The United Nations published 17 goals under Sustainable Development. Digital transformation could play a major role in addressing these goals, but a radical change in attitude among South Africa’s political leaders are required, as can be seen from the Digital Transformation Strategy of South Africa compared to those of other countries.

At the July Johannesburg SAIMC meeting, Proconics addressed members on ‘Leveraging drone and 3D technology for the next generation of engineering’. When you think about the advances made in technology, this has to be at the forefront of it all.

On 3 July 2024, Gary Friend from Extech Safety Systems captivated the audience with an eye-opening presentation on the hurdles to embracing new technologies.

With the help of Professor Saha from UKZN, the Durban branch of the SAIMC held a very successful exhibition of industrial automation and instrumentation equipment at the UKZN School of Engineering.

In 2023, the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) defined a new engineering discipline, Computer Engineering. Due to the work done by MESA Africa in the manufacturing engineering space, the SAIMC approached MESA Africa to assist in defining the Code of Practice for Computer Engineers.

The July technology meeting of the SAIMC saw Raegan Ramsunder from ifm presenting on food safety.

In 2023, the SAIMC NPC and MESA Africa NPC joined forces, as their areas of activity had grown closer together. During this same time, ECSA recognised Computer Engineering as a separate discipline and asked the SAIMC to work on the initial Code of Practice for Computer Engineering.

At the SAIMC Johannesburg meeting held in June, DesSoft gave a presentation on the importance of having smart tools that facilitate information sharing between process, electrical and instrumentation departments.

SAIMC Durban branch held a very well supported technology evening that was sponsored by UIC Control & Automation in celebration of their 50 years of successful service to industry.