The University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) Solar Car Project were highly commended by the South African National Energy Association (SANEA) at their recent award ceremony.
The Solar Car Project promotes the development of sustainable engineering design, efficient energy use, environmental awareness and innovation. Students design and build solar powered vehicles with the goal of crossing the South African countryside in a 5000 km endurance race.
The Solar Car Project is one of UJ’s Resolution Circle’s projects. Resolution Circle is an independent commercial business, 100% owned by UJ. This innovation ecosystem is a technology commercialisation and incubation platform, which delivers workplace ready employees to industry.
The majority of UJ’s Solar Car Project team is employed by Resolution Circle and they make use of Resolution Circle’s prototyping facilities. Building the UJ Solar Car has provided an opportunity for industry to collaborate with UJ on developing and showcasing green technology. The UJ Solar Project includes a network of 22 partners representing government, industry and SMMEs. This partnership offers engineering, technology and industrial design students the opportunity to become acquainted with the challenges facing industry leaders. This initiative produces graduates who are well equipped to deal with the many challenges in energy innovation.
Postgraduate electrical engineering student and member of the UJ Solar Team, Haydn du Plessis, says; “We thank UJ for creating an environment where students are allowed to dream big and take on any challenge. Prof William Clarke and his team at Resolution Circle, is committed to the UJ Energy Movement and their continued support of the programme is key to the success of this project.”
