Interest in the annual Siemens Cyber Junkyard competition, now in its sixth year, continues to grow among universities as well as enterprises in the private and public sectors, not only due to the financial and practical support provided for engineering faculties but also because the skills acquired by participating students make it a recruitment ground for companies looking to employ the cream of tomorrow’s engineers.
Devendree Karuppanan, Cyber Junkyard project manager at Siemens Industry Automation and Drive Technologies, says the prestige of the competition coupled with the considerable financial and logistical support available to entrants has made the competition the premier of its kind in the country, with enthusiasm increasing year after year.
The 10 finalists that will be exhibiting their projects at the Siemens annual TIA User Forum at the end of October 2008 include last year’s joint winner, the University of Johannesburg, as well as the University of KwaZulu-Natal, North West University, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Bloemfontein’s Central University of Technology, Tshwane University of Technology, the Durban University of Technology, the University of Botswana, Zambia’s Copperbelt University and the Namibian Institute of Mining and Technology.
All applicants were invited to respond to a tender that outlined the 2008 project and asked to submit their proposals, the quality of these forming the basis of final selection. Karuppanan says that the volume of submissions from tertiary institutions across the continent forced Siemens to implement a more stringent adjudication process in selecting the teams who would participate in the finals.
Students attended a competition briefing at the University of Johannesburg
Building on the 2007 Cyber Junkyard project that had an automation slant, business manager training at Siemens Industry Automation and Drive Technologies, Des Burrows, says this year’s project has several added factors that make it even more challenging with increased room for creativity and innovation.
“With all project equipment to a value of approximately R150 000 supplied by Siemens and Festo – which the participating institutions get to keep – this year’s assignment will see the teams designing and building a hot and cold beverage producing machine that incorporates additional elements such as the HMI, wireless communication, visualisation, system status monitoring and PLC programming,” says Burrows.
According to Karuppanan, judging criteria for the beverage machine product includes: employing all the equipment provided by Siemens and Festo; single and batch order entry and delivery; the quality of the end product, its consistency and order accuracy; the speed of delivery; hygiene and safety.
“Over and above these basic deliverables, innovation and creativity will feature strongly as have not stipulated a predefined design,” she says.
Winning tenders will be adjudicated on 28 October 2008 during the annual Siemens TIA User Forum at the Birchwood Conference Centre in Johannesburg and announced at the event’s Gala Dinner.
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