Existing VIP Teams

G-WIZARDS


Supervisor: Prof SW Jacobsz ([email protected]); Arno Crous ([email protected]);
and Yashay Narainsamy ([email protected]).


Description:
Tailings dams (also known as slimes dams) are some of the largest manmade structures in
the world. They are used to dispose of waste products from mining operations, mostly
consisting of ground-up rock mixed with water. The ground-up rock and water mix is what is
known as tailings or slimes. It is pumped to slimes dams and deposited on the dams, after
which it is allowed time to dry. Once dry enough, the partially dried slimes are used to raise
the outer walls of the dam. If the mine does not wait long enough, the slimes may be too
weak to form stable outer walls to contain newly deposited slimes. This may lead to
catastrophic failure of such a dam. For a terrifying case of such a failure, look at this video.

To better understand the condition under which these tailings dam failures can occur field
monitoring systems have to be installed within active tailings dams, which allows for the
measurement of the in situ stress state, allowing for a better understanding of the shear
strength development of the soil. The team also built model tailings dams and accelerated
the models using the University’s 150g-ton Geotechnical Centrifuge to better understand the
associated failure mechanisms.


Recruitment wish list
Civil Engineering Students
- enthusiastic and hardworking undergraduate students
- interest in geotechnical engineering
- academically sufficiently strong

 

AREND

Supervisor: Dr. Lelanie Smith ([email protected])

Description:

The development of the AREND UAV for supporting anti-poaching attempts has multiple continuing projects. After the failed flight attempt in 2020 of the new airframe, there are projects ongoing to build smaller test airframes to test the aeronautics. The emergency parachute system will be refined, integrated into the main aircraft, and tested and the flight test rig will be redesigned and built for further flight tests.

Recruitment wish list:

• The team accepts mostly vacation work students, volunteers are welcome

• Disciplines from Mechanical, Industrial and EEC mostly make up the teams

Click here to watch a video.

 

 

A-Team

Supervisor: Dr Bradley Bock ([email protected])

 

Description:

Growing algae for biofuels, biofeeds and biopharma.

 

The goal of the A-team is to figure out how to grow algae cheaper and better than ever before so that they can be used in biofuels, biofeeds and biopharma. 

 

Algae are single celled plants (basically pond scum) and are currently grown for a variety of relatively high value biopharmaceuticals. Given that many of them have a very high protein and omega-3 oil content, they could be used as a biofeed for fish, chickens and even cows, which can thus replace the ecologically harmful use of soya or fish oil as a feed. Furthermore, given that many of them have a high oil content, they could also be used to produce biodiesel. The only problem is that the current methods of growing algae are not cheap enough to make algae biofeeds and biofuels economically competitive. 

 

The A-team hopes to change that.

 

Recruitment wishlist

 

Mechanical and chemical engineers who enjoy cross-disciplinary work and have interests in any of the following:

Building and prototyping

Heat and mass transfer

Measurement and control 

 

Electronic Warfare

Supervisor: Prof Warren du Plessis ([email protected])

 

Description

Electronic warfare (EW) deals with everything in the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) from DC to daylight (and sometimes even beyond). The primary functions within EW are listening to hear what others are doing, interfering with what they are doing, and protecting ourselves from similar actions. A wide range of technologies including radar, communications, antennas, RF/microwave systems, signal processing, optics, imaging, AI/ML, and others are relevant to EW, and it is the combination of these technologies that leads to desired effects.

 

But fundamentally, the goal of this team will be to implement radar, communications, and IR

systems, and then to jam them so that they don't know which way is up! We will both  carefully construct working prototypes that can be tested and demonstrated in laboratories and in the field, and then equally carefully render them useless! The goal will be to construct systems – and of course, jam them – at RF and microwave frequencies, and at optical and IR wavelengths. As part of this effort, we will also develop surrogate systems that have similar functionality to the real thing but are cheaper and easier to share, like sonars.

 

Sample resources 

• F. Neri, Introduction to Electronic Defence Systems, 3rd ed. Norwood, MA, USA: Artech

House, 2018.

• EMSOPEDIA – The world standard knowledge in electromagnetic spectrum operation.

[Online]. Available: https://www.emsopedia.org/

• G. W. Stimson, Stimson’s introduction to airborne radar, 3rd ed., H. D. Griffiths, C. Baker, and

D. Adamy, Eds. Rayleigh, NC: SciTech, 2014.

 

Recruitment wish list

The following skills would be useful

• programming

• signal processing,

• antennas,

• RF and microwave circuits, and

• systems engineering.

 

Engineering Education

 

Supervisor: Dr Helen Inglis ([email protected]) and Dr Lelanie Smith ([email protected])

 

Description

Engineering Education is a trans-disciplinary field of research and innovation, connecting the engineering disciplines with specialist knowledge from the fields of education, psychology, and sociology. In the School of Engineering at the University of Pretoria we already have a number of examples of interdisciplinary, multi-institution and industry collaboration. 

The current activities and projects include (1) Curriculum renewal; (2) Development of integrated engineering curricula; (3) Understanding and improving student success; (4) Community and social responsiveness; (5) Education for employability in Society 5.0; (6) Regional network for engineering education in Africa.

Recruitment wish list:

Students should be interested in one of the following:

- Education

- Psychology

- Research

- Statistics

- Trans-disciplinary team work

 

Coordination Team

Dr Lelanie Smith 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lelanie-smith-2b5737a

 

Dr Wilna Bean

www.linkedin.com/in/wilnabean

 

Ms Shane Swanepoel

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shané-swanepoel-772943208

 

Contact

General Question

 

Dr Lelanie Smith (corresponding team member)

[email protected]

 

Team-specific Questions

Team-specific questions, including requests to join a specific team, should be directed to the team-specific contacts available through the Existing Teams and Activity page.

 

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