Story by Kenias Chivuzhe
THE Chancellor of Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences (MSUAS) President Emmerson Mnangagwa has capped 172 graduands at the institution’s 2nd graduation ceremony held in Mutare this Thursday.
After the academic procession, President Mnangagwa declared the graduation ceremony duly constituted before conferring degrees to 89 male and 83 female graduands drawn from the university’s four faculties.
“With the authority vested in me in thereby confer the awards of degrees and other distinctions of the Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences to candidates for these awards as listed in the programme,” said the President.
The best male student with 33 distinctions is Motion Hazvinandawa who graduated with a BSC Honours Degree in Applied Statistics, while Joynah Jimias who graduated with a BSC Honours Degree in Information Systems is the best female student with 25 distinctions.
The two speak on their vision to contribute towards national development.
“I want to thank the President for the award and his recognition inspires me to continue to pursue my passion with even greater enthusiasm. I would like to study data sciences because the world we are living in today involves the exchange and gathering of information,” said Hazvinandawa.
“I feel honoured to be receiving this award from the President and as a lady, I feel humbled. To other women I say, keep pushing, there is nothing that stops one from succeeding. As an IT person, I want to ensure that what we use in the country is digitalised. It’s just my wish that our country may rise in terms of technology,” said Jimias.
Vice Chancellor Professor Albert Chahwanda outlined some of the research and innovation initiatives being pursued by the institution.
“University staff and students are working on potential groundbreaking innovations leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning. Some of the projects are the Driver Sleep Detection System whose overall aim is to address the perennial road carnage, the Autonomous Vehicle Assistance Road Detection Signage to also reduce road carnage, curios, and crafts mobile application to aid marketing of tourism and tourism products and smart house security system.
“I am happy to report that the university has secured several grants on innovative research projects including the development of a percolation leaching process of optimum gold recovery with an efficiency rate of 80 percent. We also have a grant on a sawmill bio-energy project.”
The university is mandated to provide education in applied sciences which include engineering sciences and technology, medical and health sciences, forestry sciences, agricultural sciences and commerce and wildlife sciences.
