ShockLab

ShockLab

PhD Students

Current PhD Students

Ruach Slayen

Ruach is working on several projects dealing with the behavior of low-dimensional quantum systems in the presence of magnetic fields - from the quantum mechanics of Fullerenes to duality and bosonization in quantum field theory. He is also working part...

Read More

Anthony Sayster

Anthony is researching in the field of mathematics education, particularly focusing on the use of productive struggle in high school mathematics.

Read More

GRADUATED PHD Students

Justine Tarrant

Justine Tarrant currently works at the School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand. Justine does research in Cosmology, Mathematical Physics and Theoretical Physics.

Read More

Emma Platts

Emma's research focuses on fast radio bursts (FRBs) -- astrophysical transients -- and using various analysis techniques to explore the origin of the bursts, as well as the Universe around them. In her recent work, she applied kernel density estimation...

Read More

Masters Students

Current Masters Students

Zach Wolpe

Zach is designing a Bayesian Reinforcement Learning framework to investigate differences in neural correlates of (human) learning in dynamic decision-making tasks under uncertainty. Zach also works as a Data Scientist at Explore-AI, building bespoke Machine Learning Engineering solutions. If not...

Read More

St John Grimbly

St John is interested in areas related to general intelligence and emerging technologies. His honours work focused on model-based and causal reinforcement learning. His masters research is directed towards multi-agent reinforcement learning from the perspective of causally reasoning agents.

Read More

Siphelele Danisa

Siphelele did an investigation into the balance between exploration and exploitation for his third year project. His honours research was on scaling and the structure of neural networks, which was an investigation into possible connections between deep learning and the...

Read More

Rowan Hodson

Rowan is currently studying the intersection of Active Inference agents and Reinforcement Learning

Read More

Rivan Rughubar

Rivan is working on how to implement machine learning algorithms such as support vector machines on quantum computers. He is also interested in mathematical modelling and physics education.

Read More

Rayhaan Perin

My name is Rayhaan Perin and I’m currently doing my MsC at UCT in applied nuclear physics focussing on Time-Of-Flight(TOF) PEPT. I am currently involved in the creation of a Monte-Carlo algorithm that describes a PET detector that will incorporate...

Read More

Rachel Catzel

Rachel is doing her masters in machine learning with a focus on using neural networks to investigate brain aging in HIV-positive individuals. She did her honours in physics with her thesis investigating thermalisation in a gluon plasma.

Read More

Mashudu Mokhithi

My research interests are in Mathematics Education in general. For my MSc project, I looked at how mindsets (student’s beliefs about their own intelligence) affect their academic performance in first-year math courses. Going forward, I would like to do research...

Read More

Lizelle Niit

Connect LinkedIn GitHub Website Lizelle Niit Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi volutpat justo sed efficitur cursus. Mauris fringilla quam vitae lacinia viverra. Mauris eros dolor, pellentesque sed luctus dapibus, lobortis a orci. Cras pulvinar lorem elit,...

Read More

Dean Rance

During his honours, Dean learnt about information theory and its application to theoretical models of synaptic plasticity. During his masters, he learnt about spiking neural networks with spike-time-dependent synaptic plasticity and evolutionary algorithms. Since then he moved to Lisbon to...

Read More

Daniel Taylor

Connect LinkedIn GitHub Website Daniel Taylor Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi volutpat justo sed efficitur cursus. Mauris fringilla quam vitae lacinia viverra. Mauris eros dolor, pellentesque sed luctus dapibus, lobortis a orci. Cras pulvinar lorem elit,...

Read More

Claude Formanek

Claude studied deep reinforcement learning and graph neural networks in his honours year and is now working on multi-agent RL.

Read More

Arinze Lawrence Folarin

Arinze Lawrence Folarin is my name. I was born in Nigeria. I studied Mathematics at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria for my undergraduate degree (First class honours). I went on to get my master's degree in Mathematical Sciences (Distinction)...

Read More

Abram Schönfeldt

Bram wishes he could understand complex systems such as artificial and biological neural networks. This lead to a project that reviewed interpretable reinforcement learning methods during his Honour's year, and now to Master's that uses ideas from the renormalisation group...

Read More

Graduated Masters Students

Vladimir Makic

Connect Vladimir Makic Vladimir’s thesis was on modelling population dynamics between rhinos and poachers in South Africa as a whole and Kruger National Park in particular. Co-supervised by Dr Henri Laurie.

Read More

Tslil Clingman

Tslil worked for his Honours and Masters on both category theory and Information Geometry.

Read More

Tom Makkink

Tom is currently working on exploring Transformers as memory systems in Reinforcement Learning. He has also conducted research in medical imaging, such as diagnosing malaria in microscopic blood slides using convolutional neural networks.

Read More

Ruach Slayen

Ruach is working on several projects dealing with the behavior of low-dimensional quantum systems in the presence of magnetic fields - from the quantum mechanics of Fullerenes to duality and bosonization in quantum field theory. He is also working part...

Read More

Alexes Mes

Connect LinkedIn GitHub Website Alexes Mes Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi volutpat justo sed efficitur cursus. Mauris fringilla quam vitae lacinia viverra. Mauris eros dolor, pellentesque sed luctus dapibus, lobortis a orci. Cras pulvinar lorem elit,...

Read More

Alex Antrobus

Connect LinkedIn GitHub Website Alex Antrobus Co-supervised by Prof Jeff Murugan. Publication 1 Publication 2

Read More

Alastair Grant-Stuart

Connect LinkedIn GitHub Website Alastair Grant-Stuart Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi volutpat justo sed efficitur cursus. Mauris fringilla quam vitae lacinia viverra. Mauris eros dolor, pellentesque sed luctus dapibus, lobortis a orci. Cras pulvinar lorem elit,...

