The Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering hosted their annual Final-Year Project Evening on Thursday, 5 November 2015. This year’s event was indeed a special occasion as the Department also celebrated 40 years of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pretoria.  

Prof Johan Joubert, welcomed the guests, after which the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology (EBIT), Prof Sunil Maharaj, gave an overview of the international status of Industrial Engineering, with specific reference to the University of Pretoria in relation to tertiary institutions around the world. The guest speaker for the evening was Mr Roland Röhrs, Chief Executive Officer of Dorbyl Limited, who has had a significant impact on both the academic field and industry as an industrial engineer. Dr Marne de Vries then introduced the six final year project presenters.

The six presenters were:

• Mr Eckhardt Horstmann, on  ‘Manual labour as a core element in an automated packing line’
• Ms Yolandi le Roux, on ‘Supply chain analysis and improvement – towards high quality ripe and ready avocados’;
• Mr Alemayehu Tafesse, on ‘Route optimisation for the South African Post Office’;
• Ms Ninon Louw, on ‘Analysis and optimisation of a contract help desk function’;
• Mr Stefan Enslin, on ‘Simulation-based optimisation to solve a car sequencing problem with stochastic rework’; and
• Mr Vincent de Andrade, on ‘Strategic planning for the detonator production process at Sasol Dyno Nobel’.

The following prizes were awarded during the ceremony:

Best Project Presentation (A panel of adjudicators was appointed to select the winners for this category.)

1. Mr Alemayehu Tafesse – winner

2. Mr Vincent de Andrade – second place

3. Mr Eckhardt Horstmann – third place

Best Project Document

1. Ms Yolandi le Roux – winner

2. Mr Stefan Enslin – second place

3. Ms Ninon Louw – third place

Best Project Poster

1. Mr Stefan Enslin – winner

2. Ms Megan van Aswegen – second place

3. Ms Tanya van Aswegen – third place

Congratulations to all the student presenters, prize winners, final-year Industrial Engineering students and their supervisors. Special appreciation is conveyed to all the donor companies who ensured a successful evening.

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