PROFESSOR Pamela Dube, the vice-chancellor and principal at Central University of Technology (CUT), was earlier this month among thought leaders invited from across sectors to the second annual Tech for Humanity Summit held in the United States of America.
Discussions at the summit, hosted at the Virginia Tech Arlington Campus on 6 June, centred on shared visions for a humane and democratic technological future through interdisciplinary inquiry.
One of the most crucial discussions at the summit was the role of data in securing human rights and dignity.
The thought leaders agreed that data creation and capturing have far-reaching implications for the future of democracy.
During a year of critical elections around the globe, the summit delved into how humanity is currently dealing with data and the underlying ideologies and frameworks that guide human understanding of data, specifically discussing questions of ethics, justice and human dignity in a technological world.
These exchanges resulted in concrete action plans and collaborations for CUT.
Professor Dube, an accomplished international leader in academia, is steering the establishment of a research centre on the human-technology interface she promised during her inaugural address as new vice-chancellor at the Free State university.
She sees CUT as a pioneering African university, shaping the future through technological advancements and fostering a humane and democratic technological future that “we can all look forward to”. – Staff Reporter