Page 42 - FourWaysGardens Issue 10 2021

tuks robot showDown winners!

Third year engineering students await the countdown for the final race.

Nine finalist teams of engineering students took to the track for the education to students is what they strive

ultimate robot showdown as the highly anticipated Annual TUKS for across all departments and the Robot
Race Day is just one of the ways education
Robot Race Day took place recently, after being postponed in 2020 is enhanced.
due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Our Annual Robot Race Day provides
a platform to stimulate curiosity and
ow in its eighth year, the pandemic and, as such, paper tracks were creativity, which is crucial for the innovation
Annual TUKS Robot Race Day, designed so that they could be printed and entrepreneurship that a career in
coordinated by the University of out on A4 pages and pasted together to engineering demands. The project guides
NPretoria’s Faculty of Engineering, allow the race to be attempted at home. aspiring engineers through a carefully
Built Environment and Information They then had to upload a video of their planned process to develop a fundamental
Technology, has grown in leaps and MARV (Microcontroller-based Autonomous set of engineering skills, which include
bounds with more students getting Robotic Vehicle) navigating the home track hardware and software design skills,
involved and showcasing their innovation, and these video submissions served as the systems integration skills, the ability to
programming, and engineering skills. initial rounds of the race. work and function in a team, as well as
This year, more than 85 teams registered demonstrate their time management
to compete for the title, with preliminary Professor Tania Hanekom, Function Head skills, perseverance and the good old
rounds taking place online. Students had to for Undergraduate Studies at the University indispensable ‘engineering gut feeling’
work remotely due to the ongoing Covid-19 of Pretoria, said that providing world-class which comes only with experience in the

The 2021 Robot Race Day winners Eben Benade, Dylan Bailie, Berno The runners up for this year’s title.
Myburg and Jean Pierre De La Rey with their winning robot.

Fourways Gardens • 40 • November 2021