SEW Eurodrive and Festo have announced the launch of their new design competition, Pneudrive Challenge, a design competition aimed at highlighting mechatronic innovation. The competition was announced late last year at briefings held around the country. Eight institutions were invited to participate.
The competition is aimed at third and fourth year students in the engineering faculties of mechanical engineering, electronic engineering and mechatronic studies.
What makes the competition unique is that it has been incorporated into the various universities' design curricula. "The reason for going this route is simple," comments Ute Bormann, GM sales and marketing for SEW Eurodrive. "We wanted as many students as possible to participate. As we know time is limited with the full curriculum and holiday work which need to be completed. We felt that having the project as part of the curriculum would make more sense. Luckily the universities agreed! We are very happy about the outcome and hope it is going to see many teams participating."
To assist participants in becoming familiar with the products they need to use in the designs, each university will receive pneumatic, electronic and mechanical equipment from the sponsors, SEW Eurodrive and Festo.
"The hands-on experience is invaluable. We are excited about what the students are going to come up with and are looking forward to new and creative ideas from the students," comments Adrian Buddingh, engineering manager at Festo.
Both SEW Eurodrive and Festo are international companies with a large global presence. SEW Eurodrive employs 11 000 people in 46 different countries and Festo has a head count of 12 000 people spread over 176 countries.
As both companies have their head offices in Germany, the winning team will be sent to Germany to view the sponsors' R&D facilities. There will, of course, also be time for a bit of fun! The winning university will receive a further R100 000 worth of equipment and the winning design will be displayed at Electra Mining later this year.
"Growing the young engineers in the country and providing them with opportunities and the needed skills for the workplace is of huge importance to us. They are not only our future employees but also our future customers, and form the cornerstone of our business," concludes Bormann.
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