Ulrike Rivett

Professor Ulrike Rivett holds an undergraduate degree in Land Surveying from the University of Munich, Germany and a PhD in Integrated Information Systems from the University of Cape Town. She has worked for 16 years at UCT in the Department of Civil Engineering and the Department of Information Systems. Prof Rivett leads the iCOMMS research team, which focuses on understanding the use of ICTs for the benefit of society by engaging proactively with government, municipalities and rural communities. Her work always entailed implementing research findings and increasing impact beyond the academic boundary. Her teaching has been in the areas of information systems, project management, design thinking, and engineering.

Professor Rivett graduated from the Technische Universität München, Germany, in 1994 with a Dipl.-Ing.univ in Land Surveying. She received a scholarship for her in the then Department of Land Surveying, today Geomatics Department, at the University of Cape Town.

In 2002 she was employed in the Department of Civil Engineering and over the last two her research has focused on the application and use of ICTs (Information Communication Technologies) to support the delivery of basic amenities and services to under-resourced communities.

With the changing environment of engineering and a clear recognition of the need to improve the interface between applied science and the understanding of communities, her research has moved away from the traditional engineering space into aspects of society and engineering.

The innovative use of existing technologies – in her case mobile phones and other ICTs – offers the opportunity to create a virtual infrastructure between decision makers who require up-to-date and reliable information and stakeholders who can provide this information through appropriate technologies. The need for information cuts across disciplines and her contribution over the last decade has been to ‘connect the dots’ between the knowledge of specialists and the creation of a solution that offers an innovative approach to existing problems.

By introducing ICTs in seemingly unrelated fields, such as the health sector, service the water sector, she has been able to develop technologies that cross conventional boundaries of knowledge, decision making and stakeholder engagement.

Professor Rivett leads the iCOMMS research team, which focuses on understanding the use of ICT4D systems and making them benefit society by engaging proactively with academia, and rural communities by implementing research findings and increasing impact beyond academic boundaries.

Publications and Working Papers

Loudon M., Rivett U.: Enacting Openess in ICT4D Research, Open Development- Networked Innovations in International Development, MIT Press – International Development Research Centre Canada, edited by M. Smith and K. Reilly, ISBN 978-0-1-5520-568-7, 2014

Champanis M., Rivett U., Gool S., Nyemba-Mudenda M.: ICTs in the water sector – where do we stand? WRC Report No. TT571/13, ISBN 978-1-4312-0463-2, www.wrc.org.za, 2013

Rivett U., Champanis M., Wilson-Jones T.: Monitoring drinking water quality in South Africa: Designing information systems for local needs, WaterSA, Volume 39 No 3 WISA 2012, Special Edition 2013

Wright J.A., Hong Y., Rivett U., Gundry S.W.: Public Perception of Drinking Water Seafety in South Africa 2002-2009: A repeated cross-sectional study, BMC Public Health 2012, 12:556, http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/12/556

Champanis M, RivettU.: Reporting Water Quality – A Case study of a Mobile Phone Application for Collecting Data in Developing Countries, International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Development, Atlanta 2012, ACM 978-1-4503-1045-1/12/03 , ISBN 978-1-4503-1045-1

Brown D., Marsden G., Rivett U: Water Alert! Using Mobile Phones to Improve Community Perspective on Drinking Water Quality in South Africa, International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Development, Atlanta 2012,ACM 978-1-4503-1045-1/12/03, ISBN 978-1-4503-1045-1

Loudon M, Rivett U: Enacting Openess in ICT4D research, Information Technologies & International Development Journal, Vol.7, Issue 1 Spring 2011, pg 33-46, ISSN 1544-7529

Rivett U, Loudon M.: Learning to succeed at e-Government, ACM Interactions, Volume XVII, July + August 2010, pg 30 - 33

Rivett U, Tapson J.: The Cell-Life Project: Converging technologies in the context of HIV/AIDS, International Journal of Community Research and Engagement, Vol 2 (2009), pg 82-97, ISSN 1836-3393

Loudon M, Ajmal T, Rivett U, de Jager D, Bain R, Matthews R,Gundry S:A 'human-in-the-loop' mobile image recognition application for rapid scanning of water quality test results, EISE 2009, www.ukinit.org/eise09 , ISBN 978-1-906124-24-3, ISSN 1477-9358

Wood R., Kaplan R, Bekker L-G, Rivett U., Brown S.:The Utility of Pharmacy Dispensing Data for ART Programme Evaluation and Early identification of Patient Loss to follow up, Southern African Journal of HIV Medicine, Autumn 2008

Torensen T., Rivett U., Fortuin J.: Review of e-health systems for HIV/AIDS and antiretroviral treatment management in South Africa, Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare, Journal of Telemedicine and Telecare Volume 14 Number 1 2008, DOI: 10.1258/jtt.2007.070502