Friday, July 30, 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, two week 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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27 July ... Official judging of the entries is taking place

Analysing and evaluating of final submissions will be done by our judging panel, made up of the following delegates:
* Ken Nixon - SAIEE representative and Senior Lecturer (BSc(Eng)(Electrical), MSc, PhD (Wits), SMSAIEE, MIEEE)
* Chris Oliver - Didactic Consultant - Festo
* Norman Maleka - Electronics Manager - SEW Eurodrive
* Antonie le Roux - Bateman (Project Engineer / PR Eng B.Mech)
* Dale Oosthuizen - Technical Director - Abtech Enterprises

Good luck to those who have made it this far. Click here to view a summarised description of the entries.

21 July ... Four entries using “Motion in Sport” as their design theme have been submitted for final judging

The four entries that will undergo judging on the 27th and 28 July are:
• An Automatic Golf Teeing Machine from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
• A Soccer Ball Shooting Machine from Stellenbosch University
• An Automated Goalkeeper with Return Function from the University of Johannesburg
• An Automatic Goalkeeper Coach from the University of Kwa-Zullu Natal.

Click here to view a summarised description of the entries.
Detailed summaries of entries will be posted to the website by the end of July.

06 July ... Additional judge added to the judging panel

A senior lecturer from the University of the Witwatersrand - Ken J. Nixon BSc(Eng)(Electrical), MSc, PhD (Wits), SMSAIEE, MIEEE - has kindly agreed to add his knowledge and experience to the judging panel.

06 July ... Judging to take place on 27th and 28th July

All presentations and projects have been handed in and will be forwarded to the Festo head offices in Johannesburg where the jugding panel will go through the submissions together and discuss their findings. Each judge brings various strengths to the table  and scores projects individually. Scores are added up at the end of the two days in order to decide on a winner.

30 June ... The competition is closed for entries

As mentioned on all presentations and correspondence, and noted on this website, the competition is closed for further entries. 

19 June ... Good news and challenging news

Good news for students and institutions who have committed to the competition - some competing teams and universities have indicated that they will not be able to submit entries in time. The obvious advantage goes to those teams and mentors who picked up the challenge in time, the challenge is for those who possibly realised too late what it takes to be successful at this design competition.

19 June ... Crown Publications - Watt Now to publish an advert shortly

With less than two weeks to go, we've decided to generate some publicity to not only encourage competing students to focus their energy on fine-tuning their submissions, but to also update the engineering industry that the competition is closing and that they can start preparing themselves for some innovative student ideas and designs that will be posted onto this site during July and August.

 

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