Professor Van Greunen leads 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, rural and social development, particularly in low income communities. This is combined with training, networking and policy analysis and advice. She is recognised as one of a handful of international user experience experts for developing countries, and is affectionately known as “the people’s professor” who has managed to introduce smart technologies to the man in the street. She was the first joint-appointment as a Senior Researcher between a South African University and the German multinational software corporation SAP AG in 2006. Over the past five years Prof Van Greunen and her team of change-maker researchers have won various awards and international acknowledgment for their ground-breaking research and application development within the African context and thus realising her vision of “ICT solutions for Africa, by Africans, in Africa”. Prof Van Greunen has published a number well cited scientific papers and also acts as external reviewer for a number of international journals and actively assists with the formulation of policy for the South African Government. As such, she is then recognised as one of the leading academics in the space of advancing the 4th Industrial Revolution in Education.
