Darren and Justin Oats - Alternative Fuels
Roll on June and we were introduced to Darren and Justin Oats, exploring a tried and tested greener internal combustion engine fuel option. The future seems green !
Darren and Justin Oates hold BEng degrees from the University of Pretoria.
They specialised in Vehicle Dynamics and Vehicle Engineering and finished top of their class.
Justin has been involved in the motorsport industry in South Africa for more than 10 years, gaining valuable technical knowledge and experience and building valuable relationships. He has conducted numerous research studies and tests on motor vehicles, the majority being race cars, for both motorsport and general research and development purposes. Justin is also a member of Total Excellium Racing as a driver and director, where he is involved in the management and technical development of the vehicles.
Darren is a director and part of the management team at Total Excellium
Racing, one of the largest motorsport teams in South Africa. The team
has successfully competed in the Volkswagen Polo Cup and is currently
building a Mercedes Benz GTC 1 car to compete in the most challenging
Motorsport series in South Africa.
Darren has more than 10 years of experience and knowledge at the top level of the South African motorsport industry, which includes hands-on testing of road vehicles and race cars. This involvement has provided valuable relationships with key players in the industry.
Dr J David Reinecke - Ballistics
On May 5th we were (not literally) blown away by Dr. Reinecke's insight and ability to convey in laymen's terms the impact, forces and varied characteristics of all things going BOOM!
We were treated to an introduction into traditional ballistics (internal / external / Terminal), map onto energetic material (explosive) "ballistics" of detonic, blast impact loading and structural response quantification.
Dr J David Reinecke has been involved in military domain his whole
career, starting in aviation but spending the last seventeen years
developing capabilities and executing blast impact research at the
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). Dr Reinecke
completed his graduate, honours and masters degrees in mechanical
engineering and engineering management at the University of Pretoria
and then went on to complete his PhD at Cranfield University (Defence)
in the UK. Though his work Dr Reinecke has developed a number of blast
impact technology demonstrators focussed on researching blast impact and
structural response as well as related trauma biomechanics. In addition
to collaborating extensively with local defence industry, local and
international tertiary education institutes and defence research
organizations, Dr Reinecke is privileged to serve on several
international research task groups related to protection and mobility.
BRAAI !!
Yoh !! We had so much fun interacting at the Quiz Night we promptly arranged a social braai for the whole family on 12 April.
Catered for by PHSOB in the open-air venue we were entertained by Grant and Theo performing original songs and a few of our favourite covers.
Feasting with old friends and new - this braai was a absolute hit and definite future tradition!!
Quiz Night
7 April launched our first quiz night for 2021, right into orbit and the participants felt an hour or two of weightlessness - high above the blue globe and its troubles.
Dr. Zané Lombard - Human Genetics
On March 3rd we had the distinct pleasure of listening to the insightful Dr. Lombard discuss population genetics and how we can use information contained in our DNA to learn more about population history and our health. (Webinar)
Zané
Lombard obtained her PhD in Human Genetics and Bioinformatics in 2008.
She is currently a Principal medical scientist and Associate professor
in the Division of Human Genetics, where she oversees the Research
laboratory and is a member of the Research & Development team in the
Department. Before this she worked as a Senior Lecturer in
Bioinformatics in the School of Molecular & Cell Biology, also at
Wits. Her research interest areas are genomic medicine and rare
diseases. Zané is passionate about promoting science in Africa, and
therefore participates in several academic service domains at
University, national and international level, like the SA Society for
Human Genetics and the H3Africa Consortium.
