SME 5.0 Future Cooperation Meeting

On 16th and 17th of March 2023 a remarkable meeting took place in Stellenbosch. Prof. Otto Petrovic visited Prof. Helmut Zsifkovits who was on a secondment at Stellenbosch University at that time. Otto is Professor of Information Systems and Management at the University of Graz, Austria, and also a well-known athlete will more than 50 national championship titles in javelin throw, high jump, shot put, hammer throw and triple jump. He improved the Austrian record in javelin throw six times and won the title of Vice World Champion of Masters.

Otto is still very active as a cyclist. He arrived from Cape Town by bike and continued for another 1000 km from the garden route back to Cape Town within the following week. His ride is documented in a book published in October 2023.

Previous destinations of Otto’s bike tours include Bolivia, Chile, China, Siberia, Kyrgyzstan, Palestine, and Japan. Otto and Helmut had fruitful discussions about common projects and also met with the faculty of the Industrial Engineering Department at SU.