The end is in sight for students who participated in the 2010 PneuDrive Challenge, after competition entries closed on June 30. “We were very fortunate that a number of universities incorporated the competition into their design curricula this year,” says Rene Rose, marketing manager for SEW-Eurodrive and member of the PneuDrive Team. “This gave students the advantage of being able to work on their projects during lecture time with stronger involvement from the lecturers.”
Rene Rose
The competition focuses on design innovation in the field of mechatronics. This year students were briefed to design an application using SEW-Eurodrive and Festo products to illustrate motion in sport. “We are expecting that the excitement around the Soccer World Cup will be very evident in the designs, but I am sure there are students who thought up other sport applications as well,” adds Rene. “Judges will be looking for a balance between creativity and business acumen. Students who participate in the competition have an advantage when they get into the workplace as the competition encourages them to think like a business. It is not enough for their design to be creative and interesting; they need to think about business aspects as well. For example: Who will buy it? Why would they buy it? What would it cost? And so on. The documentation and presentation also counts for a considerable number of points. All these things are designed to encourage students to put their business hats on.”
The judging panel includes:
* Antonie le Roux, project engineer – Bateman.
* Dale Oosthuizen, technical director – Abtech Enterprises.
* Norman Maleka, electronics manager – SEW-Eurodrive.
* Ken Nixon, SAIEE representative and senior lecturer.
* Chris Oliver, Didactic consultant – FESTO.
Winners will be announced early in August. The winning team walks away with a 10-day all expenses paid trip to Germany. See www.pneudrive.co.za
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