Engineering and technology
A Smarter Way To Manage Home Energy During Load-Shedding
For many South African households with solar panels and batteries, the hard part isn’t installing the hardware. The harder part is deciding when to charge the...
Engineering and technology
When Mobile Networks Fail, A Phone Can Still Reach Your Group
At a concert, sports event, or outdoor gathering, people often assume their phones will work when they need them. In practice, that can fall apart fast. If too...
Engineering and technology
Engineering Open Day returns to a reimagined space
Grey skies and a passing thunderstorm did little to deter prospective students and their families from attending the Faculty of Engineering’s 2026 Open Day on...
Engineering and technology
Enhancing Customer Engagement in E-commerce: Improving E-Marketing Open Rates through Model-Free Reinforcement Learning
Marketing is a cornerstone of business success. Its aim is straightforward: to generate revenue by promoting, selling, and distributing products or services to...
Engineering and technology
The Development of a Smart Monitoring System for Solar PV Plants by Employing AES-encrypted LoRa Wireless Sensor Networks
Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is a cornerstone of sustainable energy solutions. Yet, ensuring the efficiency and reliability of large-scale solar...
Engineering and technology
Open-Set Learning with Augmented Category by Exploiting Unlabelled Data (Open-LACU)
The rapid growth of real-world datasets, whether in computer vision, audio processing, or medical diagnosis, demands robust and flexible classifiers. One key...
Engineering and technology
Development and Verification of an Electro-Mechanical Docking Mechanism for Flight
Space exploration increasingly relies on small satellites, particularly nanosatellites like CubeSats, to carry out various missions. As the number of CubeSats...
Engineering and technology
Inverter Control to Mitigate Voltage Unbalance on Low Voltage Electricity Networks
In many rural parts of South Africa, power is delivered using single-wire earth-return systems that originate from three-phase networks. This electrification...
Engineering and technology
Mapping Real-World Objects into Virtual Reality to Facilitate Interaction using 6DoF Pose Estimation
Virtual reality (VR) has been studied for decades, but only recently has it reached the kind of mainstream visibility that fuels intensive R&D. In this thesis...
Engineering and technology
Faculty of Engineering Students to Represent South Africa at Global Space Competition
Seven postgraduate students from the Faculty of Engineering have been selected to represent South Africa at the Mission Idea Contest (MIC), a global space...
Engineering and technology
SUMediPose: A 2D-3D pose estimation dataset
Biomechanical research has long faced a significant challenge: obtaining precise human movement data. Highly accurate marker-based motion capture systems are...
Engineering and technology
Wireless Dendrometer and Environmental Sensing System for Tree Growth Monitoring
Here's what keeps forestry researchers up at night: How do you monitor thousands of trees across vast plantations when a single commercial dendrometer costs...
Engineering and technology
The Development and Control of an Autonomous Sailboat
If you want to explore the ocean, you face two persistent problems: it’s dangerous, and it’s huge. Humans need rest, and conventional boats need fuel. Propeller...
Engineering and technology
Inaugural Lecture: Prof Arnold Rix’s Vision for Engineering a Stable, Low-Carbon Future
South Africa holds a distinct advantage in the global shift toward sustainable power: exceptional solar and wind resources. Yet, the availability of these...
Engineering and technology
Development of a Layered Electrochemical Biosensor
Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of South Africa’s toughest public health problems. Dr Stephan Schoeman, under the supervision of Professors Willie Perold and...
Engineering and technology
Investigating Probabilistic Techniques for Calculating the System Capacity in the South African Transmission Network
The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) is a ministerial roadmap that outlines the expected national demand and a recommended mix of generation methods. It aims to...
Engineering and technology
Markerless Vision-based Localisation For Autonomous Inspection Drones
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become increasingly popular for inspection tasks due to their speed, agility, and reduced need for human intervention...
Engineering and technology
Cooperative Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning in Sparse-Reward, Partially Observable 3D Environments
Reinforcement learning (RL) already outperforms elite players in board games and classic video games. Turning those solo successes into genuine team play is the...
Engineering and technology
Stellenbosch Engineers Join UK-Led Study to Steady South Africa’s Power Grid
Dr Chantelle van Staden, senior lecturer in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and Professor Cristina Trois, director of the Centre for Renewable and...
Engineering and technology
Robust Place Recognition for Vision-Based SLAM Systems Using Semantic Information
Imagine driving in a new city with a sat-nav that slowly drifts off-course. Every few blocks, you’d need a landmark, say, the town hall, to reset your position...