Professor Barry Dwolatzky, Director of the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) at Wits University has been selected as a top 10 candidate for the IT Personality of the Year Award. Now in its 35th year, the award is presented by the IITPSA (The Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa, formerly Computer Society South Africa) in association with IT Web, the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) and Gartner Africa.
The award recognises and celebrates the outstanding talent, leadership, vision and commitment of individuals and organisations within the ICT industry. The JCSE is a three-way partnership between government, academia and industry and Prof Dwolatzky, a Wits qualified Electrical Engineer, was a major player in setting it up.
“I am honored and delighted to be recognised by the IITPSA. It is a wonderful opportunity to feature the work being done within the local software development industry and to create awareness of the many exciting initiatives the JCSE champions at Wits,” says Professor Dwolatzky.
Barry’s major passion is always to promote the growth and development of the South African software industry. An example is his work in “TechInBraam” an ambitious ICT cluster development programme that is aimed at establishing a Digital Technology Cluster in Joburg’s Braamfontein inner city area. Another is the launch of the Tshimologong Precinct, a digital technology skills and innovation hub which forms part of the TechINBraam initiative. Under Barry’s guidance, what was once a dilapidated inner-city area will become the new technical and creative heart of South Africa and beyond.
He has also created a number of strategic initiatives at Wits, offering a new degree option in Information Engineering within Electrical Engineering and developing a course-based Masters programme in Software Engineering. He has also established a partnership with the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University in the USA, and has over the past eight years worked with the SEI and the Department of Trade and Industry to promote best software engineering practices in South Africa.
Vote for Barry here (voting ends 25 September)
About Barry Dwolatzky:
Barry Dwolatzky is the professor of Software Engineering at Wits University and director of the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE) at Wits.
Professor Dwolatzky played a key role in the founding of the JCSE in 2005, and was its director in May 2007. Prior to that, he was academic director at the JCSE and a professor in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering at Wits.
His driving passion is to promote the growth and development of the South African software industry. He set up the Information Engineering option in Electrical Engineering at Wits and developed a course-based Masters programme in Software Engineering, which was registered as a Learnership within the South African government's skills development framework.
Most recently, Professor Dwolatzky was the mastermind of a new software outreach programme and software hub being developed in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, with the aim to nurture the production and consumption of local ICT products and services.