Careers in ICT

Based on recommendations that Rhodes University had the best Computer Science department in the country, just before my 18th birthday, I decided to forsake the bright lights and big city, and make my way to Grahamstown, where I spent the next six years.  Almost at the beginning of my academic career I first gained exposure to the Internet.  Fortunately, the environment at Rhodes was such that students had ready access to the Internet.  Although I was not aware of it at the time, the Internet would an essential component of my future career.

After my Bachelor's and Honours degrees in Computer Science, I went on to read for my MSc, doing research into systems that used idle time on computers to perform huge computations.  It is very gratifying now, to see that the concepts, which we worked on as lab prototypes then, are widely used today, for applications such as modelling the effects of global warming.

After completing my studies at Rhodes, I first worked at Gold Fields, where I was responsible for designing a new wide area network, using the same Internet technologies, which I had been learning about as a student.  I was also instrumental in championing the adoption of email and other Internet applications at Gold Fields.

In 1998, at the height of the Internet boom, I decided to move into the Internet industry, and joined Internet Solutions (IS).  My initial stint at IS was in the operations division, where I was involved in introducing a number of new technologies and systems.

With time I have developed an interest in turning technology into business opportunities.  This saw me move into new business development.  I currently spend most of my time on product development.

A new interest, on which I spend quite a bit of time, is telecommunications regulation, which gives me the opportunity to explore the effects of changing technologies on the laws and regulations which govern our industry.  This work also gives me the opportunity to be involved in the processes which shape the laws which govern the industry in which I work.

I started at Volkswagen of South Africa on the Graduate Training programme immediately after I had finished my degree.  At the end of the Graduate Training programme I was placed into the IBM Mainframe Performance and Capacity Planning Department where I started my practical ICT journey.

I have been involved in the implementation of a mainframe security system, a mainframe database and application development environment and various SAP systems.  I have also run ICT projects that cut across our organization.

I am currently responsible for the ICT Infrastructure for the corporate ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and DW (Data Warehousing) systems and the ICT infrastructure for Computer Aided Design and Manufacture.

One of the benefits of working for an international company is the opportunity to travel overseas.  I always enjoy visiting Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg, Germany.  Over the years I have developed wonderful friends in Wolfsburg and every time I visit "HQ" I find my evenings taken up renewing these friendships.

I am the principle investigator on several NASA projects, including the development of single cycle instrument capabilities for the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory mission and a robotic traverse of Antarctica.  I am currently based at NASA's Ames Research Centre in Silicon Valley, California.

At Rhodes I earned a B.Sc in Physics with Electronics, Computer Science, Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, followed by a B.Sc.(Hons) in Physics with Electronics and Computer Science.  I was awarded Academic Honours for distinctions in all four majors of my B.Sc degree.  A Fulbright Scholarship then took me to the United States where I attended George Washington University, Washington DC, and came away with an M.S.E.E in Robotics and Automation.  I was then accepted into the Ph.D. programme at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where I earned a doctorate in Robotics in 2001.