SAIChE contact details
PO Box 2125,
NORTH RIDING, 2162
tel: +27 11 704 5915;
fax: (0) 86 672 9430;
email:
website:
SAIChE COUNCIL
MEMBERS
President – RH Grob
Imm. Past President – AB Hlatshwayo
Honorary Treasurer – L van Dyk
Honorary Secretary – CM Sheridan
Vice President – SE Iyuke
Vice President – D van Vuuren
EXCO Member – JJ Scholtz
EXCO Member – Z Harber
Council member – KG Harding
Council member – EM Obwaka
Council member – BK Ferreira
Council member – M Low
Council member– L Greyvenstein
Council member– D Ramjugernath
Council member – JG Potgieter
Chair Gauteng – Dawie van Vuuren
Chair KZN – S Mazibuko
SAIChE
T
he KwaZulu-Natal branch of the South
African Institution for Chemical Engineers
(SAIChE), held its annual Research Day
at the Unite Building, School of Engineering,
Howard College Campus, University of KwaZulu-
Natal (UKZN) on 26 July 2013.
Showcasing students’ projects as well as
industrial research, the event provided a unique
platform for interaction between students from
various academic institutions and the companies
involved in chemical engineering related work.
Participants at the 2013 Research Day includ-
ed students from UKZN and the Durban University
of Technology (DUT), who submitted abstracts and
presented oral and poster presentations which
were assessed by a panel of professional judges:
Dr Maggie Chetty, Mr Elly Obwaka and PrEng, Na-
heemToolsee. The event was organized by Mr M G
Ntunka and chaired by Prof Randhir Rawatlal, both
from the School of Engineering at UKZN. Contes-
C
hemical engineering as a career shows
many opportunities for the young engi-
neer to experience many different types
of engineering work. As President of SAIChE I
have come into contact with many engineers
passionate about their chosen career and their
ability to excel in those areas.
However one of the concerns the engineers
express is whether they should register with
ECSA. Usually it is the “what will ECSA do for me”
question that is difficult to answer for a chemi-
cal engineer, since ECSA is much more clearly
defined for construction and public areas in the
built environment rather than for the restricted
areas chemical engineers typically work in for the
chemical industry.
However, if they do register or are registered
with ECSA, the question is how they keep up with
the CPD credits for training when most of the
courses they attend are not registered with ECSA.
SAIChE is interested in assisting with the CPD
credits to maintain your ECSA registration. We
have encouraged and assisted small and large
companies to register their in-house training
programs with ECSA. All technical skills training
associated with Chemical Engineering can be
registered. Soft skills programs can be registered
with ECSA via another voluntary association (VA).
ECSA itself is planning a more streamlined
method of registering training courses so that the
right VA registers the course on behalf of ECSA.
This will greatly assist SAIChE to manage and
SAIChE KZN Research Day 2013
Note from the President of SAIChE
tants were split into two categories: an under-
graduate group and a postgraduate/researchers
group. The winning presentation of the Research
Day 2013 for the undergraduate category was
the project titled “Production of Jet Fuel from
Vegetable Oil” presented by Tasha Govender and
Janelle Jaimangal, both fourth year students in
Chemical Engineering at UKZN .
The winner for the postgraduate/researcher
category was Mr Stuart Woolley of the Pollution
Research Group, UKZN, with the project topic
“Rheological properties and modelling of fresh
human faeces”. The first runner-up in this catego-
ry was Ms Nastasia Ramsamy and the third-place
prize winner, Mr Peterson Thokozani Ngema.
For photographs of the SAIChE KZN Research
Day 2013 event, please visit us on Facebook or
Twitter. (
searchDay or
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process the requests more efficiently.
If you have an in-house program, please
consider getting the technical sections regis-
tered with ECSA. If you are attending a training
course, please ensure that there is an ECSA-
registered CPD credit for that course. Even if
you are not currently registered with ECSA, but
might be considering registration sometime in
the future, you will need to show some training
in the last five years before your application is
successfully processed.
There has been a sharp increase in the num-
ber of Chemical Engineers registering with ECSA
over the past few months, probably due to the
deadline that was set for changes from a paper-
based application system to the new electronic
system. These two systems run in parallel until
April 2015 when the paper-based system will
stop being used by ECSA and all applications
become electronic. There are many advantages
to using these electronic systems, not least the
fact that RSA falls in line with our European
colleagues. It also allows the applicants to track
progress of their applications.
In the meantime I look forward to many more
interactions with the chemical engineering
community and recommend that you look at the
SAIChE website for more activities we are having
with ECSA and our sister organizations in the
UK, USA, Australia and Nigeria, as well as our
development programs provided locally in all
areas of Chemical Engineering.
19
Chemical Technology • September 2013
