On Saturday, 27 May 2023, the first of two annual structured MEM (Master’s Degree in Engineering Management) networking functions took place, at the Hilton hotel in Sandton. The function was held for students and academic staff residing in the Gauteng area.

Several first-year MEM students attended the final first-semester webinar in person which took place before the networking event. The webinar concludes the synchronous interaction portion for the modules ‘Introduction to Engineering Management’ and ‘Technology Management’ presented by Profs Calie Pistorius and Sara Grobbelaar.

Following the webinar, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Professor Wikus van Niekerk, second-year students, academic staff and guests joined the first-year students for a delicious brunch and networking session. There was an atmosphere of excitement as students had the opportunity to meet new faces and get reacquainted with familiar ones.

Prof Calie Pistorius, the founding academic coordinator for the programme, presided as programme director. He announced that Prof Taryn Bond-Barnard would be taking over as academic coordinator of the MEM programme.

Prof Bond-Barnard needs no introduction as she has been very involved in the programme since joining Stellenbosch University at the beginning of this year from the GSTM at the University of Pretoria. She will also be teaching the Project Management module for the second-year students in the second semester.  She gave a short, interesting presentation on the latest MEM statistics e.g. student demographics, which countries the students reside in and which industries they work for.

Prof Wikus van Niekerk delivered a short address which emphasized that the MEM Programme is one of the Faculty’s flagship offerings. He also acknowledged Prof Pistorius for his enormous contribution as the founding MEM academic coordinator.  He expressed the Faculty’s commitment to promoting young academics in the Engineering field such as Prof Taryn Bond-Barnard and Prof Sara Grobbelaar.  Prof Pistorius will remain an integral part of the programme as a lecturer for various first and second-year MEM modules.

Applications for the 2024 intake close on 31 October 2023. For more information contact mastersengm@sun.ac.za.