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Stellenbosch University launches fire safety engineering courses and degrees Figure 1: Teaching during a past online course on fire dynamics
formal training that can enhance the knowledge and expertise in local FSE. In 2017 masters (MEng) and doctorate (PhD) degrees in fire safety were started at Stellenbosch University, hosted by the Department of Civil Engineering. Students from many engineering backgrounds (electrical, civil, mechanical, mechatronic, process and industrial) have now been involved in the programs. This exciting step hopes to upskill our continent and make the built environment a safer place.
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n South Africa almost every construction project requires a fire safety engineer. However, there are few tertiary institutions providing fire engineering training for professional design engineers
in Africa. The consultants and practitioners developing fire safety engineering (FSE) solutions often are structural, mechanical or electrical engineers with limited university fire safety training. There is a need for
Figure 3: World’s largest largest informal settlement fire experiment (Photo credit: David Rush)
Figure 4: Furnace testing of ecobricks to understand what fire resistance can be achieved 8 | FIRE AND RESCUE INTERNATIONAL
For the last five years the Fire Engineering Research Unit at Stellenbosch University (FireSUN) has also been short courses in fire safety engineering through making masters level courses available to the general public, as both face-to-face and online course (eg as shown in Figure 1). The next short course “Fundamentals of Fire Safety Engineering” will take place in Cape Town from 15 to 19 August. The intensive seminar has been designed for engineers, built environment and fire safety professionals on the fundamentals of fire safety. It is based on a new masters level course. The five-day CPD course content is specifically designed to cover a variety of topics relevant for fire safety design that cover the core competencies indicated by the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), as shown in Figure 2. The content is accessible to practitioners from a variety of backgrounds, providing an understanding of fire safety principles, demonstrations and a visit to a fire testing laboratory. International experts Dr Noah Ryder (USA) and John Ivision (Canada) will be teaching much of the course, along with Prof Richard Walls, Dr Natalia Flores-Quiroz and Dr Antonio Cicione from South Africa. Specific topics covered include: • Introduction to fire safety • Material characteristics in fire • Passive protection • Fire detection and Volume 6 | No 4
