UJ Alumni Impumelelo Magazine Edition 9

UJ NEWS

UJ team wins 3rd place at the Intervarsity Brewing Competition

Judge Certification Program (BJCP) and the beers are blind judged, according to the BJCP 2015 guidelines. Prizes are awarded to the best beer in each category. The UJ team entered four beer styles (African Premium Lager, Indian Pale Ale, Winter Warmer, and Munich Helles) and won the 2019 Best Indian Pale Ale category, including a cash prize of R10 000. This is the second award for the UJ team following the Best Winter Warmer Ale Award in 2017. The UJ team was represented by five team members (Mr Witness Qaku, Mentor; Mr Tshisonga Khuthadzo, MSc student; Mr Eddie Lulamba, PhD student; and Miss Nomthandazo Msimango and Miss Gugu Mahlangu, BTech students) from UJ’s Department of Biotechnology and Food Technology. The Department has a micro-brewery that acts as a teaching aid for students.

The team that represented UJ at the competition

The Intervarsity Brewing Competition is an annual event that seeks to promote responsible beer consumption amongst students that drink beer. Importantly, it allows students to acquire brewing skills to work within the brewing industry or develop their own craft breweries. This year, from 23 to 25 August, it was attended by 13 tertiary Institutions, including the University of Johannesburg’s

Department of Biotechnology and Food Technology. The competition is co-hosted by South African Breweries (SAB), Central University of Technology (CUT), and University of the Free State (UFS). To participate in the competition each tertiary institution chooses beer style categories to brew, condition, and package prior to the competition. The beer styles are set according to the Beer

UJ IMPLEMENTS BLOCKCHAIN-BASED CERTIFICATES FOR GRADUATES

to improve systems and service delivery. This continuous improvement strategy and use of cutting-edge technology, facilitated through the Fourth Industrial Revolution are at the heart of our philosophy, says UJ Registrar, Prof Kinta Burger.

The University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) digital certificate system, introduced in 2019 for graduates to securely share these certificates with third parties or prospective employers, has been enhanced by added blockchain-based security features. UJ is the first South African higher-education institution to offer blockchain-based certificates for graduates. The new blockchain-based certification process will make certificate fraud, counterfeiting, and fraudulent representation of qualifications even more difficult. Ce rtificates issued from this year on will have QR codes printed on them, which anybody can scan with a smartphone to verify whether the information on the certificate is correct and has been issued legitimately by UJ. The public is now able to validate the awarded

qualifications for UJ graduates without having to contact the University or having to go through a verification agency, just by scanning the QR code on the certificate and best of all, at no cost. The blockchain-based certificates will not only protect the university’s certificates from fraud but also preserve the reputation of the institution and the integrity of qualifications. UJ is committed to applying new technologies

https://universityofjohannesburg. us/4ir/2022/07/blockchain-based- certificates-legitimate-qualifications/

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