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The success of the Eco-Vehicle Programme and future steps

12 June 2024 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Sonia Small

Eco Vehicle Race 2024 — This year's Eco-Vehicle Skills Programme saw remarkable participation. A total of 148 students completed the programme successfully.

For the past seven years, the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Kovsie ACT has proudly hosted the successful Eco-Vehicle Race. This event has grown into a major highlight, thanks to the significant support from MerSETA (Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services), which has enabled the development of a comprehensive skills programme focused on sustainable energy and eco-vehicle technology.

In 2020, MerSETA's funding allowed Kovsie ACT to create a detailed skills initiative culminating in the exciting 2021 eco-vehicle race. Over nine months, 150 students received extensive training in eco-vehicle technology. This programme provided students with both theoretical knowledge and practical experience, preparing them not only for the competition but also for real-world applications of sustainable energy solutions.

Dr WP Wahl, Director of Student Life, emphasises the value of this initiative, saying, “This effort provides students with a set of skills that will help position them in the labour market. They are equipped with basic knowledge and abilities in sustainable energy, enabling them not only to compete in the eco-vehicle race but also to comprehend the inner workings of the vehicle.”

CUT Team 4: Overall winner of Kovsie ACT’s Eco-Vehicle Race 2024

According to Teddy Sibiya from the Kovsie ACT office, this year's Eco-Vehicle Skills Programme saw remarkable participation and achievements. A total of 148 students - 118 from the UFS and 30 from the Central University of Technology (CUT) - completed the programme successfully. Additionally, 10 engineering mediators completed the Mediated Learning Experience course, providing mentorship essential to the students.

In the 2024 Kovsie ACT Eco-Vehicle Race, CUT Team 4 emerged as the overall winner. Kovsie Q secured second place and East College took third place. North College won the Spirit Cup and was announced as the pitstop winner alongside East College.

In the Obstacle Race, which tested teams' control over their cars through various challenges, CUT Team 4 claimed the winning title. They also came in first place in the Endurance Race, where the objective was to complete as many laps as possible using the least amount of energy in 45 minutes.

The race took place at the UFS’s Bloemfontein Campus on Akademie Avenue, next to the George du Toit Administration Building, with spectators watching from the Red Square parking area.

Eco-Vehicle Sustainable Skills Programme 2.0 introduced

Sibiya announced the next phase of the journey - the Eco-Vehicle Sustainable Skills Programme 2.0. “With continued support from MerSETA, we have expanded our partnerships to include Nelson Mandela University and will continue to involve students from the Central University of Technology.”

“In the next phase, the focus is on developing a new eco-vehicle prototype and creating an advanced skills programme around it,” adds Sibiya. “We aim to debut and race this new eco-vehicle by 2025, continuing our commitment to innovation and sustainable energy education.”

Dr Wahl elaborates, “Students will be taught the same skills, but the learning experience will be deepened. The skills programme consists of five cycles. In cycle one, the students build a race car on a small scale that includes a charging station and a small solar panel. In cycle two, students learn to programme the small-scale racing car from their cell phones or laptops. In cycles three and four, they build the larger race cars with battery packs and solar panels. All of these come together in cycle five during the Eco-Vehicle race when the energy conservation of the cars is tested.

Support from sponsors

Several sponsors were involved in this year’s Eco-Vehicle Race. OFS Fire supported the race with equipment and certified training for all the participating students. Several of the teams also secured sponsorships: East College from Deluxe Grills, South Campus from SA Truck Bodies, West College from Mpeki Tsh Trading and Project, and the CUT Teams from the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE). Haval also exhibited a car at the event.

News Archive

Prestigious Helgaard Steyn Prize to be awarded to UFS composer

2010-11-08

Hans Huyssen.

The composer Hans Huyssen, affiliated with the Department of Music at the University of the Free State (UFS), is to be the current recipient of the prestigious 2010 Helgaard Steyn Prize, the prize-winning work being Huyssen’s Proteus Variations (2006).Annually this award is administered and presented to a selected composer, painter, author, or sculptor by the Universities of the Free State and the North-West on a rotating basis. The judges for this year’s prize were Prof. Bertha Spies, Research Fellow, North-West University, and Professor Extraordinary, University of Pretoria, and Mr Noel Stockton, Senior Lecturer at the University of the Free State.

Hans Huyssen’s musical activities encompass the diverse poles of early and contemporary Western and African music, often in an attempt to assimilate the essential qualities from all these fields. His intense focus on contextuality suggests that he approaches music as a profoundly social force which has a particular role to play in our ‘new’ diversified South African society.

The Proteus Variations were commissioned by the Deutsche Welle Radio for the South African National Youth Orchestra 2006, and were premiered at the Beethoven Bonn Festival during 2006. These variations are described by the composer as “a musical representation of South Africa’s manifold Proteaceae”, named for the Greek god Proteus who, at will, was capable of assuming a spectrum of shapes and appearances. As the composer states: “It is worth noticing that a Protea is South Africa’s national flower. What could be more appropriate in providing a key to an opposite perception and understanding of the country’s diverse cultural expressions? In this regard it is my hope that the Proteus Variations may contribute a little to the wide scope of cultural responses necessary to begin to do justice to the extremely rich tapestry of our immediate cultural and natural surroundings”.

The prize of R170 000 will be awarded to Hans Huyssen by a representative of ABSA Trust, who is one of the trustees of the Helgaard Steyn Trust, in Bloemfontein on 8 November 2010.

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