SA inventor scores big with gadget inspired by pensioner dad

24 May 2017 - 10:31 By Jan Bornman
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Andre Nel
Andre Nel
Image: Supplied

A South African inventor has scored one of the top honours in a continent-wide engineering competition held by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Andre Nel was one of three runners-up for the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation. The ceremony was held in Nairobi‚ Kenya‚ on Tuesday night.

Nel was beaten by 27-year-old Nigerian inventor Godwin Benson‚ whose Tuteria online platform links students to qualified tutors in their area and within their budgets.

  • Engineering award finalist inspired by pensioner father being unable to afford to bathAndre Nel‚ one of the finalists for this year's Africa engineering innovation top honour in the Royal Academy of Engineering Prize awards‚ said he was inspired by his father when he told him he couldn't afford to bath anymore.

The 55-year-old Nel was inspired by his pensioner father when he told him he couldn't afford to take a bath anymore.

"It started when my father‚ who is a pensioner‚ told me that he couldn't really afford to take a bath anymore‚" Nel told TimesLIVE last week.

"I realised it was a major problem in South Africa and on the continent. It was shocking for me‚ but also a huge inspiration to start working on a solution‚" he said.

Nel's invention is the GreenTower Microgrid‚ a hybrid solar microgrid‚ which uses 90% less energy to heat water than a geyser.

Benson pocketed £25‚000 (R425‚285) for winning the competition‚ while Nel and the other finalists each received £10‚000 (R170‚157) for making it so far in the competition.

The other two runners-up in the competition were Uganda's Hindu Nabulumba for his Yaaka Digital Learning Network‚ which teachers and students can use to share academic knowledge and materials‚ while Kenya's Kelvin Gacheru's Mobi-Water allows users to save more than 30% of their water by allowing them to monitor and control water in their water tanks using a mobile phone.

-TMG Digital/TimesLIVE

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