: about

I am currently employed as a kernel development engineer at EMSS GmbH. My primary role is research and development related to GPU computing aspects of the electromagnetic modelling and simulation package FEKO.

Before my current position, I was a member of the compuational electromagnetics group (CEMAGG) at the electrical and electronic engineering deparment of Stellenbosch University from January 2006 to August 2011. As part of the group, I undertook research in the field of computational electromagnetics (CEM) as well as general purpose GPU computing.

My PhD dissertation considered the application of GPU acceleration to matrix-based methods in CEM, and more specifically considered the use of CUDA from NVIDIA to improve the performance of the finite element method (FEM) and the method of moments (MOM) – also called the boundary element method. In the case of the MOM, the implementations successfully overcome the limitations imposed by the amount of memory available on a GPU.

Below is a short summary of my résumé, listing my educational qualifications as well as my experience. A more complete version is available as a PDF document, which includes a list of my academic publications.

education

• 2008 — 2011 PhD — Computational Electromagnetics

  Stellenbosch University, Stelenbosch, South Africa

  thesis title: GPU Acceleration of Matrix-based Methods in Computational Electromagnetics
  advisor: Prof D.B. Davidson

• 2006 — 2008 MScEng (cum laude) — Computational Electromagnetics

  Stellenbosch University, Stelenbosch, South Africa

  thesis title: hp-Adaptation for the FEM Analysis of Waveguides
  advisor: Prof D.B. Davidson

• 2004 — 2005 BEng (cum laude) — Electrical and Electronic Engineering

  Stellenbosch University, Stelenbosch, South Africa

  final year project title: Investigation of Score-Based Information Fusion Methods Applied to Speaker Verification advisor: Prof J.A. du Preez

• 2001 — 2003 BSc (cum laude) — Physics and Computer Science

  Stellenbosch University, Stelenbosch, South Africa

work experience

• 09/2011 — present Kernel development engineer

  EMSS-GmbH

  I am responsible for research and development related to the GPU acceleration of the electromagnetic simulation and modelling package FEKO.

• 02/2011 — 08/2011 SKA postdoctoral research fellow

  Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Stellenbosch University

  As part of the Computational Electromagnetics Group, I am investigating a number of aspects associated with modelling antenna structures for the South African Square Kilometre Array bid.

• 2009 — 2011 Research contractor

  EMSS-SA

  I undertook an investigation of GPU acceleration techniques for use in computational electromagnetic software.

• part-time: 2008 Algorithm developer

  EMSS-Consulting

  I carried out an investigation of GPU acceleration and the optimisation of algorithms used in the IXUS software package. Development was done in C++ and Matlab.

• part-time: 2000 — 2005 Developer

  Made to Measure Computer Systems

  I was involved in the development and testing of medical account software in Delphi under Microsoft Windows.

academic experience

• 2009 Project advisor

  Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Stellenbosch University

  Project 448: I proposed a final year research project and supervised the student responsible for completing the project.

• 2008 Teaching assistant

  Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Stellenbosch University

  High frequency techniques 414: My responsibilities included the marking of tests and assisting with practicals for a final year course on wireless system design.

• 2006 — 2007 Junior lecturer

  Department of Mathematical Sciences, Stellenbosch University

  Computer science 252: I was responsible for teaching a second year course on computer architecture and assembler programming. This included the setting up and marking of theory and practical examinations as well as a year project.

  Computer science bridging course: I was responsible for teaching a one-week introductory computer science course for first year students that included lectures on computer architecture and algorithm design as well as practicals on the basics of programming in C.

project experience

• 2008 Google Summer of Code participant

  K-3D

  I investigated the use of NVIDIA CUDA to accelerate various K-3D plugins while working as a member of the development team for this open source project. Development was done in C/C++ and Python.

• 2008 COMAP Mathematical Contest in Modelling

  Department of Applied Mathematics, Stellenbosch University

  I was part of a three person team that participated in a contest to solve a predefined problem using mathematical modelling techniques. Received an honourable mention.