Kevin Motsumi and Pako Mmmereki are chasing their own dreams to be engineers.
The two students, who are currently in Form Four at Livingston Kolobeng College (LKC), recently finished building their own wireless remote-controlled toy car.
The two came up with the idea for their schools science fare and produced a car wired vehicle that was operated by batteries but, unfortunately, their efforts were not rewarded as they finished outside of the top three positions. Motsumi and Mmmereki were disappointed but were not deterred as they stuck to their ‘go hard’ motto and decided to rebuild their first model.
“It kind of put us down. We were the first to do it in our school. That made us want to rebuild. We started rebuilding for family fun day and our principal helped finance the project; she was very supportive,” Motsumi said.
During the rebuilding phase, the two decided to use a gear system because they felt a pulley system did not have the ideal raw materials.
The use of gears was also vital as sometimes the motor was not responsive. Another problem they found with their previous model was that batteries caused a problem; this made them resort to a DC power supply and it worked. Their final product was bigger and lighter due to the techniques they used that required more power.
They had also been slowed down by examinations.
The project took 3-4 four weeks to build after concepts and sketches were laid on paper.
In an interview with The Sunday Standard, Livingstone Kolobeng College principal, Nilima Bakaya, who helped her students’ dreams materialise, showed her appreciation for the initiative shown by the students.
“I love these kids. They are putting their time into educative efforts. I’m really impressed,” she said.
The two LKC students are hoping to find themselves the engineering field in the near future after completing their studies.
Mmereki hopes to become a mechanical engineer, specialising in making cars whilst Motsumi dreams of becoming an electrical engineer, specialising in making gadgets.
They believe this experience can help them grow for the future.
“We plan on taking our talents nationwide; it’s something we both want to undertake to help our careers,” Mmereki said.
The two are currently working on a remote controlled helicopter.