Read More

Honours Students

cURRENT hONOURS sTUDENTS

Roland Dubb

Roland's honours work explores the relationship between active inference and reinforcement learning. He's researching how deep reinforcement learning can aid in...

Read More

Rahul Mistri

I am an Applied Mathematics Honours student at UCT with a strong background in Computer Science. My current project aims to...

Read More

Joseph Marcus

Joseph completed his honours in mathematical statistics at the University of Cape Town in 2021, where he studied Reinforcement Learning and...

Read More

Edan Toledo

My general interests are in reinforcement learning and natural language processing. Specifically, my interests lie in the application of artificial intelligence...

Read More

Graduated hONOURS sTUDENTS

Tslil Clingman

Tslil worked for his Honours and Masters on both category theory and Information Geometry.

Read More

St John Grimbly

St John is interested in areas related to general intelligence and emerging technologies. His honours work focused on model-based and causal reinforcement learning. His masters research is directed towards multi-agent reinforcement learning from the perspective of causally reasoning agents.

Read More

Siphelele Danisa

Siphelele did an investigation into the balance between exploration and exploitation for his third year project. His honours research was on scaling and the structure of neural networks, which was an investigation into possible connections between deep learning and the...

Read More

Sabina Stefan

Connect LinkedIn GitHub Website Sabina Stefan Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi volutpat justo sed efficitur cursus. Mauris fringilla quam vitae lacinia viverra. Mauris eros dolor, pellentesque sed luctus dapibus, lobortis a orci. Cras pulvinar lorem elit,...

Read More

Robert Spencer

Connect LinkedIn GitHub Website Robert Spencer Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi volutpat justo sed efficitur cursus. Mauris fringilla quam vitae lacinia viverra. Mauris eros dolor, pellentesque sed luctus dapibus, lobortis a orci. Cras pulvinar lorem elit,...

Read More

Luke Taylor

Connect LinkedIn GitHub Website Luke Taylor Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi volutpat justo sed efficitur cursus. Mauris fringilla quam vitae lacinia viverra. Mauris eros dolor, pellentesque sed luctus dapibus, lobortis a orci. Cras pulvinar lorem elit,...

Read More

Logan Guildenhuys

Connect LinkedIn GitHub Website Logan Guildenhuys Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi volutpat justo sed efficitur cursus. Mauris fringilla quam vitae lacinia viverra. Mauris eros dolor, pellentesque sed luctus dapibus, lobortis a orci. Cras pulvinar lorem elit,...

Read More

Lizelle Niit

Connect LinkedIn GitHub Website Lizelle Niit Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi volutpat justo sed efficitur cursus. Mauris fringilla quam vitae lacinia viverra. Mauris eros dolor, pellentesque sed luctus dapibus, lobortis a orci. Cras pulvinar lorem elit,...

Read More

Jibran Bodra

Connect LinkedIn GitHub Website Name Here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi volutpat justo sed efficitur cursus. Mauris fringilla quam vitae lacinia viverra. Mauris eros dolor, pellentesque sed luctus dapibus, lobortis a orci. Cras pulvinar lorem elit,...

Read More

Jeremy Wilkinson

Connect LinkedIn Jeremy Wilkinson Jeremy did his Honours in Physics at the University of Cape Town and came first in his class. He then went on to do his Masters in Physics at the University of Cambridge. On the Application...

Read More

Jeremy Du Plessis

Connect LinkedIn GitHub Website Jeremy du Plessis Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi volutpat justo sed efficitur cursus. Mauris fringilla quam vitae lacinia viverra. Mauris eros dolor, pellentesque sed luctus dapibus, lobortis a orci. Cras pulvinar lorem...

Read More

Jason Connie

Connect LinkedIn GitHub Website Jason Connie Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi volutpat justo sed efficitur cursus. Mauris fringilla quam vitae lacinia viverra. Mauris eros dolor, pellentesque sed luctus dapibus, lobortis a orci. Cras pulvinar lorem elit,...

Read More

Emma Platts

Emma's research focuses on fast radio bursts (FRBs) -- astrophysical transients -- and using various analysis techniques to explore the origin of the bursts, as well as the Universe around them. In her recent work, she applied kernel density estimation...

Read More

Dominic Bauer

Connect LinkedIn GitHub Website Dominic Bauer Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi volutpat justo sed efficitur cursus. Mauris fringilla quam vitae lacinia viverra. Mauris eros dolor, pellentesque sed luctus dapibus, lobortis a orci. Cras pulvinar lorem elit,...

Read More

Dean Rance

During his honours, Dean learnt about information theory and its application to theoretical models of synaptic plasticity. During his masters, he learnt about spiking neural networks with spike-time-dependent synaptic plasticity and evolutionary algorithms. Since then he moved to Lisbon to...

Read More

Darien Hillebrand

Connect LinkedIn GitHub Website Name Here Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi volutpat justo sed efficitur cursus. Mauris fringilla quam vitae lacinia viverra. Mauris eros dolor, pellentesque sed luctus dapibus, lobortis a orci. Cras pulvinar lorem elit,...

Read More

Daniel Taylor

Connect LinkedIn GitHub Website Daniel Taylor Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Morbi volutpat justo sed efficitur cursus. Mauris fringilla quam vitae lacinia viverra. Mauris eros dolor, pellentesque sed luctus dapibus, lobortis a orci. Cras pulvinar lorem elit,...

Read More

Claude Formanek

Claude studied deep reinforcement learning and graph neural networks in his honours year and is now working on multi-agent RL.

Read More

Abram Schönfeldt

Bram wishes he could understand complex systems such as artificial and biological neural networks. This lead to a project that reviewed interpretable reinforcement learning methods during his Honour's year, and now to Master's that uses ideas from the renormalisation group...

Read More