Thursday, September 09, 2010

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What's the PneuDrive Challenge About?

The aim of the PneuDrive Challenge is to give the best mechanical, electronic and mechatronic engineering students a chance to use their talent to bring together engineering theory, the latest technology in drive engineering and pneumatics and business reality.

By creating a competition environment that requires proposing, designing and assembling innovative engineering ideas, students are given an opportunity to experience a wide range of problems and project issues that they would typically need to solve in the real world.
The practical experience of analysing, debating, designing and assembling an innovative engineering idea, gives participating students business and engineering experience that goes way beyond typical lecture room experiences.

As sponsors of the competition, SEW Eurodrive and Festo recognise the importance of business in partnering with higher education institutions to help address the enormous pressures that they are under to prepare skilled engineering students for the labour market.

Need more information? 

If you are a student, lecturer or university that wants to enquire about entering the competition, click here to send us an email for more information.

What's Up For Grabs?

The prize for 2010 is an all expenses paid trip for four students to the SEW Eurodrive and Festo Head Offices in Germany. The "winning university" will also receive R 100,000 worth of SEW Eurodrive and Festo equipment.

Competition Guidelines

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Please review the guidelines carefully before considering entering the competition. For more information, access the PneuDrive Challenge Rules document.
 
The FAQ section of this website also contains some valuable introductory information.

Follow us on social networks

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Follow the competition on Twitter to receive competition updates, news and information: Join the competition's Facebook Group to connect with people who are interested in the PneuDrive Challenge and engineering competitions in general:

 

 

News

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23 Aug ... Last two competition summaries posted:

1. From the University of Johannesburg - Automated Goalkeeper with Return Function - Competing students: Adrian Levy; Stephen Rose; Milan Isvarlal; John Taylor

Click here to download a summary of the design.

2. From the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal - The Automatic Goalkeeper Coach - Competing students: Calvin Cunniffe; Cameron Israel; Leemeshen Naidoo; Friedrich W H Schulenburg

Click here to download a summary of the design.

16 Aug ... Two competition summaries have been posted:

1. From Stellenbosch University - The Tshabalala Soccer Ball Shooting Machine - competing Students - Ivan Deetlefs; Alex Oelofse; Thabo Mofokeng and Ryan du Plessis.

Click here to access a summary of the Stellenbosch University entry.

And a nice touch from the Stellenbosch students was something that could be loaded onto YouTube:
YouTube video ... 01. Tshabalala Ball Shooting Video
YouTube video ... 02. Tshabalala Moving on Track Video

2. From Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University - The Automatic Golf Teeing Machine - competing students Mark Geel; Sebastian Pillay; Jonathan Petrie; and Dylan Townsend.
Click here to access a summary of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University entry.

By the way, the Tshaba touch was nice ...! Dankie Tshaba ...!

Two more interesting entries from the universities of Johannesburg and Kwa-Zulu Natal will be loaded as soon as possible.

05 Aug ... Press Release - Three in a row for PneuDrive Challenge 2010 winners!

The winners have been officially announced to the press. Click here for the Press Release.

02 Aug ... Winners announced

South Africa: The winner of the PneuDrive Challenge 2010 was announced in Johannesburg on 29 July 2010 after two days of intensive judging by a panel of industry experts. The University of Stellenbosch took the top spot for the third time in a row with their “Tshabalala Soccer Ball Shooting Machine”. The design was done by four Stellenbosch Mechanical Engineering students: Ivan Deetlefs; Alex Oelofse; Thabo Mofokeng and Ryan du Plessis.

The University of KwaZulu-Natal, supervised by Anthony Walker came in second. The students were Calvin Cunniffe, Cameron Israel, Leemeshen Naidoo, and Friedrich W H Schulenburg

Well done to the winning team and Professor Basson ..!

Click here to view a summarised description of the entries.

 

Useful Links and Information

SEW Eurodrive - Driving the World

Festo

Benefits of registering online

Students, lecturers and mentors interested in the competition should register online. You do not need to be competing to register. If you register on this competition website you can gain access to information and upates such as:

* Details being automatically stored for referral with our potential clients and employment agencies who contact us for referrals.

* Receive product information mailing lists which can help inform you about products that you may need to know when you enter the job market. 

* Regular updates regarding milestones and the progress of competition entries will also be posted to registered users.

Click on the Register button on the top right hand section of the web page to load your details onto our database. 

South African Institite of Electrical Engineers

We are pleased to announce that the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE) have endorsed and will support the PneuDrive Challenge. Winner's of the competition stand to be granted free SAIEE membership (providing there is compliance with rules and regulations).

Visit www.saiee.org.za to learn more about how the SAIEE contributes to the common interests and welfare of the whole engineering fraternity through close co-operation with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA).

South African Institution of Mechanical Engineering

On the back of the endorsement from the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers, recent news is that the South African Institution of Mechanical Engineering (SAIMechE) have also agreed to endorse the PneuDrive Challenge.

Communications from SAIMechE indicated that they felt the competition "offers a valuable bridge between the theory and practice of mechanical engineering".

Visit www.saimeche.org.za to learn more about what the institution can do for you as an engineering student.

 

Engineering News

One of the media partners for this year is Engineering News who will publish regular updates and newsflashes regarding competing universities and the designs they are working on.


 

The 2009 PneuDrive Challenge winners are:

Stellenbosch University walked away with top honours!

Their Glass Handling Gantry Robot (Umshini Khulu Wami or UKW for short), came out tops with judges commenting that it was a very good all round project which was backed up with thorough documentation and research.

The UKW is a versatile and adaptable gantry robot designed to assist in the manufacture and transport of large sheets of glass in and around the factory. The report included a detailed discussion of the float glass process and the difficulty in transporting large sheets of float glass. Several existing solutions were analysed, and the UKW was presented as an alternative.

For more information about the winning entry, click here.

 

 The winning students from Stellenbosch University:

Richard Hamman, Theuns Greyvenstein, Thinus Ras, Jacques Visser.

University of the North-West (students - Hanno Snyman and Oswald van Ginkel) took second prize with their Waste Management System which focused on “green business”. The project showed great business acumen and covered most aspects of machine building. For more information about this entry, click here.

University of KwaZulu-Natal (students - M. Bronner and D. Scott) came in third place with their design for a Cricket Bat Hardening Production System. Judges commented that the project was very innovative and showed high levels of complexity. For more information about this entry, click here.

 

 

Copyright 2010 SEW Eurodrive