A quick review of the entries from six universi-ties indicates that the judging panel will need to bring engineering, design and entrepreneurial analysis skills to the table on 7th and 8th November.

1. Cape Peninsula University of Technology - Dispense-Here: Automated, large volume, high-speed beverage dispensing unit
The CPUT students, JP Pepler, Gideon Pool, Gareth Hardman and Willie van der Walt decided that a promising opportunity for development and expansion in the food and beverage industry (the theme for this year's competition), is that of the private sector offering efficient and effective purchasing and dispen-sing of beverages at special events. They point out that the success of enter-taining and unique events is often compromised by reports of disgruntled pa-trons having to queue for their preferred refreshments. Their design proposes a simple, intuitive machine that takes the minimum amount of time to serve patrons.

2. Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University - The Semi-Automatic Fish De-Scaler
Kayleigh Bauer, Josh Hodgkinson, Dylan Prinsloo and Stefan van Aardt from NMMU identified the fishing industry as their target, since it contributes a great deal to employment and economic well-being in the Eastern Cape.
Research was conducted in the areas of preparing fish for the market and highlighted that although de-scaling by hand “offers good results”, this appro-ach is extremely time-consuming and not always guaranteed.
Their design proposes to considerably improve the fishing industry in the Ea-stern Cape by optimizing a key stage in fish processing. Combining the use of conveyors and powered scaling rollers their Semi-Automatic Fish De-Scaler can quickly and efficiently scale a fish.

3. Stellenbosch University - SunnySide Apple Packer
Students J.N. Geldenhuys, C. Liebenberg, D.J. Malan and H. Scheepers deli-vered a design report that is essentially a "high-speed, accurate and selective apple packer". They noted that because apple packing is currently done by hand, many potential problems with labour – including inconsistent quality – are experienced by farms and distributors.
Their proposed packing machine is designed to improve the marketability of first-grade boxed apples. This is accomplished by boxing “red” apples (any apples with some red colouring) with their best-looking and best-coloured side facing upwards. Packing apples in this manner produces a much more desira-ble box than a randomly packed box, an obvious benefit to retailers.

4. Tshwane University of Technology - TUT Egg Sorter
Greta van der Walt, Charl Strydom, N Nkongolo and S F Baloyi from TUT fo-cussed their attention on the "egg industry" - the fourth largest animal-product sector in agriculture in South Africa. The problem they identified is that although emerging farmers can quickly sell their eggs to low-end retail and distribution channels, they come up against stringent and mostly restricting grading and packaging requirements when trying to penetrate highly regulated chain-stores.
Their competition design, an egg sorting and packing machine, finds the midd-le-road between inconsistent and unpredictable manual sorting and packing and offers entry level farmers a more efficient way of presenting and selling their produce.

5. University of Johannesburg - Blitz Burger
The UJ team of Jason Berry, Warrick Kin, Izak Coetzee and David De Ponte came to the consensus that Festo and SEW Eurodrive could benefit from ha-ving a fully functional "food and beverage delivery, marketing and presentation showpiece". Their design offers a suggestion that could showcase technical efficiency, precision and energy efficiency in a fun and engaging manner. Their "Blitz Burger" is is also applicable in the "real fast food world". An interesting suggestion that brings marketing, mechatronic engineering design and fast- food together.

6. University of the Witwatersrand - Automated Restaurant
Students from WITS, Mduduzi Masuku, Lefa Madire, Meshi Hamese and David Ndeveelo, presented a design that shows how an automated restaurant could replace waitrons by making use of a mechatronic system that automatically transfers food trays from the kitchen to the customer's table.
The design is composed of sub-systems that need to raise and convey loads from the chef to their designated locations in a restaurant. The design is space efficient in the sense that most of the mechanical components are isolated from the dining floor, unlike the Sushi and Michael Mack‘s fully automated restaurants and presents some interesting alternatives to delivering food in a restaurant.

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