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JuniorTukkie May 2021
Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology
Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering opens its doors to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) By Gerhard Rencken I grew up in Wartburg, a small agricultural village in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, where I attended Wartburg Kirchdorf School for my entire school career. I have always had a passion for understanding how and why things work the way they do, and constantly tried to improve existing systems. I realised that studying engineering would enable me to turn that passion into a career. I applied for admission to the University of Pretoria, whose engineering faculty is the best in the country. The MIT exchange programme has existed for many years, and every year students in the second-year BEng (Mechanical Engineering) class are invited to submit applications for participation in the programme. The application process includes an interview with Professor Josua Meyer. I believe the base criterion is academic performance, but a few other factors also come into play. I was fortunate enough to qualify for participation in the exchange programme, which was an incredible opportunity to attend the best engineering faculty in the world and study alongside some of the best engineers of our generation. The online environment that we were unexpectedly exposed to posed several challenges, and this also applied to our involvement with MIT. The time difference was probably
the most difficult challenge. Working from South Africa, I often had classes after midnight and had to stay up by myself while everyone else in the house was asleep. This meant that I had to change my entire routine and sleep schedule. However, I learnt many valuable skills through the online environment, including developing a higher level of communication efficiency during limited contact time. My most valuable takeaway from the experience was that it changed my way of thinking and problem-solving and gave me the confidence to make decisions and suggestions. I hope to follow a career in South Africa, ultimately working in the renewable/sustainable energy sector. Our country has incredible potential for sustainable energy production, and the current high demand for energy offers the ideal opportunity to further explore this potential. A steady, sustainable power supply could unlock the door to many more developments for our nation. For all students who want to study mechanical and/or aeronautical engineering, my advice is: Immerse yourself in the subject, do your own research on topics, aim high and do not be satisfied with merely passing the next test. If the topics interest you, the learning will come naturally.
EBIT embraces e-learning as we enter Society 5.0 We live in exciting times that present us with numerous new innovations and opportunities. However, as a society, we also face many challenges. You are starting your studies in a time known as Society 5.0. This means that we are trying to answer both the present and future economic and societal challenges faced by humanity using all the available technological advances. In 2020, the use of e-learning systems became highly pertinent during the
worldwide COVID-19 lockdown periods, when teachers and students had to adapt to remote teaching and learning. EBIT makes use of a hybrid model of teaching and learning and focuses on student success through the use of all available digital resources. Although online learning has the potential to be challenging, the Faculty supports its students to increase overall module success rates and minimumtime completion rates, even amidst disruption.
