TEACHING
We form part of the division for Operations Research in the Department of Logistics at Stellenbosch University. A number of operations research courses are offered at the department to both undergraduate and postgraduate students, and senior members of Surgor are responsible for teaching some of these courses. In addition, Surgor is responsible for the supervision and mentoring of some of the postgraduate students registered in the Department.
SUPERVISION AND MENTORING
Postgraduate students
Senior members of Surgor supervise and mentor postgraduate students interested in doing research in Surgor related research topics. We strongly believe in nurturing good relationships in our research group. We meet regularly in a large group, as well as in small group sessions between supervisors and students. In the larger group meetings, the focus is on exposure and group support. New and interesting ideas or relevant topics are discussed, each member gets the chance to present and discuss their research on a frequent basis to stimulate further creative problem solving, and external people are also invited to present their research or interesting ideas. In the small group sessions, the focus is on mentoring, and discussing research progress and brainstorming for progressing the research even further. In mentoring, supervisors encourage, challenge, guide, listen, in the hope to help develop young researchers to become more confident, self aware, strive for excellence, taking responsibility and direction for their life and learning process.
METHODS OF OPERATIONS RESEARCH - 786
Postgraduate course
This project-driven course is offered in collaboration with a number of partners in industry, who share the view that good operations researchers are bred through practical experience. The course is offered in the form of three project-driven cycles, in which site visits to industry, mathematical modelling and the oral as well as written reporting of results play an important role.
In this course, we choose projects specifically with the aim to expose the students to work in three different spheres, namely the established private sector, non-profit organizations or public sector, and startup companies (entrepreneurship). As a result of this, relationships have been established with a lot of different companies, and students frequently then apply for jobs in these companies. Non-profit companies have the opportunity to use these projects to help solve management problems that they will otherwise not have the capacity to tackle. If you are a company interested in facilitating such a project, please feel free to contact us.