Hope for WIL students

The Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (FEBE) proudly launched an inspiring interdisciplinary project-based learning initiative, Engineers for Development, Growth and Enterprise (EDGE), in collaboration with Engineers Without Borders (EWB) South Africa, at the Bellville Campus recently.

A-Prof Bronwyn Swartz, a member of the team behind the EDGE programme, explained that the event aimed to launch a structured initiative for unplaced Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) students. The EDGE programme, conceived by Prof Suresh Ramsuroop, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment, was praised for its innovative approach. Prof Ramsuroop welcomed guests and industry partners from various engineering fields.

The transdisciplinary engineering EDGE programme team includes Swartz, Patricia Overmeyer, Ambrence Fisher, Walter Kohlhofer, Luvuyo Kakaza, Nina Drotskie, Dominic Preuss, Pitso Tebele, Zimisele Mlumiso, Dr Ashleen Marshall, Dr Tafirenyika Nyamayaro Madzimbamuto, and Dr Maphole Loke.

Keynote speakers included Brian Mlamba from Startup Grind in Cape Town, who inspired students to pursue entrepreneurship, and Dr. Anthony Obilana from the Department of Food Science and Technology, who discussed food safety in informal settlements and transdisciplinary work.

Robyn Clark and Linae Baron from Engineers Without Borders led an afternoon workshop, where a student suggested the name Engineers for Development, Growth and Enterprise (EDGE) and won a hoodie in a naming competition. “It’s the first time we’ve done such a programme. I believe that we’re on the cutting edge of transdisciplinary engineering education, and I am thrilled that we can give our students this experience,” Swartz observed.

She said they are making project-based learning opportunities available for about 300 final-year students who could not get WIL placements, “so essentially, our focus is the Dunoon Township, and we’ve partnered with EWB and the Innovative Engineering Curricula (IEC) team to help us”. “EWB set up a website for us, and the IEC partners provided some of the content.”

CPUT is one of three pilot institutions that will be working on the Dunoon Challenge this semester. The other two universities are the University of Cape Town and the University of Pretoria.

“At CPUT, we’re putting students in multidisciplinary groups (for example, one Mechanical Engineering, with a Mechatronics Engineering student, with a Civil Engineering student, with a Construction Management student, with Department of Informatics and Systems Engineering student, with Nea Clothing and Textile Technology student and taking them through this six-month programme – consisting of five modules. Module 1 = SDGs; Module 2 = Design Thinking; Module 3 = Entrepreneurship; Module 4 = Prototyping and Module 5 = Pitch Development.”

Swartz mentioned that they partnered with industry to mentor student groups, each assigned an external industry mentor and an internal academic mentor. These groups will develop sustainable solutions for the Dunoon community, with the entrepreneurship module potentially leading to scalable business ideas. This initiative encourages collaboration across engineering disciplines to address community problems, aligning with ECSA standards GA7 (Engineering and Society), GA8 (Group Work), and GA3 (Design Thinking).

She said: “A success will be if the students develop amazing products or services for the Dunoon community and/or become entrepreneurs at the same time. We want the students to learn, but learning doesn’t need to be boring! And at the same time, they can develop amazing graduate attributes.”

Swartz continued: “At the same time, it’s worth noting that we’re a team of academic staff developing the programme and being mentors to the students. Team members will partner up to develop and deliver the main modules. At the end of the module, each student group will present at a Dragon’s Den type of event – and get feedback from a panel made up of academics and industry people.”

Some of the internal mentors include Dr Blessed Sarema, Dr Lucrecia Valentine, Dr Debbie de Jager, Dr Joe John, Ayesha Reiners, Naasirah Mohamad, Phouzaan Siebritz and Tshephisho Selatole. “It’s a real team effort”. Since the launch, the students have recently held their first Dragon’s Den event, and it was a success. At the end of each module, students must present their work to a panel. Four parallel panels, each comprising 5–6 academics and 3–4 industry professionals, who evaluated the student projects. Students received immediate feedback from the panel after their presentations.

The student groups were given time slots to present the ideas they had been developing over the past month.

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
Email: BoyceAp@cput.ac.za