Future job market requires highly skilled and curious graduates
Spinning nanofibers. Trapping ions in a vacuum. Combining machine learning and computational fluid dynamics to model river runoff. Developing an algorithm for extracting knowledge from big data.
This is not your everyday job description, but it might just be the kind of high-level skills, curiosity and innovative thinking required by the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution.
According to a 2016 Insight Report from the World Economic Forum on the future of jobs, we are on the brink of a technological revolution brought about by advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, robotics, nanotechnology, 3D printing, genomics, materials manufacturing and biotechnology.
And this revolution is going to require interesting new skills sets for jobs that we don’t even have names for yet.
Machine learning, climate change and nanoscience
Melise du Toit, an MSc student in applied mathematics at Stellenbosch University, is currently combining her training in computational fluid dynamics with her newly-acquired skills in machine learning. She’s an intern in the modelling and digital sciences research group at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Stellenbosch, where she works on one aspect of the first Africa-based Earth System Model, currently being developed at the CSIR.
She explains: “One aspect of this project is the model-generated interaction between land surface and water. I focus on the modelling of fluid flow from the land surface to the river mouths. The idea is to consider the existing physical model and apply a data-driven model (machine learning) to try and improve the accuracy of the results. This will allow for a more trustworthy and accurate prediction of future changes in river runoff.”
Melise is not the only student working across disciplines. At SU’s Institute for Polymer Science, MSc student Nelisa Dyayia is electrospinning nanofibers and incorporating different combinations of antimicrobial agents into these fibers. Her aim is to obtain the ideal combination of antimicrobial properties within a specific polymer matrix. This research may lead to the production of efficient and costeffective wound-dressing material. Her research requires expertise in polymer science, nanoscience, microbiology and the use of highlysophisticated nano-resolution light and electron microscopy. According to the WEF Insight report, graduates with high-level skills in mathematics, applied mathematics and computer science are going to be in demand across a wide range of industries. This includes financial services and investing, media, entertainment and information, mobility and professional services. The demand is driven by computing power and the industry’s need for big data analytics.
A wide range of industries need graduates in mathematical sciences
Professor Ingrid Rewitzky, head of the department of mathematical sciences at SU, says mathematical sciences are becoming more important as all of modern science, engineering, medicine, business, national defence and even the social sciences are coming to rely on complex computer simulations and the analysis of expanding amounts of data.
“Mathematicians provide the fundamental language on which other disciplines base their computational simulations and data analyses,” she says.
In this regard there is a growing demand for mathematical sciences graduates with high-level skills in quantitative modelling, problem-solving, the development of algorithms and software libraries, understanding of deep relationships among mathematical theories and structures, and the ability to perform symbolic reasoning and computation on abstract structures.
An exciting new field of study called biomathematics opens career options in the agricultural, medical and environmental sectors, as well as roles as a planner, future analyst, government advisor or strategist. Take Dr Chris Broeckhoven, a biologist in the department of botany and zoology at SU, as an example. He is now working in the field of mathematical biosciences to explain and model the development, function and evolution of body armour in girdled lizards.
If you are curious and ready for a career in which you will never cease learning new things, contact the academic advisor for programme choice and guidance on possibilities in SU’s faculty of science at ww@sun.ac.za