When Professor Janice Limson, Director of the Rhodes University Biotechnology Innovation Centre (RUBIC) and SARChI Chair in Biotechnology Innovation and Engagement, opened the conversation on Science, Research and Postgraduate Supervision, she began not with theory or milestones, but with memory.

When artificial intelligence (AI) recognises a face, reads a medical scan or makes decisions, it often does so in ways that even its creators say they cannot fully explain. But for Rhodes University MSc Applied Mathematics graduate Georgina Fiorentinos, that wasn’t good enough – so she set out to find out for herself.

Across South Africa, small acts of foundation phase teaching innovation are already changing how children learn to read, count and make sense of the world. Yet many remain unseen beyond the classrooms where they began. The newly launched Seeds of Transformation initiative begins with a powerful recognition: these practices are seeds with the potential to reshape the education system.

A newspaper headline about a dumping site near a school was not meant to change anyone’s life — but for Rhodes University MSc in Environmental Sciences graduate Khangelani Dlamini, it did.