Steel Construction Vol 40 No 2 - Tubular Steel Feature | Page 22

SAISC TECHNICAL

OF
OUT BOX
THE

and into the fire:

Student innovations doomed to failure
By Spencer Erling, Education Director, SAISC

The author makes no apologies that the main article pokes fun at the
expense of some of the students, who were mainly from amongst the
40% who failed the course. In general the course does have some very
positive results.
Every student is required to submit a report on the 3 field visits they attended as
part of the course. Many of the students took the trouble to express how much
they benefitted from the course. They also thanked the SAISC and Spencer for
giving of Spencer’s time at no cost to the Universities, for arranging and giving
the course.
But perhaps the most pleasing aspect of the field visits relates to the fact that for
many of the students this was their first real exposure to structural engineering
(or for that matter any engineering!). The visits opened the eyes of the students
to career opportunities in structures and in particular steel structures ensuring
some future Human Capital for the industry. Some of the students bemoaned
the fact that some of the visits of necessity were quite short.
The extracts from Nandipha Patience Mangisana’s report says it all...
“I learnt a vast of insanely interesting things ranging from the smallest concepts like
‘concrete requires moist to mature’ to... The galvanising plant I saw at Robor gave me
a clear understanding of the content we had covered in class... Tass’s equipment was
far more exciting especially the humongous drilling machine... My greatest fascination
came with the site visit in Sandton (Discovery new building site).No better word than
‘Awesome’ can describe the excitement, joy and interest that trip triggered within
me. The manner in which the 7 cranes were adjusted at different levels to avoid their
collisions, and how the tower crane could be pumped at the bottom to move it up and
put another base beneath to increase the height was amazingly smart and astonishing
to me. The steel use was massive as I was
informed that about 100 tons of steel are
being used per day in the Discovery project. It
was lovely seeing a building protruding upwards
without having to wait for its base to dry,
thus wasting time. The 3 trips managed to
make me fall in love with structural engineering
and make me realise that steel is the future
domination. I am thankful for all efforts put
into making these trips possible.”

RIGHT: Nandipha was the photographer of some of
the happy students at the Discovery site.

20 Steel Construction Vol. 40 No. 1 2016

This is the third and last of a series of
articles based on the wacky answers
some of the lesser informed students
have given to the exam that Spencer
sets for his enlightenment students at
WITS and UKZN over the last 14 and a
half years.
Universities are regarded as centres of
learning and free thinking leading to
innovation.
Innovation is clearly one of the ways
SA can lift itself out of the current low
levels of investment in manufacturing and
production.
Whilst exams should not be the place for
innovative ideas, one would hope that the
answers given would be based on the tried
and trusted methods of the past that the
SAISC steel enlightenment courses aim to
impart to youngsters. Nevertheless some of
the answers given are truly innovative, all
be it doomed to failure from the start. Some
of the “side effects” of their theories could
be disastrous for the life span of
steel structures.