At a banquet held at the Misty Hills Conference Centre on 19 October 2004, Technikon Witwatersrand was announced as the winner of the annual Siemens Cyber Junkyard competition, a Siemens initiative aimed at encouraging practical innovation in engineering and electronics at universities and technikons countrywide. Second place was awarded to the Tshwane University of Technology, closely followed in third place by University of Pretoria.
From Left to right: Elsbeth Dixon (Da Vinci Institute), Martin Taverner (CJY administrator, Siemens Automation & Drives), Tim Ellis (Wits Tech), Elias Mokomele (Wits Tech), Viktor Wilken (Wits Tech), Pat Ellis (Wits Tech, Lecturer), Charles Glieman (Hestico), Steve Venter (GM, Instrumentation & Control, Siemens Automation & Drives), Roy Marcus (Da Vinci Institute)
The award is sponsored by Siemens Southern Africa. The winning institution receives products to the value of R100 000, of Siemens Automation and Drives. The project for teams in this year's Cyber Junkyard challenge was to build a bottling machine with batching capabilities, but with the added challenge of pitting their process against the other institutions, which will be judged on overall equipment efficiency, measured throughput, quality and availability.
Dan Moodley, managing director of Siemens Automation and Drives, says the response from institutions was very enthusiastic from the launch of the programme, which was initiated in February 2003. "Born out of the need to forge closer ties between Siemens and tertiary technology-related institutions, the Cyber Junkyard initiative allows teams from a number of tertiary institutions to familiarise themselves with Siemens Automations and Drives equipment by completing a project made up of mechanical, electrical and software components according to certain specifications prescribed by Siemens."
The Da Vinci Technical Institute adjudicated the event, and the institute's representatives looked for the most innovative and practical solutions applicable to industry today. Dr Elisabeth Dickson from the Da Vinci Technical Institute commended the entrants on the high standard of projects presented as well as the enthusiasm and commitment with which they presented their projects.
This year's competition saw 10 competing institutes. In addition to last year's winner, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the entrants for the 2004 competition included the North-West University (Potchefstroom), the Peninsula Technikon, Tshwane University of Technology, Zululand University, Mangosuthu Technikon, University of Pretoria, University of the Witwatersrand, Technikon Witwatersrand and Rand Afrikaans University (RAU).
Dr Roy Marcus who announced the wining teams, at the Cyber Junkyard awards evening, stated, "The smart partnership between Siemens and the educating bodies is a mutually beneficial relationship that lifts education to a new level. The opportunity that arises from the Cyber Junkyard event, upgrades the technical educational standard, while students learn the Siemens philosophy.
"With part of our objective to familiarise students and lecturers with Siemens equipment, we have found that these institutions are hungry for outside influence and training from large companies. We are already planning the project for next years challenge, and will be teaming with industry partners to ensure that the 2005 Cyber Junkyard competition will give students an even greater opportunity to showcase their talents," said Dan Moodley.
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