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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

Fire as a management tool questionable in arid and semi-arid grassland areas

2015-03-24

Wild fire in the grassland
Photo: Supplied

The influence of fire on the ecosystem in the higher rainfall ‘‘sour’’ grassland areas of southern Africa has been well established. However, less information is available for arid and semi-arid ‘‘sweet’’ grassland areas, says Prof Hennie Snyman, Professor in the Department of Animal, Wildlife, and Grassland Sciences, about his research on the short-term impact of fire on the productivity of grasslands in semi-arid areas.

Sour and sweet grassland areas can be defined as receiving either higher or lower than approximately 600 mm of rainfall respectively. In quantifying the short-term impact of fire on the productivity of grasslands in semi-arid areas, a South African case study (experimental plot data) was investigated.

“Burned grassland can take at least two full growing seasons to recover in terms of above- and below-ground plant production and of water-use efficiency (WUE). The initial advantage in quality (crude protein) accompanying fire does not neutralise the reduction in half of the above-ground production and poor WUE occurring in the first season following the fire.

“The below-ground growth is more sensitive to burning than above-ground growth. Seasonal above-ground production loss to fire, which is a function of the amount and distribution of rainfall, can vary between 238 and 444 kg ha -1 for semi-arid grasslands. The importance of correct timing in the utilisation of burned semi-arid grassland, with respect to sustained high production, cannot be overemphasised,” said Prof Snyman.

In arid and semi-arid grassland areas, fire as a management tool is questionable if there is no specific purpose for it, as it can increase ecological and financial risk management in the short term.

Prof Snyman said: “More research is needed to quantify the impact of runaway fires on both productivity and soil properties, in terms of different seasonal climatic variations. The information to date may already serve as valuable guidelines regarding grassland productivity losses in semi-arid areas. These results can also provide a guideline in claims arising from unforeseen fires, in which thousands of rands can be involved, and which are often based on unscientific evidence.”

For more information or enquiries contact news@ufs.ac.za

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