The two PROTEC GE Next Engineers Engineering Academy cohorts completed their first design challenges for 2023: Clean Stream – a water purification project – and Spring Loaded – a mousetrap powered vehicle.

The first cohort’s Spring Loaded challenge was to design a vehicle that could travel at least 10m using available resources. Their designs impressed the team, with the winning design traveling a distance of 15m! Their next challenge is called Mind Your Head – they are designing a helmet that will protect a water balloon from bursting.

The second cohort of learners Clean Stream challenge involved using available resources to purify dirty water. The facilitators were impressed with the quality of water they produced which surpassed expectations. Their next challenge is aeronautical and is called Glide.

The further learners progress in the NE programme, the closer to real life the design challenges are becoming.

A group of NE Academy learners spent two days with engineers from GE South Africa at their workplaces, exploring the technical side of aviation on day one and the generation of electricity on day two. The learners visited Airlink where they were shown an aircraft simulator and the maintenance section and they engaged with cabin crew. They also toured Kusile Power Station and were shown the different stages of power generation.