Good News

BULLETIN 22 July 2 pm

Good afternoon, here is your Good News:

# Team SA made history at the recent International Mathematical Olympiad in Australia, recording the best performance the country has had in over 20 years at the global competition. Five of the six learners representing the country came home with bronze medals, while the sixth earned a well-deserved honourable mention. Five of the learners are from the Western Cape, with one, Yian Xu, from Redhill High in Johannesburg, who was recognised as Africa’s top female high school mathematician. 

Meanwhile, humans beat generative AI models made by Google and OpenAI at the olympiad in Queensland. Neither model scored full marks, unlike five young people at the prestigious annual competition where participants must be under 20 years old. Google says an advanced version of its Gemini chatbot had solved five out of the six math problems. This is a score of 35 out of a possible 42 – a gold medal score for the first time. Around 10-percent of human contestants won gold-level medals.

# The Walter Sisulu University has launched the GreenGrow Project, an interdisciplinary urban agriculture initiative. The project, which builds on the #StretchMyRand movement, equips students with practical skills in sustainable food production. The university says students are encouraged to design urban agriculture systems and grow their own food, sharing knowledge across disciplines. It adds that GreenGrow also empowers students to identify needs in their communities, and pilot innovative solutions, building resilience and entrepreneurial spirit.

# A collaborative exhibition, Artefacts, showcasing works by Lothar Böttcher and Caitlin Greenberg, will officially open at the Pretoria Art Museum on Saturday. Both artists, who are renowned for their passion and specialised use of glass in their art, are alumni of the Tshwane University of Technology. The university says Böttcher and Greenberg examine inner voices, personal dilemmas and philosophies in this exhibition, inviting visitors to experience the space through a fourth dimension, one shaped by memory, emotion and embodied presence.

# And finally: SANParks says the recent sighting of the Knysna elephant at a farmland in the Knysna Forest, has stirred excitement and pride across the Garden Route and beyond. The Knysna elephant, Loxodonta Africana, is the same species as elephants found elsewhere in South Africa. SANParks’ spokesperson, JP Louw, says they have long observed her with discreet, non-invasive camera traps, capturing her presence every few weeks without disturbing her natural behaviour:

Stay tuned for more news………….