An initiative to alleviate inner city congestion has won a R50 000 award and is set to revolutionise how people commute.

The Watt Scooter is the brainchild of Industrial Design staff and students and has already gotten the attention of Rhodes University which grapples with an over reliance on cars by its students at its Grahamstown campus.

The Watt Scooter also suits CPUT student needs with it’s’ variety of campuses spread out across the Cape Town central business district.

The electric scooter can manage a mass of around 125kg, a range of 20km and a top speed of 25kph on a two hour charge and thanks to its sturdy wheels and upright design can confidently tackle hills.

BTech student Mikhail Wertheim Aymes who is a collaborator on the project along with lecturers Craig Finnan, Johan van Niekerk and Daryn Molenaar says Watt Scooter’s long term goal is to provide a student transport share system.

“It locks up easily like a bike and our next step is to develop docking stations which could be activated by your student card,” he says.

The Watt Scooter won the Innovation Award at Design Indaba recently and was commended for its local design and the fact that the technology is easily upgradable.

Now the team are planning on using the prize to explore docking station options.

The Watt Scooter was such a hit with Design Indaba patrons that pre-orders for it are already sold out.

Written by Lauren Kansley

Tel: +27 21 953 8646
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Liaises with the media and writes press releases about interesting developments at CPUT.

Four years and over R500 000 later, what started out as a way of introducing Industrial Design students to industry has become a viable business model.

The R5K project tasks students with earning at least R5 000 by selling industrially designed products to a South African market.

In some cases groups have earned R140 000 with a single product and many designs continue to sell long after students have graduated.

The ingenious idea was the brainchild of Informatics and Design staff members Johan van Niekerk, Mugendi M’Rithaa and Bart Verveckken.

Previous popular designs was the Well Hung hook which allows you to hang a bag of groceries from a car seat headrest and Spoked, an adjustable cork bicycle handgrip.

This year students are once again thinking outside of the box with designs like a repurposed SAB keg braai, a food dehydrator and a pair of braai tongs (with a twist).

Production on prototypes start soon and the products will go on sale later this year.

The R5K project also caught the eye of the World Design Capital organisers and is a recognized project on their calendar of events helping to give greater attention to all the excellent similar projects being produced by the institution.

Visit www.imaginethat.org.za for more information on all CPUT’s WDC projects. 

Written by Lauren Kansley
Tel: +27 21 953 8646
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Liaises with the media and writes press releases about interesting developments at CPUT.