A team of Mechatronics students recently won the bronze medal in the mobile robotics category of the WorldSkills South Africa competition, held in Durban.
The competition, which is hosted by the Department of Higher Education and Training, took place in Durban.
The training was sponsored and facilitated by the TIA Adaptronics Advanced Manufacturing Technology Laboratory as part of a new initiative in robotics.
Facilitator Inyeni Showers, who trained the team for AMTL, said the experience was a good learning curve for the students.
“The competition requires students to build robots and they have to programme their robot to perform certain tasks. This year was the first time CPUT competed and we now plan to take part in other competitions,” said Showers.
Four CPUT students received training and two, Ayabonga Pokwana and Mikail Solomons, took part in the competition.
Ayabonga said that initially the competition was challenging.
“But we learnt from our mistakes and we can now use those skills in future.”
The students were recommended for the robotics training by the Mechatronics programme’s Olukayode Ayodele.
The South African competition is modelled on the WorldSkills International competition and the top SA competitors will participate in the international competition in Kazan later this year.
