Industrial and electronics distributor, RS Components, was one of the sponsors of the 2016 EECE Race Day at the University of Pretoria. This offers third-year micro-controller students at the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering (DEEC) the opportunity to showcase their practical skills and put theory into practice. RS Components donated power banks, 1-terabyte hard drives and complete Raspberry Pi kits to the winning teams. Students were required to build autonomous robotic vehicles (ARVs) with a sensor system able to detect the multi-coloured track, as part of their analog electronics module.
Members of the winning team from left: Johann Hough, Olorato Kabasia, (marketing co-ordinator, RS Components SA) and Mathew Fulton.
“The robotic vehicle race offers engineering students the opportunity to develop the skills needed to survive and excel in an embedded, control-driven technological society,” says DEEC’s Professor Tania Hanekom. Mellisa Naidoo, head of marketing at RS Components SA, explains that RS Components’ continued involvement in this project is in line with the company’s policy of supporting both professional and future engineers by giving them access to the components and tools they require to innovate.
RS Components also hosts DesignSpark.com, an online technical community for engineers around the world with more than 300 000 members who can be of assistance to students and engineers working on real-world applications. DesignSpark offers free software tools in the form of DesignSpark Mechanical, DesignSpark PCB and DesignSpark Electrical, which bring the benefits of design software to those who do not have access to CAD tools. Design Spark Electrical is supported by Schneider Electric. The software has an integrated library of more than 250 000 components and parts, including 80 000 from Schneider Electric and 10 000 from RS, which can easily be added to customer designs.
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