Dr Ronald Tombe of the FAR-LeaF program has had a special relationship with his mentor during the FAR-LeaF fellowship, Prof. Hanlie Smuts of the University of Pretoria. He says, “The experience has been beautiful, enriching and inspiring.”
What makes for a good mentor?
Prof. Hanlie Smuts has been supportive, hands-on, and deeply involved in my research development. Prof. Smuts offered guidance on refining research questions, suggesting relevant reference materials, and introducing innovative methodologies. Furthermore, Prof. Smuts involved me in a professional committee, the Society 5.0 organising committee, which is crucial. These provide valuable experience in organising and networking within professional settings.
How did you manage your expectations of the relationship?
Effective communication has been vital in managing expectations. At the initial stage of the research, Prof Smuts and I set clear, achievable goals, and we regularly discuss progress towards these goals, which can help us stay aligned. We also keep setting up new goals periodically after accomplishing the earlier goals.
How significant is the exposure of the mentors' networks you have received?
Prof Hanlie Smuts invited me to the Department of Informatics, University of Pretoria, where I had an opportunity to interact with Lecturers and Researchers. Prof. Hanlie also offered a conference platform (Society 5.0) where I presented a paper and networked with researchers from Switzerland and Mauritius, with whom we are working together on the organising committee of the Society 5.0 conference, which will be held in Mauritius this year. There are also prospects of us working on joint projects.
Prof. Smuts offered guidance on refining research questions, suggesting relevant reference materials, and introducing innovative methodologies.
You were co-authors?
Because of a good working relationship, Prof Hanlie and I co-authored one journal article and two conference papers:
Tombe, R. and Smuts, H., 2023. Agricultural Social Networks: An Agricultural Value Chain-Based Digitalization Framework for an Inclusive Digital Economy. Applied Sciences, 13(11), p.6382. https://doi.org/10.3390/app13116382
Tombe, R. and Smuts, H., 2023. Society 5.0-Inspired Digitalization Framework for Resilient and Sustainable Agriculture. EPiC Series in Computing, 93, pp.216-227. https://doi.org/10.29007/xc5q
Tombe, R., 2023, August. AI for Complex Adaptive Systems in Agric-Food Chains: Enterprise Architecture Perspectives. In Deep Learning Indaba 2023.
The mentor assisted with technical/infrastructure support; how did this assist you with your research project?
Prof. Smuts offered guidance on refining research questions, suggesting relevant reference materials, and introducing innovative agricultural social network modelling methodologies. Further, Prof. Hanlie Smuts presented a tool called “Leximancer", which we utilised for agricultural-social network modelling and analysis. This yielded an article published in the Journal of Applied Science (MDPI).
Dr Ronald Tombe, in conversation with Heidi Sonnekus
