UA Global Summit awards: Two SA engineering students among the favourites

Two South African engineering undergrads are putting the country on the map after they were nominated for the Global Undergraduate Awards to be held later this year, in Dublin (Ireland). Both stand a chance to place as regional or global winners.

The Global Undergraduate Awards is the world’s leading academic awards programme which recognises top undergraduate work, shares this work with a global audience and connects students across cultures and disciplines.

Out of 2 812 submissions, from 410 institutions across 73 countries, Asher Chimfwembe and Cejhna Ramkelawan, were recently named as highly commended entrants with their work being recognised as being in the top 10% of submissions made to the Engineering category.

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According to the University of Witwatersrand website, Chimfwembe submitted his fourth-year project that sought to validate the use of the Imbert-Fick Law in techniques used to measure internal eye pressure, while Ramkelawan’s research project focused on the computational study of the performance of a heaving and oscillating hydrofoil.

The winning projects

Chimfwembe’s research was aimed at questioning the validity of the use of the Imbert-Fick law in tonometry measurements. Using Finite Element Analysis, several eye models with varying corneal thicknesses were developed at a constant IOP and tonometry tests were simulated. The results showed that the Imbert-Fick Law did not account for the force required to deform the cornea.

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Ramkelawan considered the rise in modern sub-ocean operations which has resulted in the need for the development of underwater vehicles. To meet the demand for a faster and more efficient propulsive design, many researchers have turned to biologically inspired vehicle designs.

Ramkelawan did just this. Her research was built on the performance-enhancing techniques adopted by many aquatic animals. The method of locomotion studied comprised of a heaving and pitching motion which has been implemented by many aquatic organisms. Using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), the thrust and lift-performance of the hydrofoil were analysed and critiqued.

The Global Undergraduate Awards programme

Every year, the Global Undergraduate Awards organisation coordinates an awards programme for penultimate and final year undergraduate students, as well as students who have graduated within the programme year.

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Entrants submit their work to one of our 25 categories, which represent a broad range of academic disciplines. This work is then anonymously assessed by a panel of international academics and industry leaders.

The best 10% of work is shortlisted as Highly Commended, and the top submission in each category is deemed the Global Winner.