2021
The substation that kept failing
A 3kV traction substation broke down about 1.1 times a week. A Lean Six Sigma DMAIC project found the cause and took it to near zero.
過去編
Backstory
Flashback: how the character got here.
作品
Projects
2021
One click
A 20-page monthly performance report used to take hours. Excel VBA on a live database turned it into one click.
2026
Shrinking the targets
A retail target-setting pipeline on SQL Server, where empirical Bayes shrinkage keeps small stores from getting wild targets.
2026
The admin that answers to one
A custom MCP server that lets an AI assistant inspect and restart containers on a personal server, behind single sign-on.
2026
The server with one door
A self-hosted VPS where the only way in is a WireGuard tunnel, with a default-deny firewall and CrowdSec watching the front.
Jun 2019
Custom in-car heads-up display and gaming system
Mahindra Scorpio
A Raspberry Pi and 7-inch LCD HUD fed by the vehicle's OBD-II port, with passenger entertainment that switches between the HUD and retro games.
Sep 2019
Custom control system for a scale Mini Cooper
An Arduino Nano and Xbox controller give an old model car speed control, with acceleration, braking, directional control and a temporary overdrive mode.
Sep 2022
App/SMS-controlled e-textile prototype
A wearable e-textile system with microcontroller-based control, operated by SMS or a dedicated app.
職歴
Experience
Jun 2023–present
Business Intelligence / Data Engineer
Tevo, South Africa
Designs, develops and maintains the ETL/ELT pipelines behind enterprise data integration and analytics.
- Builds data warehouse and backend solutions on Microsoft SQL Server and Azure, including ingestion, transformation and validation.
- Tunes SQL views, triggers and stored procedures, and automates workflows and reporting with Python, Pandas and custom applications.
- Deploys Flask applications on NGINX with SSL, and builds and troubleshoots Azure virtual machines.
- Documents BI, ETL and data engineering processes while keeping to data governance and security standards.
Apr 2022–Jun 2023
Maintenance Manager: Planning
Transnet, South Africa
Set infrastructure maintenance standards and kept depots reliable and compliant, from occupations and work permits to shutdown planning.
- Oversaw COPEX forecasting and resource allocation in Microsoft Project.
- Led technical training, internal audits and PAA audit readiness.
- Set, tracked and met depot-level KPIs, and championed Lean Six Sigma projects.
- Checked depot MIS data and SAP job cards for accuracy.
May 2020–Mar 2022
Electrical Engineer
Transnet, South Africa
Managed substation reliability, electrical assets and safety compliance, and planned and ran infrastructure maintenance projects.
- Automated SAP maintenance scheduling with VBA macros.
- Supervised Lean Six Sigma White Belt projects.
- Controlled OPEX and COPEX budgets with monthly and annual forecasts.
- Led the Electrical Technical Forum and managed asset lifecycle and replacement plans.
工学
Engineering projects
Oct 2019–Jan 2020
Reduction of OHTE failures
Ladysmith Depot
A Lean Six Sigma project on overhead track equipment reliability between Estcourt and Rushbrook.
- Cut average weekly OHTE failures from 1.13 to 0.51 through data-driven analysis and process improvement.
May 2019
Replacement of copper catenary
Glencoe to Uithoek
Replaced 6 km of copper catenary wire with aluminium to deter theft and improve network reliability, tracking the 1.5 km/day target daily.
May 2019
Replacement of contact wire
Cedara Tunnel
As Technical Officer, replaced 7 km of contact wire to remove excessive splices and reduce OHTE hookup risk, managing procurement, delivery and on-site resourcing.
Jan 2021
Replacement of steel earth wire
Dundee to Tayside
Managed replacing 20 km of rust-prone steel earth wire with aluminium to prevent OHTE obstructions, and re-planned the schedule to recover deviations and hit milestones.
Aug 2021
Investigation of substation tripping due to lightning
Ladysmith Depot
Led a root-cause investigation into recurring substation trips across five financial years, analysing historical data and inspecting earthing systems.
- Identified incorrect arrestor grounding as the cause.
- Implemented earthing redesigns that significantly reduced lightning-related trips.
ハッカソン
Hackathons
2023
EmpowerHer AI Hackathon: GBV reporting chatbot
Placed 3rd with a WhatsApp chatbot for confidentially reporting workplace GBV incidents, using NLP to guide users and protect sensitive data.
2023
BCX Cloud Hackathon
Deployed a contextually trained LLM on Alibaba Cloud to answer user queries from document inputs.
2023
Global Entrepreneurship Week: emergency IoT device
A wearable that recognises set emergency gestures and alerts emergency contacts through Twilio.
2023
Microsoft Responsible AI Hackathon
A Python/Django web app using NLP and ML to promote diversity, fairness and dataset transparency.
2022
Freshworks Refresh Apps Challenge
A tweet-based classifier that profiles customer personality so Freshdesk tickets resolve faster with less human intervention.
2022
Cortx and Filecoin Integration Challenge
Integrated the Filecoin and CORTX storage APIs for decentralised, fee-based file storage and retrieval.
2022
MTN App of the Year: Nifty
An app that syncs lights to music in real time, combining IoT hardware control with Python automation.
2021
Telkom GEW: Marketing Intelligence Officer
An AI chatbot that gives companies personalised product recommendations and runs specialised functions on user commands.
2021
PyTorch Annual Hackathon: mental health analysis tool
A Python app that scrapes Twitter data to analyse mental health discussions and generates automated reports, with PyTorch NLP for sentiment and topic analysis.
2021
Seagate CORTX Integration Challenge
Integrated CORTX S3 storage with Restic backup software for scalable storage and retrieval of system and data backups.
学歴
Education
2012–2017
Bachelor of Science in Engineering: Electrical Engineering
University of KwaZulu-Natal
2023–2025
Postgraduate Diploma in Data Science
University of KwaZulu-Natal
技能
Skills
Electrical engineering
Power systems, industrial automation, control systems, circuit design, instrumentation and electrical maintenance.
Data engineering
Database design and optimisation, ETL/ELT data pipelines, data warehousing, SQL, Python automation and big data workflows.
Programming & AI
Python, Flask, Django, Pandas, PyTorch, machine learning, natural language processing and chatbot development.
IoT systems
Embedded and sensor-based systems, edge computing, MQTT, Twilio and real-time data integration.
Cloud & DevOps
Docker, Linux administration, CI/CD, virtualisation (KVM/Libvirt), and deployment on Alibaba Cloud, Azure and AWS.
Documentation & communication
Technical writing, project documentation, and presenting complex systems clearly to multidisciplinary teams.
言語
Languages
English
Native / bilingual.
Afrikaans
Professional proficiency.