Education

Takealot Graduate Program

2020

Takealot's graduate program is aimed at fresh graduates and young professionals looking to kickstart their careers with one of South Africa's quickest growing brands. The program begins with four weeks of seminars covering all the critical aspects of onboarding, ensuring that everyone is brought up to speed on the diverse tech stack, operating procedures in different areas of the company, and the general organization structure. This is followed by four weeks working with other graduates and mentors to complete a project. This is an amazing hands-on opportunity to work in teams and get some experience with parts of the stack. If the project is a success, it will then be refined and hopefully see real use in production.

Short Courses

Takealot has partnered with MyAcademy to provide access to educational content and short courses. During my onboarding, I completed courses on gRPC and shell scripting, which I found very helpful in bridging the gap from my engineering degree into a software development role.

BSc(Eng) Mechatronics

2016 - 2019

Mechatronics is a versatile degree, combining aspects of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and computer science. I found the curriculum very stimulating, and enjoyed expanding my knowledge in a wide range of topics. My courses and projects have given me exposure to fields such as systems control & automation, electronics design, and image processing to name a few. In my final year, I focused predominantly on machine learning applications for image and radar signal processing.

Awards & Achievements

I was awarded a Faculty Entrance Scholarship based on my matric results, and earned a place on the Dean's Merit List each year. In 2016 I received the Class Medal for Introduction to Electronics, and a Computer Science Merit Award. In 2017 I was invited to join the Golden Key International Honour Society based on my academic performance. I maintained a high academic standard, with a GPA of 80%, and my final year project was recognized as the Best Machine Learning Project in the Electrical Engineering Department (check out my projects page for more info on that). My full academic transcript is available below.

Bishops Diocesan College

2003 - 2015

I was privileged to attend Bishops for 13 years, from grade R to matric. In my grade 7 year, I was selected as Deputy Head of Bramley House, and in grade 12 I was elected as Head of Mallett House, Captain of Cycling, and one of two senior students in charge of the Audio Visual Department.

Awards & Achievements

I started playing the trumpet in 2007, and in 2011 I was awarded a Bishops Music Scholarship for the remainder of my schooling. Over the course of my five years of high school, I was awarded Full Colours for Leadership, Academics, Music, Drama, & Cycling. I matriculated in 2015, achieving 7 distinctions and an 87% aggregate. My matric results are linked below.

Edinburgh Fringe Festival

In 2012, and again in 2015, I was part of the production team responsible for two plays performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues, and Herman Charles Bosman's Cold Stone Jug respectively). The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is one of the most highly acclaimed drama and culture festivals in the world. Aside from being an exciting travel experience, these two trips taught me about working to a very tight schedule in an unfamiliar location, and about managing a team to overcome unforeseen setbacks.

Chile Exchange

In 2013, I was selected to take part in a two-month student exchange to Curicó, Chile. While in Chile, I stayed with a host family and attended Orchard College High School. I could speak barely any Spanish, so I joined some of the grade 3 and 4 classes, where I helped the younger kids improve their English.