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2021 Kovsie ACT Eco-Vehicle race: Join the virtual fun!

07 May 2021 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa | Photo Johan Roux

echo vehcile — The Kovsie ACT programme encourages the evolution of UFS students to form internationally competitive graduates who embody sustainable energy knowledge and skills to contribute to the development of the global environment.

Be a part of the evolution and livestream this year’s University of the Free State (UFS) Kovsie ACT Eco-vehicle race on 15 May 2021.

What’s in it for you? Get exposed to an informative but exciting event that will assess the technology and logic behind sustainable energy sources and how this will influence the future global society.

According to Karen Scheepers, Head of the University of the Free State (UFS) Kovsie Act office, the quest for sustainable resources remains one of the top-five challenges facing the global population of today. This challenge – together with issues pertaining to food insecurity, water, waste and toxins, and the widening gap between rich and poor – poses new questions to the kind of graduates that universities produce, she added. She further highlighted the importance of innovative critical thinking that responds to day-to-day issues experienced by society in a global context.

Therefore, the UFS has initiated an eco-vehicle project to help students develop the necessary graduate attributes to specifically address issues of sustainable resources. The aim of the eco-vehicle project is to implement, within the context of a higher education institution, a new innovative skills development solution to the challenge of sustainable resources, and to evaluate the efficacy and impact of this programme in a rigorous way.

Through this programme, senior undergraduate students worked together in teams through a mediated learning programme to build scale-model electric vehicles and mini solar charging stations – powered by solar energy (or batteries charged through solar energy). This experience will steer them towards finding solutions and creating awareness around 21st century issues, and adapting to the development of technology and globalisation, essentially producing an interdisciplinary experience for UFS students.

Kovsie ACT eco-vehicle skills programme

According to the Kovsie ACT team, the eco-vehicle skills programme helps students understand how their decisions and actions affect the environment, and further implores them to build on their knowledge and skills in order to address and combat complex environmental issues, while taking sufficient action to maintain its healthy state and secure it for the future.

The skills development programme culminates in a race-day event where sustainable energy skills are put to the test.

A certificate endorsed by the UFS and donor partner merSETA will be issued to students who have participated and who have been successfully trained and developed in the eco-vehicle skills programme, giving them a head start to the working world.

For more information about the Kovsie ACT eco-vehicle skills programme, email ACT at ACT@ufs.ac.za

News Archive

Students selected for prestigious Stanford Sophomore College

2012-04-04

From the left are: Elri Marais, Palesa Mafisa, Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS, Goodwill Shelile and Foster Lubbe. Gabriela Schroder and Saeed Abdullah were absent when the photo was taken.
Photo: Hannes Pieterse
4 April 2012

As part of the University of the Free State’s (UFS) comprehensive suite of student leadership development programmes, a strategic partnership with Stanford University, USA has been forged.

Starting in 2012, selected cohorts of high-potential second-year students will annually participate in the Stanford Sophomore College Programme. The UFS and Oxford University in the UK are the only non-Stanford participants in this strategic and unique opportunity.

Following a highly competitive selection process based on both written and oral assessment, managed by the UFS Centre for Teaching and Learning and the Office of the Vice-Chancellor, the first group of six students was recently selected and will visit Stanford University from 1 – 14 September 2012.

The exclusive and high profile Sophomore College has been offered at the prestigious Stanford University on the West Coast of the US for a number of years. It takes the form of a residential summer programme for second-year students who participate and engage in intense academic exploration with peers and professors on a variety of innovative, multidisciplinary topics.

Depending on the course selected, students participate in a variety of intellectual and academic programmes, do research, work in labs, engage in readings of texts and develop presentation skills.

Some courses are held in part or entirely off campus. Advisory sessions to assist students in their preparation, academic orientation and intellectual development will be conducted prior to their departure to add value to the experience at Stanford.

The students will benefit from the programme in many ways, among others the intense academic exploration of topics with an eminent international scholar, immersion in and exploration of a field of interest, the opportunity to hone critical habits of mind, train to become a more engaged and entrepreneurial learners and collaborate and form relationships with friends and peers.

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