Events

Events organised by the research group:

  1. Collaborative Workshop on Big Data Analysis of COVID-19, 30 - 31 May 2022, CSIR Convention Centre, organised by SEPIMOD with a number of invited speakers - local and international. 

  2. Workshop on Epidemiological Modelling, 22 September 2021 organised by Dr Raeesa Docrat,  who obtained funding for and planned the online workshop.  

  3. Writing retreat, 22 – 24 September 2025.

Events attended by the research group:

  1. South African Statistics Association Conference, Stellenbosch, December 2021.

  2. International Symposium on Modern Biostatistics and Machine Learning, 26 – 28 July 2022, University of Pretoria.

  3. South African Statistics Association Conference, George, December 2022.

  4. Spatial Statistics Conference, 20 -23 July 2023, Bolder, USA

  5. MASAMU Seminar 1 August 2023 on “Wastewater modelling for pandemic preparedness” (virtual).

  6. NITheCS Seminar 14 August 2023 on “Spatial Epidemiology” (virtual).

  7. South African Statistics Association Conference, Durban, December 2023.

  8. Southern Africa Regional Workshop on Wastewater Surveillance for Environmental and Public Health, 8 – 10 April 2025. Organised by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and supported by the European Union Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA). The workshop developed wastewater and environmental surveillance strategies for pandemic preparedness and response in Africa, with a focus on capacity building in low-resource settings, transparent data exchange and collaboration. Wouter le Roux and Lisa Schaefer attended, and Wouter presented on wastewater surveillance in Ekurhuleni Municipality (Gauteng).

  9. Wastewater Surveillance for Africa webinar series (UNEP, in collaboration with WHO and supported by HERA), attended by Wouter le Roux and Lisa Schaefer:

    • Introduction to Wastewater and Environmental Surveillance: Public Health and Ecosystem Protection in Africa, 3 July 2025 (virtual). Showed how wastewater surveillance can provide early warning of disease outbreaks while supporting ecosystem protection, with insights from experts in South Africa and Uganda.
    • Collaboration in Wastewater and Environmental Surveillance: One Health and Stakeholder Engagement, 25 September 2025 (virtual). Explored how public health, environmental management and water services professionals can work together, using a One Health approach, to respond to health risks identified through wastewater surveillance.

Upcoming events:

  1. Spatio-Stochastic Modelling of Infectious Diseases Using Compartmental Models, SEPIMOD pre-conference workshop at the South African Statistical Association (SASA) Conference, morning of Tuesday 24 November 2026 (conference 23 – 27 November 2026, Birchwood Hotel, Boksburg; hosted by the University of the Witwatersrand). This half-day workshop introduces deterministic and stochastic compartmental models (e.g. SIR/SEIR) from a statistical perspective, covering model specification, inference, spatial extensions through metapopulation and hierarchical frameworks, and a COVID-19 case study on model fitting, forecasting and uncertainty quantification. Led by Dr Raeesa Manjoo-Docrat, with facilitators Jenny Holloway, Nontembeko Dudeni-Tlhone, Nada Abdelatif, Inger Fabris-Rotelli and Miguel Torres.