Fluor South Africa recently participated in Engineers Week 2016, an annual week-long global event that celebrates engineering excellence.

Employees participated in educational outreach activities, recognition events and the popular Friendly Competition. Learners from Ivory Park High School, Kwena Molapo High School and Mitzvah School were invited to take part in the Friendly Competition at the Fluor office in Woodmead.

“This year’s Friendly Competition design was derived from The Banaue Rice Terraces (referred to as The Eighth Wonder of the World),” said Mohamed Zahir Tootla, Fluor process engineer.

The Banaue Rice Terraces were carved into the Philippine mountains of Cordillera Northern Island of Luzon archipelago. Currently, The Banaue faces problems such as erosion and drought. Friendly Competition teams were tasked with irrigating the multi-layer terraces.

Teams constructed a terrace irrigation model with different levels of basin to catch and transport water. The objective was to successfully irrigate each level of the terraces by means of overflowing water to each level. The teams were scored on materials used, construction time, installation time, testing time and efficiency of the irrigation model.

A winning model was required to move four styrofoam balls from their designated levels by means of overflowing it with water.

Fluor engineers competed with three groups of eight learners. The winning team was Ivory Park High School 1 and Fluor’s Botelus Edulus team.

As part of the outreach efforts, Fluor engineers visited three local Fluor-supported high schools. “The purpose of the visits was to raise awareness of engineering contributions to society and to introduce engineering career opportunities to mathematics and science students,” added Tootla.

Education, particularly the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), is a foundational component of success in the 21st century and crucial for society’s ability to innovate and solve problems.

“Engineers working at Fluor turn ideas into reality, improve people’s lives and apply science to practical problems,” concluded Pieter Venter, Fluor’s engineering manager.

About Fluor Corporation

Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) is a global engineering, procurement, fabrication, construction and maintenance company that designs, builds and maintains capital-efficient facilities for its clients on six continents. For more than a century, Fluor has served clients by delivering innovative and integrated solutions for our clients in the energy, chemicals, government, industrial, infrastructure, mining and metals, and power market sectors. With headquarters in Irving, Texas, Fluor ranks 136 on the FORTUNE 500 list with revenue of $18.1 billion in 2015 and has 59,000 employees worldwide. For more information, please visit www.fluor.com or follow us on Twitter @FluorCorp.