Hard work has paid off for the top five performing BTech Mechanical Engineering students, who recently got an opportunity to attend a summer school at the Ernst Abbe University of Applied Sciences in Germany.
Sponsored by DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Service, the summer school focused on renewable energy and saw students from Germany, Jordan and Namibia participate in the two-week long event.
Trishana Rama, Mulalo Raphalalani, Sthembiso Ngema, Busiswa Jantjies and James Genis, who were accompanied by lecturer, Simphiwe Nqabisa, says it was a life-time opportunity.
Nqabisa, who was also selected to present a lecture at the summer school, says the main aim of the summer school was to discuss the effects of greenhouse gases, air pollution and climate effects of fossil fuel combustion.
“Furthermore we had to look into our countries’ commitment and time frames to reduce the production of greenhouse gases by shifting to other means of energy generation such as Wind, PV and CPV.”
He says it was a good learning experience for the students, who were exposed to Germany’s successful renewable energy sector.
Trishana says the summer school was an eye-opener and helped her to better understand how renewable energy can address South Africa’s energy crisis.
“The summer school gave us a broader look into renewable energy and how engineering can be used to advance South Africa,” says Trishana.
Mulalo says the highlights of the trip for the group were the various visits to biomass plants, while Sthembiso says the trip reaffirmed his career choice.
“I believe this is the field that I want to focus on in order to make a change in South Africa,” says Sthembiso
