Darelle van Greunen

Darelle van Greunen is a Distinguished Professor of Information Technology at the Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha, South Africa. She is also the Director of a research, engagement and innovation group at the Nelson Mandela University, namely the Centre for Community Technologies (CCT). The CCT integrates transdisciplinary research and innovation with community engagement through the development and implementation of apps and other smart technologies that enable the advancement of education, health, and rural and social development, particularly in low-income communities. Her research career spans a period of approximately 25 years and she has extensive experience in developing and implementing computerized applications in low-resource environments in Africa and further afield. Her research is interdisciplinary including computer science and information technology, education, health, and social and rural development. Her research career commenced with Human-Computer Interaction with a specific focus on developing usable applications for the delivery of distance learning using technology. Over time, her research evolved as technology changed. As part of her research growth, she held a joint appointment position between the international software company, SAP and Nelson Mandela University for a period of 8 years. During this time, she was responsible for the global implementation of best practices in user experiences within SAP research. As such, she was one of only four user experience experts globally between 2006-2013. For the past 8 years, she was also responsible for the Centre for Community Technologies (CCT), establishing it with no funding to a self-sustainable entity with a multi-million rand per year turnover. Darelle holds a PhD-degree from the University of South Africa. She has over 200 peer-reviewed publications including 12 chapters in books and more than 30 refereed journal articles. She has been invited to give more than 70 keynote presentations at international conferences and holds an honorary professorship at Amity University, is a lifelong Fellow of the Discovery Foundation Rural Health and is an Extraordinary Professor in the Optentia Research Unit of North West University, South Africa. She has successfully supervised in excess of fifty Master’s and Doctoral students. Darelle is a C2- rated researcher by the National Research Foundation (NRF) since 2012. She became a professional member Institute for IT Professionals in South Africa (IITPSA) in 2009. Darelle is also a past-Vice President of the Institute for IT Professionals in South Africa (IITPSA) and served as a member of the Executive Council of South African Institute for Computer Scientists and Information Technologists (SAICSIT) from 2006 to 2018. She has received a number of awards as recognition for her research and engagement work including awards from the United Nations Economics Forum and the Common Wealth Digital Health Awards. Darelle received the IT Contributor to Society (IITPSA) in 2017 and has received five Vice Chancellor’s Excellence Awards from Nelson Mandela University between 2019 and 2022. Since 2020, she implemented a multitude of solutions in support of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of these include: Health Sector - COVTOR Self-monitoring tool for contact tracing - COVIDTrace Case Management solution used in NMB and SB - Roll-out of cloud-based Hospital Management Solution to public hospitals in NMBM and Sarah Baartman Education Sector - Carebuddy screening tool for schools (used in 5142 school, 1.8m learners) - Self-screening BOTS in English, isiXhosa and Afrikaans. These are quick screening tools that is available for easy screening of basic COVID-19 symptoms. The BOTS are available on a multitude of platforms. Civil Society - Training and Support to offer re-skilling of different sectors for the digital now. ls such as Zoom, Teams and other relevant platforms. - To create a digital platform in support of civil society action and civic engagement in the Eastern Cape. Psycho-social Wellness - Development of appropriate tools to support the Psycho-social wellness work stream of the EC Provincial Government. These include mobile Apps, digital storytelling platforms to facilitate digital storytelling, counselling solutions for remote counselling and other knowledge-based platforms.