My academic journey and professional experience to date.
Foundational undergraduate training in mathematics, statistics and computer science.
Took specialisation modules in computer science, including functional programming, evolutionary computing, graph theory, compilers, data analytics and AI. My thesis focused on deep learning for resource-constrained network traffic classification.
First job was as a backend developer at Nomanini, a fintech startup working towards financial inclusion in Africa. Led platform expansion into Côte d'Ivoire and Lesotho, building integrations with local service providers enabling remote rural customers to purchase airtime and electricity.
Spent a year in Cambridge for the highly-competitive 1-year MLMI Master's program, covering a variety of advanced machine learning topics. My thesis focused on fine-tuning LLMs to combat hate speech.
Returned to Cape Town for two years to join Aerobotics, an AI-for-agriculture startup working towards global food security. Led the ML development, deployment and scaling of a suite of AI products that help fruit and nut farmers worldwide. Farmers across five continents rely on the TrueFruit products to monitor and improve their yields.
Now back at Cambridge to start my PhD, researching applications of AI and machine learning to help nature and biodiversity conservation.