UCT scholar bags engineering accolade

Frontline: Dr Tanja Winkler, here speaking to community members in the Langrug community, where she led a project in which UCT students help with upgrades in the area.

Women's Month ended on a high note for UCT's Dr Tanja Winkler when the Women in Engineering and the Built Environment (WiEBE), a programme based at the University of Johannesburg, honoured her with a national award.

Winkler, of UCT's School of Architecture, Planning & Geomatics, received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the WiEBE for her innovative teaching methods.

A recipient of a research grant from the National Research Foundation's Thuthuka, or Women in Research programme, to facilitate an ongoing project on civil society, poverty, and inner city regeneration, Winkler has made remarkable contributions to the field of urban planning in the country.

Together with Liana Müller, her colleague in the master's of landscape architecture course, Winkler has facilitated community-university engagements via a studio-based course that is shared between students from the city and regional planning and the landscape architecture programmes. The course is conceptualised as a community-led and involved project, and allows master's students to work directly with, learn from, and share knowledge with informal settlement residents in the Western Cape to develop settlement upgrading proposals.

About the award, Winkler commented: "This award serves to remind me why teaching and learning remain important endeavours."