Employment

Machine Learning & Software Engineering

Takealot

2020 - Present

I joined South Africa's largest online retailer in January of 2020, where I am part of the Discovery Machine Learning team. We are responsible for many of the backend systems which enable customers to discover products they may wish to purchase. Specifically, we aim to apply machine learning techniques to improve the quality of search results and product recommendations on our site. I have seen tremendous growth in my role, and I've thrived in their challenging, stimulating, and rewarding environment. I particularly enjoy fusing my interest in machine learning with my passion for engineering design - serving complex deep learning models for live traffic presents a number of challenges not seen in pure data science applications, and I really enjoy searching for the perfect balance between engineering effort and customer satisfaction.

3D-IMO

2020 - Present

This US-based startup aims to create investment and administrative offerings in the livestock and agricultural sectors. I have been working part-time since September 2020 to create a biometric identification tool for the purpose of livestock identification which does not rely on tags (which can break and fade) or RFID chips (which are invasive and could be removed). My small team's objective is to create a proof of concept algorithm capable of uniquely identifying a cow/bull given a smartphone photograph of its snout, using techniques similar to human fingerprint recognition. My work so far has mainly focussed on building machine learning models to identify the region of interest (i.e. the snout) so that our 'fingerprint' algorithms can ignore any background details in the given photograph.

Internships

Aerobotics (Pty) Ltd

Dec 2018 - Jan 2019

As part of my engineering studies, I took part in a six-week internship at Aerobotics (Pty) Ltd, where I was very involved in image processing and worked to streamline the process of stitching hundreds of images into a single orthographic image for further processing. This was my first encounter with photogrammetry, and I found the concept quite fascinating. One day I'd like to revisit this topic, and possibly integrate the technique into my 3D CAD workflow.

Teaching

Club Electron

2017 - 2019

At school, I enjoyed tinkering with electronics in my spare time, which was a huge help in preparing me for engineering at UCT. I started working with Club Electron in 2017 because I believe that more kids need to be exposed to electronics and coding at a young age, hopefully inspiring them to pursue hobbies or careers in STEM fields. The program is run as an extra-curricular activity at schools all over Cape Town, and aimed at grades 4-7. During my studies, I worked as an instructor at a number of schools, guiding kids through various topics, and helping them understand, build, and test their creations.

SkillUp Tutors

2016 - 2020

I began working with SkillUp as a private tutor in 2016, which has allowed me to share my love of math and science with others. What began as a way to earn a little pocket money has become a passion for empowering struggling students to achieve the results they know they are capable of. I have worked with students in high school and at university, from all over the Southern Suburbs. I tend to work most on math and physics, and I love seeing my students grapple with and grasp the content which they previously found challenging. I particularly enjoy building lasting relationships with my students, where I can be a part of their progress towards achieving the results they desire.