Starting the year off on a good note
The first quarter of 2024 is coming along quite interestingly for the EWB-SA team. We welcomed two new interns, Linae Baron and Nqobile Shabalala, who will be working closely with the Engineering for People Design Challenge (EFPD) team as we start the research on the next South Africa-based design challenge (more information shared below).
Our core volunteer team is also growing. We also welcome Sewakhile Mthethwa, the former University of Johannesburg Student Chapter chairperson, who will be joining the team as Assistant to the Student Chapter Manager. We plan to create more opportunities for the broader EWB-SA community to volunteer as we work together to empower South Africa’s engineers.
In the past four to five months, we have submitted some major grant applications and have initiated conversations to reinforce and expand our partnerships with the private sector, academia, and other nonprofits.
Engineering for People Design (EFPD) Challenge
The 2023 SA EFPD Challenge culminated in a successful Grand Final event held in December 2023, where our long-standing partners RS Components presented three prizes. We congratulate our prize-winners
- First Prize: Algae-based Low-Carbon Green Alternative Energy by L Wardlaw (Wits)
- Runner Up: Solar Powered Compacting Bin by DN Spies, PWT Mahlangu and ES Mabuza (CPUT)
- People’s Prize: Refurbishing old sand tenements for social housing with a focus on energy efficiency and insulation by E McNab, J Dacre, A Booysens and S Smith (Stellenbosch)
Development for the 2025 EFPD Challenge content has begun. We are excited to be working with our project partners, Engineers Without Borders UK and our community partners, Makers Valley Partnership, as we take students on a media-rich, interactive, and empowering journey of developing engineering solutions for a real community.
Our team will be on the ground in the Maker’s Valley (east of Johannesburg) area in the next few weeks, capturing community members’ insights, and looking at various built environment challenges 5 years after we last developed a design brief for the area.
EWB-SA Board Expansion
As the organization expands and strives to improve its impact and partnerships in the industry, we have been compiling scopes for new board members to join the EWB-SA team during the course of this year. We hope to tap into our broad community to add to the board of enthusiastic, driven and insightful leaders to the helm of impacting our nation.
Conquering 2024
Many more partnerships and projects are in development and we hope to share successes and impact soon. Engineers Without Borders International have been sharing resources to empower EWB entities across the globe and we hope to leverage these to both support and learn from others across the globe, while continuing to work with you as the community that makes EWB-SA successful.
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