, Mechatronics and Robotics from the Engineering Institute of Technology, Australia.
In addition, he recently completed Postgraduate Programs in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Data Science and Business Analytics through the University of Texas Executive Education Program, Austin, United States of America and a Postgraduate Program in Cloud Computing through the Great Lakes Institute of Management Executive Learning, India.
Prof Owolawi is currently registered for an LLB Law degree at the University of South Africa while he was also awarded an 85% scholarship for a Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence with International University of Applied Science (IUBH), Germany.
He is a member of several professional bodies, both in South Africa and internationally. These include the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA), the Institute of Electrical Electronics (IEEE), South African Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer (SAIEE), South African Radio Amateur League (SARL), South African Amateur Radio Satellite Association (SA AMSAT). He also holds several industrial certifications in the field of Information Technology and Telecommunications.
Prof Owolawi is an accomplished researcher in the fields of high frequency Communications (Radio frequency, Free Space Optical Communication, Satellite communication), Image processing, embedded systems, Internet of Things (IoT), and the application of Machine Learning (ML) techniques to image recognition, predictions, and modelling.
Recently, he has been appointed as a 4IR research chair for the Media, Information and Communication Technologies Sector Education and Training Authority (MICT SETA). He is involved in several industrial projects within South Africa and abroad, while he holds several research and innovation awards.
Prof Owolawi dedicates this recognition to his family, past and present research associates, postdoctoral research fellows, masters and doctoral students, and his colleagues.