The Civil Engineering Contractor February 2019 | Page 31

PROFILE
SAICE’s new
president heralds
‘a new world’
By Eamonn Ryan
The South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) in late November inaugurated
Brian Downie as its new president for 2019. Downie, the 116th president of SAICE since
the organisation’s inception in 1903, intends to use his office to focus on the vital issues of
education, entrepreneurship, employment, and personal empowerment.
www.civilsonline.co.za
T
he primary focus will be
on education and will be
achieved through the
extension of existing initiatives with
the Department of Basic Education
(DBE), where engineers will offer
tutorial support to Grade 11 and
12 pupils.
“Today, with the advent of
smartphones, we are proposing
an ambitious relationship with the
Khan Academy, which will offer a
set of online tools to help educate
students. The DBE already has the
Khan Academy videos translated
into isiZulu and isiXhosa,” Downie
said in a statement.
Along with this student initiative,
Downie also aims to build a
strategic technology partnership
with The MakerSpace Foundation,
an organisation assisting people
of all ages and backgrounds to
leverage disruptive technologies of
the Fourth Industrial Revolution to
make things through 3D printing
that can improve their conditions
in life.
Brian Downie, SAICE’s 2019 president.
CEC February 2019 | 29