The Department of Electrical Engineering takes pride in the development of new electronic devices in their new Laboratory for Innovative Electronic Systems. These products can prevent power cuts, tighten security, provide clean water, supplement Eskom power with solar energy, and can do smart sensing and processing by means of optics on chip.

Several B Tech and master's degree students have recently finished prototype products. Jacob Matata has worked on a new security module that houses a small GPS and GSM as well as solar cell components. The module is pasted onto any valuable item and is normally in “sleep mode”. When it receives a cell phone call from the owner, it “wakes up”, and immediately responds with an SMS and provide the product’s coordinates and location accurately within one metre.

Claudia Mathe, a B Tech student, worked on a power cut prevention and solar energy supplement system for domestic households. “With power cuts occurring all the time, it’s important to have a system like this. When Eskom power is cut off, a small computer immediately senses its, makes clever decisions and then feeds in energy to selected lines in the house from an energy storage and energy conversion system. Energy was previously accumulated from a number of solar cells mounted on the roof of the household and stored in so-called deep cycle batteries. The system takes over completely automatically and supplies energy to the house for a period of up to five hours."

Prof Snyman and other researchers have also developed other innovative products that can provide clean water in far-off rural areas through solar energy and electronics. “At the high technology end, we are working on new technologies that can in future process and store information by means of “optics on chip”. These systems will be extremely small and can intelligently sense a variety of physical parameters directly on small chips. Diverse and innovative applications are possible and could can penetrate international markets”, he explained.

The electronics industry in South Africa is growing rapidly as the public purchase more and more household electronic products everyday. Currently a massive proportion of electronic products in South Africa are imported, which adversely affects the country’s balance of payments. Prof Snyman says the electronics industry in South Africa is huge and South Africa needs to be more active and competitive in this area.

Professor Snyman is a C-rated scientist with international recognition and he is supported by the South African National Research Foundation. All the TUT products are currently covered by South African patents. Some of the patents already have international coverage

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