The Southern African Institute for Industrial Engineering (SAIIE) hosted their first awards ceremony and gala evening honouring outstanding industrial engineering professionals at Montecasino's La Toscana function venue at the end of July this year. Awards were presented in three categories and all three of the recipients are either staff or alumni of the University of Pretoria (UP).

The Kris Adendorff Award for the Most Outstanding Industrial Engineering Professional was presented to Dr Abré Pienaar, Chief Executive Officer of iPlan Industrial Engineers, by Prof Susan Adendorff, daughter of the late Prof Kris Adendorff and Director of the Department of Facilities Management at UP. Mr Peter Staude, Chief Executive of TongaatHulett and non-executive of Hulamin, was the runner up. Both Dr Pienaar and Mr Staude are UP alumni. Prof Sarma Yadavalli, Head of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at UP, received the award for the Most Outstanding Industrial Engineering Researcher, and the award for the Most Outstanding Industrial Engineering Lecturer went to Prof Paul Kruger, one of the stalwarts of Industrial Engineering at UP. Prof Kruger was also nominated in the Most Outstanding Industrial Engineering Researcher category.

A total of 15 nominations were received from members of SAIIE for the three categories, with nominees hailing from Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape. With the help and dedication of seven peer evaluators from across the country, the group was reduced to just two finalists in each category. It is indeed a feather in the cap of the University of Pretoria that four of the six finalists either graduated from or teach at UP.