Media statement by Nomonde Mbadi, Executive Director of Corporate Affairs
Matthew De Beyer recently walked away with the 14th Annual PG Bison Student of the Year Award at a national competition in Johannesburg. It is the first for the Durban University of Technology (DUT) student to win such a competition in 14 years. He is a third year student in Interior Design at DUT.
“I am completely over the moon, it is absolutely amazing and it came as a surprise. The competition was very tough, a big event and the standard was high. My inspiration for my design came from a toy pin that I have at home,” commented De Beyer. He started with a sketcher and drew basic ideas which culminated in a winning design. He worked on corral draw programme and he did his main layout on AutoCAD for 3D work. He is thrilled for the kind of recognition he received when he won the competition.
De Beyer is hopeful that he has great opportunities waiting for him out there. As part of his first prize he is looking forward to his 5-day trip to the 2009 Milan furniture fair, which includes a return ticket, accommodation, entry t the show and a contribution to daily expenses. Cally du Toit will accompany Matthew de Beyer to the 2009 Milan furniture fair in April next year. He plans to do a BTech next year and work on a part-time basis. He advises students to study hard as it counts a lot and follow their dreams.
Project leader, Cally du Toit is proud of Matthew’s performance at this competition. She described Matthew as an incredibly talented young man. Commenting on Matthew’s work she said despite the extremely high standard of the competition Matthew came up with an exceptionally creative idea as a solution to the competition brief. She added that his design was excellent.
Du Toit’s task was to guide students towards finding a solution to the competition brief. She is thrilled that for first time in 14 years of the competition history DUT came in the top 10 and won it. She applauded students for their role in this competition. She said this time students were encouraged to develop their technical skills and use new computer programmes to do their designs. She said this made huge improvement to the competition, adding that she hoped it would place DUT in a better position in the competition in future.
For comment, please contact Matthew De Beyer on 082 870 5001.