Industrial robotics startup delivering AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) and fleet management systems for automotive manufacturing plants in South Africa. Joined under a senior engineer and progressively took ownership of technical decisions during my first year. After the senior engineer departed, led the company's technical practice for the remaining eight months — responsible for software architecture, embedded systems, controls, DevOps infrastructure, client-facing technical engagement, team development and vendor work.

• Led end-to-end delivery of a production AGV and fleet management system at Toyota SA Manufacturing, with a scalable architecture designed to support further line expansion
• Drove technical strategy across system architecture, hardware platform choices, development tooling and project timelines as the company's technical lead
• Built the robotics software stack end-to-end — ROS2 architecture, state machine control (autonomous, manual and error-recovery modes), motion planning, path-following controllers and multi-sensor fusion
• Developed low-level C++ embedded interfaces and customised embedded Linux builds for industrial controller hardware, bridging hardware and software across the platform
• Designed and shipped a ReactJS operator dashboard for real-time AGV status monitoring within two weeks
• Defined and rolled out the team's software engineering practice: version control strategy, code review standards, Docker-based testing, CI/CD deployment pipelines and onboarding documentation
• Served as technical lead in client engagements with Toyota SA Manufacturing and Toyota Africa Parts Centre, and demonstrated laser-guided AGV systems at national automotive innovation events attended by Ford, VW, Isuzu and S4 Integration
• Mentored a junior engineer day-to-day and supported hiring, including candidate evaluation and remote mentoring of contract engineers

Electric vehicle startup designing last-mile EV delivery platforms. Contributed to production scaling and preparing the vehicle for the EU market.

• Designed a mass-reduced wheel hub assembly in Autodesk Inventor using FEA for stress and fatigue life analysis, achieving a 50.2% mass reduction while meeting EU regulation
• Validated faulty EV PCB assemblies using oscilloscopes and multimeters; recommended cost-effective component replacements based on lead time and price
• Updated and streamlined the company Bill of Materials (BOM), collaborating with production staff and supplier invoices
• Participated in a vehicle assembly trial run to validate production scaling and refine build procedures

Under the supervision of Dr Karel Kruger (now a Professor at Cambridge University). Mechatronics, Automation and Design research at Stellenbosch University in partnership with a public-private mining innovation programme.

• Researched and evaluated OEM and sensor technologies for the RTIMS (Real-Time Information Management Systems) project, delivering recommendations for applying Industry 4.0 principles to the South African mining sector
• Designed a full-scale digital twin of the Automation Lab workspace in Autodesk Inventor, validated via VR walkthrough

• Senior Merit Award (Top 5% in the Engineering Faculty)
• Golden Key Honour Society
• 7 Dean's Merits
• Cum Laude final-year project
• Recruitment and ISFAP Bursaries

• 8 Distinctions (90% aggregate)
• Prefect and Head of Academics
• Head of Peer Tutoring
• Provincial Debating Captain, Vice-Chair of Hindu Society
• Academic Scholarship