MSc (Geoinformatics) student Nicholas De Kock has been selected to take part in an exchange program between the University of Pretoria and the University of Montpellier. Nicholas is supervised by Dr Victoria Rautenbach and Prof Inger Fabris-Rotelli. Their research is focused on the continued development of a Python library to automate the Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) process. The current version of the library can be viewed/downloaded here.

The University of Pretoria student delegation for this exchange program is made up of:

• Nicholas De Kock (NAS: Geoinformatics)
• Ashante Kunene (Veterinary Sciences: Anatomy and Physiology)
• Malhatse Makola (NAS: Agriculture and Rural Development)
• Lights Ngobeni (NAS: Agricultural Economics)
• Rachel Olivier (EBIT: Industrial Engineering)
• Sade Magabotha (Bioinformatics)

The exchange is the result of an agreement between the two universities which will see masters students from the University of Montpellier spend four months at the Hans Hoheisen Wildlife Research Station in the Kruger National Park. As a result the above-mentioned masters students from the University of Pretoria to spend four months (September - December 2022) at the University of Montpellier. These students will have the opportunity to undertake masters-level coursework or research sustainability issues within their study disciplines. The French Embassy in South Africa have generously agreed to fund the mobility of these students.