Roelien Goede 1 December 2021
Roelien Goede is professor in the School of Computer Science and Information Systems at the North-West university. She conducts her research in the Research Unit for Business Mathematics and Informatics.
She completed school in 1988 and enrolled for the BSc degree with Computer Science and Economic Subjects at the then Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (PU for CHE). She completed this degree (cum laude) in 1991, and an Honours Degree in Computer Science and Information Systems (cum laude) in 1992. While lecturing at the then Vaal Triangle Technikon, she completed her Master’s degree (cum laude) in 1995 at the PU for CHE. In 1998 she also obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education (cum laude) from UNISA. In 2001 she enrolled for a PhD in Information Technology at the University in Pretoria and graduated in 2005 under the supervision of prof Carina de Villiers in the field of Business Intelligence and Systems Thinking. She also received a post graduate certificate from the University for Lugano, Switzerland, after attending the Summer School in Systems Thinking in 2012.
Roelien has a passion for teaching and started her teaching career as a lecturer first at the then Vaal Triangle Technikon and later at the then Pretoria Technikon. In 2001 she moved to Potchefstroom where she was appointed as lecturer in the then School for Computer Science, Statistics and Mathematics. From 2011 to 2015, she worked at the Vanderbijlpark Campus of the NWU, before returning to Potchefstroom in 2016. She participated frequently in the teaching excellence programme and was awarded the Distinguished Excellence in Teaching Award in 2018. She lectures Computer Programming and Advance Database Systems.
Her main research focus, for which she also received National Research Foundation of South Africa rating in 2018, is the improvement in Data Warehousing in South Africa. Improvement of data warehousing includes both a focus on technical improvements as well as a focus on improving the readiness of graduates to enter the data warehousing industry.
To date she has supervised 19 MSc students and 5 PhD students to completion. She has published 12 refereed journal papers, 65 conference papers, and 5 book chapters.
Her industry experience in programming and PhD work sparked an interest in philosophy – an interest she developed by attending the annual working conference in the Netherlands of the Centre of Philosophy, Technology and Society for a period of 10 years from 2002 onwards. Her focus on Systems Thinking lead to her involvement in the International Society for Systems Sciences, where she currently serves as the President Elect. This organisation promotes the use of systems sciences to understand and improve complex problem situations in all spheres of life. In Europe, she was involved in a humanitarian project empowering Syrian refugees in the Netherlands and also in a project in India focusing on empowering women in the corporate world as project managers.
She was born on the 16th of January 1971 and married Hennie Goede in 2000 and is mother to Rika (16) and Kari (14). She has an interest in multi-sports and takes part in triathlon events.