Department of EECE Final Year Project Competition

On the 7th of November 2024 the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering hosted their annual final year Project competition. A total of forty eight students participated, exhibiting and presenting their projects to thirty judges selected from industry. The event was sponsored by industry partners of the department, namely Gendac, Etion Create, RapidM, BBD, PEC Engineers, Altron Arrow, and SmartGrid. Prizes to the value of R75,000 were awarded to the winners of each category.

There were a myriad of different projects on display and the students were very excited to attend, whether it was for the chance to demonstrate their work and practise for their final exam, to see other projects, or for the exposure to industry. 

When asked what part of the projects they struggled with the most, there were many different answers such as “programming/coding”; "dealing with the high power and frequencies"; "working with the hardware" and "finding a way to integrate all the subsystems to meet specifications".

These difficulties would not stop these students from having big dreams for the future. Some of them will seek to further their skills through postgraduate studies, while others will be looking to forward to start using their newly acquired skills to start an exciting career. Moreover, many students have high aspirations of starting their own companies and making a difference in the world by applying their skills to turn their ideas into reality.

The event concluded with refreshments, followed by a prize giving ceremony. Prof Tania Hanekom shared a message of encouragement, reminiscing on the students’ journey from first year “kids” to where they are today as fully trained engineers, urging them to use their degrees to make a lasting impact in the world.

The event was lauded as a great success, with exceedingly positive feedback received from colleagues, students and industry alike.

There were three winners for each degree programme: 

Electronic Engineering

1. Luke Winterton (supervised by Dr F. Camisani)
2. Nicolai Kuschke (supervised by Dr. J. Schoeman)
3. Ivana Venn (supervised by Prof. J.W. Odendaal)

Electrical Engineering
1. Nathan Dawson (supervised by Prof. X. Ye)
2. Megan Meredith (supervised by Prof. R. Naidoo)
3. Jarrod Odendal (supervised by Prof. MN. Gitau)

Computer Engineering
1. Gustav Bosman (supervised by Mr. W.R. Green)
2. Heinrich le Roux (supervised by Prof I.K. Craig)
3. Eben Steyl (supervised by Prof Johan Hanekom)