We are happy to report that we had a better than expected turnout at our recent monthly technical evening hosted at the Centurion Country Club. The topic co-presented by Ai2SA and DesSoft was ‘Plant design: Best practices in relation to control & instrumentation’. The session aimed to educate the audience on: 1) The value of adopting front-end loading (FEL) philosophies where more work is done upfront in relation to design, and 2) How advanced C&I engineering tools assist in relation to enforcing and supporting components of FEL while also addressing challenges experienced on a project. It consisted of a practical demonstration and used a real-world case study from the nuclear industry. In another first for SAIMC, portions of the presentation and demonstration was streamed live via the SAIMC Facebook page.
Some feedback on the past period
The existing committee was retained at the AGM, which also featured a presentation by the CEO of EWSETA.
Pregs and Petrus visited an OEM to investigate the feasibility of starting a satellite branch in Rustenburg and the possible support the OEM may offer, and we will revert back in due course.
Jurie and Petrus also met with Johannes de Vries of TUT about the First Lego League (FLL)/First Tech Challenge (FTC) and the role SAIMC would play in supporting the programme, which aims to educate children from 6 to 18 in relation to #STEM via #Robotics. The next step is to set up a MoU. Irrespective of agreement there is a need for mentorship and active participation from industry and everyone is encouraged to assist. We are also assisting with negotiations to allow for FLL to be represented at AAF 2017 in June.
In closing we received some sad news re the passing of Mr du Toit Grobler, who presented on ECSA registration in September, and we would like to convey condolences to his family and friends.
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