{"id":5370,"date":"2011-11-14T16:55:38","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T14:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/11\/first-mechatronics-student-awarded-s2a3-medal\/"},"modified":"2011-11-14T16:55:38","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T14:55:38","slug":"first-mechatronics-student-awarded-s2a3-medal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/first-mechatronics-student-awarded-s2a3-medal\/","title":{"rendered":"First Mechatronics student awarded S2A3 medal"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Timothy Light, who obtained both his BEng Mechatronics and MEng Mechatronics degrees cum laude, was recently awarded a prestigious S2A3 medal.<\/p>\n

The former Victoria Park High School<\/a> learner is the first Mechatronics graduate to receive this medal at NMMU<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science (S2A3) Medal is awarded annually by each South African university to the most outstanding master\u2019s degree student in a scientific discipline. The award is made in recognition of the perseverance and dedication of the successful master\u2019s student in the application of scientific principles in original research and the presentation of a written dissertation required at master\u2019s level.<\/p>\n

The topic of his dissertation \u2013 under the supervision of Prof Igor Gorlach \u2013 was \u201cDynamic Modelling of a Reconfigurable Machine Tool\u201d relating to a research project sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology and the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA).<\/p>\n

During his postgraduate studies, Mr Light spent two months at Aachen University in Germany, where he worked with German researchers and postgraduate students. There, he managed to solve a complex engineering problem in robotics, demonstrating sound knowledge of the engineering disciplines, which he obtained in the BEng Mechatronics programme.<\/p>\n

Mr Light and Prof Gorlach visited Florida University in Gainesville in the USA, where they presented a seminar based on their research projects and collaborated with researchers in the field of robotics. Mr Light co-authored two research papers, which were presented at international conferences in Europe in 2011.<\/p>\n

This year he also received Albert\u00a0Wessels Trust (Toyota) Award for the Best Master\u2019s Student in Science and Technology by Dissertation and the Vice-Chancellor Award for the Best Postgraduate\u00a0Science and Technology Student<\/p>\n

Currently, he works as a project engineer at Rockwell Automation in Johannesburg, while at weekends, he teaches English to pupils at a local school in Alexandria.<\/p>\n

The a target=\u201d_blank\u201d href=\u201dhttp:\/\/s2a3.up.ac.za\/\u201dSouthern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science\/a (S2A3), which celebrated it\u2019s centenary year in 2002, is a non-profit organization that strives to; Promote contact between associations, groups and individuals, professionals as well as laymen, who are interested in all aspects of science and related activities, Initiate or organise gatherings and excursions with a scientific theme, Promote scientific and human activities which are environmentally friendly and Promote a scientific approach to education.<\/p>\n

\"Timothy<\/a><\/p>\n

NMMU Director of Innovation Support and Technology Transfer Jaci Barnett, Timothy Light with his S2A3 certificate and NMMU Mechatronics Head Prof Igor Gorlach. Photograph: Heather Stevens<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Timothy Light, who obtained both his BEng Mechatronics and MEng Mechatronics degrees cum laude, was recently awarded a prestigious S2A3 medal. The former Victoria Park High School learner is the first Mechatronics graduate to receive this medal at NMMU. The Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science (S2A3) Medal is awarded annually by each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1289,5],"class_list":{"0":"post-5370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-mype","8":"tag-port-elizabeth-2","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}