South Africans vie for Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation
Ernst Pretorius’s Draadsitter (Afrikaans for fence sitter) detects tampering on
fences
of up to 800m, allowing for a quick response before the fence is breached. The device
also detects fires. It’s a simple concept, but one with greater ramifications for
landowners who need to protect their properties.
The invention is one of 11 others to be shortlisted for the Royal Academy of
Engineering’s Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, which “aims to stimulate,
celebrate
and reward innovation and entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa”. The award
recognises especially those inventions that sustainably solve problems in local
settings,
highlighting how important engineering is to improving quality of life.
Speaking to Engineering News, Royal Academy fellow and chair of the judging
panel
Malcolm Brinded said the shortlisted candidates would now participate in a training
and
mentoring programme over the next six months, working with business
executives
and
engineering experts. He said, “The training will be focused on proving, scaling up and
commercialising their engineering innovations.”
Brinded added that "Deciding on the shortlist was extremely difficult as the
standard was high, and the entrepreneurial talent was clear to see.”
Pretorius, from the University of Pretoria, will join Cape Peninsula University of
Technology’s Dr Reinhardt Kotzé on the training programme. Kotzé’s shortlisted Flow-
Viz
is an industrial process and quality control system that reduces dependence on
laboratory testing, improving efficiency on the production line.
After completing the training and mentorship programme, the finalists will
present
their inventions, after which the winners and two runners-up will be awarded £25 000
(about R457 000) and £10 000 respectively.
The competing finalists from the rest of Africa are:
- University of Nairobi’s Samuel Njugana Wangui, for Chura, a
web-based system
that
allows users to move airtime between their different SIMs regardless of carrier;
- The Nigerian Army Transformation and Innovation Centre’s Captain Abubakar
Surajo, for his removable window burglar-bar system;
- Nigeria Tolulupe Ajuwape from the University of Ibadan for a mobile payment
application, which allows merchants and customers to make and receive card
payments
using their phones and tablets;
- A mechanical system to prepare clear banana juice from Dr Oscar Kibazohi,
University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania & Makerere University, Uganda;
- A sand-based water filtration system to provide clean, safe drinking water from
Dr
Askwar Hilonga at The Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology,
Tanzania;
- An environmentally friendly precision fertiliser applicator from Musenga Silwawa
at
the Zambia Agriculture Research Institute;
- Latrine systems to improve urban sanitation from
Samuel Malinga from Makerere
University in Kampala, Uganda;
- A small-scale crushing machine for sustainable gold mining from Rujeko Masike at
the Harare Institute of Technology, Zimbabwe;
- A mobile phone application to teach children the local Shona language from the
University of Zimbabwe’s Ian Mutamiri; and
- A low-cost biodegradable degreaser for mining, agriculture and manufacturing
from
Chinenye Justin Nwaogwugwu from the Federal University of Technology in Owerri,
Nigeria.
Entries for the 2015 version would open once this round of the prize concludes, said
Brinded.
"We are looking forward to the next phase, and the next round of applications in
April 2015. I hope all ambitious African engineering entrepreneurs will start planning
for
that opportunity."
The Africa Prize is supported by The Shell Centenary Scholarship Fund,
Consolidated
Contractors Company, ConocoPhillips and the Mo Ibrahim
Foundation.
SAinfo reporter
