Steel Construction Vol 40 no 6 - International Steel Structures | Page 28

SAISC technical

By Amanuel Gebremeskel

An interesting paper was published by the
Global Cities Institute in 2014. It projects
that by the time children born today get

of economic and political organization.
It is clear that investment in technical
competence is simply irreplaceable.

in and around India. These cities will have
populations ranging from 50 to 75 million
each. The largest Western city, New York,
will be ranked 25th with a population of a
mere 27 million.
Cities remain the anchors of our
civilization.They are the engines of cultural,
economic and political development.
From our vantage point today it is hard to
imagine how sub-Saharan Africa and South
Asia are ready for the leadership role in
defining future cities.
We frequently review highly advanced
nuclear power plant design papers from
South Korea. It is easy to forget how only
a few decades ago the most insightful
academics relegated South Koreans to
a future of agrarian life on rice paddies.
Going back a few more decades the same
can be said of projections about Germans,
Russians and even the Japanese.
The one common attribute between these
different people is not their culture nor
their looks. Their governing political and
economic systems were also highly varied.
It is that they were focused on developing
their technical competence for a few
decades before jumping to a higher level

second printing of the 8th Edition of the
Steel Construction Handbook after much
work on updating tables for HSS columns

old the ten largest cities in the world will
consist of six in sub-Saharan Africa and four

In 2016 the Institute also published a

A year like 2016 can easily distract from
such focus. South Africa lost a major steel
mill and the remaining ones have been
struggling to cope with low commodity
prices and cheap imports from aggressive
Asian producers. One of South Africa’s
largest trading partners, the EU, appears
to be on the brink of disintegration after
Brexit. To top it off there is a drought, the
Rand has remained low and politicians are
acting up.
Therefore, it is hard to blame the Steel
Institute for focusing on helping the
industry by lobbying government and
supporting efforts to place protections
in place for local mills, merchants and
fabricators.
But we must refocus on technical
competence.
Amanuel gave the post graduate steel
design course at the University of
Witwatersrand and later witnessed firsthand riots and temporary University
closure. The Institute offices have been
used to help the 4th year graduating class
to complete their projects while the
campus was closed. In these difficult times
the Institute requires direct support from
the industry, universities and relevant state
organs to continue these efforts.

and light gauge purlins. Those students
who are at university need these Red
Books. We cannot afford a year without
engineering graduates, even less, engineers
who do not know how to design steel
structures.
For a second year in a row UNISA students
were supported by setting steel projects
for them and providing the 2016 release
of the SAISC eToolkit for the design of
their connections. The same is planned
for the University of Johannesburg
next year. The number of high profile
problems arising from deficient connection
designs implies that we need to continue
pushing standardization and training. Top
engineering firms need to make the link
between avoiding these problems and the
need for technical training.
2016 saw the Institute supporting new
market development projects from building
frames to novel transportation systems that
make use of composite members. The year
also saw work start on the fire investigation
of our own modular office building system.
Irrespective of the temporary distractions,
we cannot stop technical work in all these
areas. We have yet to build the largest cities
in human history.

Irrespective of the temporary distractions, we cannot stop technical work in all
these areas. We have yet to build the largest cities in human history.
26 Steel Construction Vol. 40 No. 6 2016