Altair Presents the First Engineering Outreach Day in Techno Park
Submitted by: Fiona Richardson
Altair South Africa recently hosted a group of Grade 11 pupils from schools in the area as part of their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) initiative. The aim of the day was to expose the pupils to the opportunities available in the engineering field. The main criteria to attend the day was that the pupils excelled in science and maths and of course, were interested in studying engineering.
“We have hosted children for job shadowing in the past but we wanted to provide them with so much more than a day following our engineers around the office, so we started to explore the concept,” explains Gronum Smith, Country Manager of Altair SA.
All schools in the area were invited to send pupils and we had a total of 26 pupils from Paul Roos Gymnasium and Rhenish Girls High in Stellenbosch, La Rochelle in Paarl, De Kuilen in Kuils River and Hottentots Holland in Somerset West and Strand High School.
Companies in the TechnoPark/Stellenbosch area were approached to share their success stories as well as personal insights into the world of engineering. The response was enthusiastic, with six companies deciding to join us - Garmin (iKubu), Mix Telematics, Flightscope, Field Office, Retief Krige Industrial Design and EMSS Antennas.
Apart from presentations and discussions on entrepreneurship, the pupils’ problem solving skills were also tested. “Students were taken out of their comfort zones and tasked with building a Yagi antenna and afterwards had their structures tested by EMSS Antennas,” explains Gronum.
“All the pupils were open minded, interactive and extremely appreciative of the initiative. The common thread throughout the day by all the presenters was work hard, be passionate, take risks, be entrepreneurial and realise that learning never ends.”
Gronum said that the aim of the day was that the students left feeling inspired with the possibilities available to them in the future. “I think that we achieved this at the end of the day and we look forward to inspiring another group of students in 2016!”
Altair is focused on the development and broad application of simulation technology to synthesize and optimize designs, processes and decisions for improved business performance. Privately held with more than 2500 employees, Altair is headquartered in Troy, Michigan, USA and operates more than 45 offices throughout 24 countries. Today Altair serves more than 5000 corporate clients across broad industry segments.
EM Software and Systems-S.A. (Pty) Ltd, the Stellenbosch based software company was acquired by Altair in June 2014. The team, comprising over 30 people, continues to do development work for FEKO, the EM simulation software now part of HyperWorks, as well as the marketing and sales of Altair products in Southern Africa, including solidThinking Inspire and Evolve.
