Students in Faculty of Engineering and Information and Technology celebrated 20 years of South African democracy and 10 years of CUT as a University of Technology by looking at ways in which engineering has contributed to the advancement of technology before and after the apartheid era and in the last ten years while the institution was still Technikon Free State. The presentations offered an opportunity for students to showcase the cutting-edge technology that has evolved since the dawn of democracy. 

Prof. Alfred Ngowi, Dean of the Faculty, highlighted the visible change in the dynamics of education, teaching and learning, as well as the advancement in technology that continues to grow fast.  He mentioned that in the past, Technikons were designed to produce technology and technicians and did a splendid job.  Ten years later, the method of teaching has evolved immensely.  There are no longer a Technikons, but Universities of Technology. “At universities, teaching is underpinned by research. Life has changed and so has the culture. Science and Technology are ultimately playing a major role in the way we do things and are making a huge impact on nature and society,” he said. An interesting contrast emanated from the teams of different schools within the Faculty when they presented the Engineering for Development for the pre-and-post 1994. Five group representatives from the Departments of Built Environment, Civil Engineering, Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, Information Technology, as well as Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering took the audience through the 20 years of technological evolution. The presentations offered an opportunity for students to demonstrate the generation of technology and its evolution in education within a non-racial country.  They showed how doors of opportunities have opened to give access of quality education to all citizens compared to pre-1994 era. 

These presentations were relevant to South African context given that they made mention of smart phones that are pocket libraries, 3D printing that changes lives, egg incubators that speed up the process of production and meeting societal needs; thus boosting the economy. Finally, the civil engineering team presented the vertical concepts used as opposed to deforestation in the past, sophisticated roads that can accommodate a large number of vehicles simultaneously, and how greening can be taken to another level by considering solar panel roads! “Government’s involvement and investment, distribution of wealth, policies, and regulations accessibility, has seen tons of foreign investment which led to economic transformation and growth in the country when compared with the past,” said the Built Environment team. 

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Dressed for success! Presentations by teams on engineering development, pre-and-post 1994 South Africa were presented at a seminar hosted by the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology on 12 September 2014.