WHAT WE DO

This is the personal webpage of my smallish research group consisting of myself and my postgraduate students, within the Operations Research (OR) division of the Department of Logistics, Stellenbosch University. Our main research focus is within the context of ecological, agricultural and healthcare management problems, for which we attempt to provide practical and realistic decision support. True to OR, we use mathematical modelling, optimisation and simulation techniques to model the real world problem, and find and promote efficient and sustainable ways of improvement based on model results.

RESEARCH

to find and promote ways of doing the right things the right way through mathematical modelling, optimisation and simulation techniques

TEACH AND MENTOR

to train, develop and empower scientific young minds to become innovative and creative problem solvers

REACH OUT

to give back with purpose to society through applied research and active problem solving within the contexts we find ourselves in

TEAM

LINKE POTGIETER

Senior Lecturer

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust

DIRK HUMAN

Research collaborator

"We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction." - Bill Gates

PHILIP PRINSLOO

Masters (final year)

ALUMNI

ANNELIE WESSELS

MCom (Quantitative Management), 2021

"Think big, and your deeds will grow; Think small, and you'll fall behind; Think that you can, and you will— It's all in the state of mind." - Walter D. Wintle

SAMANTHA DOWNING

BCom Hons (Operations Research), 2021

"Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of not succeeding at things in life that really matter." "Let us be eager to leave what is familiar for what is true." - Francis Chan

NOÉ MANFOUO

PhD (Operations Research), 2020

"Research is to see what everyone else has seen and to think what nobody else has thought." - Albert Szent.

PIETER DE WET

MCom (Operations Research), 2020

"Discipline is the refining fire by which talent becomes ability." - Roy L Smith

MICHELLE DE BEER

BCom Hons (Operations Research), 2020

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." - Theodore Roosevelt

KYLE VAN HEERDEN

MSc (Operations Research), 2019

“I started my life with a single absolute: that the world was mine to shape in the image of my highest values and never to be given up to a lesser standard, no matter how long or hard the struggle.” - Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.

DEAN MATTER

BCom Hons (Operations Research), 2019

"Those who leave everything in God's hands eventually see God's hands in everything."

THLONI MASIPA

MSc (Operations Research), 2018

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us." - Marriane Williamson

MASHOTO MASELELA

BSc Hons (Operations Research), 2018

"If you FAIL, never give up because FAIL means 'First Attempt In Learning". END is not the end; in fact it means 'Effort Never Dies'. If you get NO for an answer, remember that no means 'Next Opportunity'." - Abdul Kalam

BRYCE SENEKAL

MCom (Quantitative Management), 2017

"If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." - JK Rowling

BRIAN VAN VUUREN

PhD (Industrial Engineering), 2016

“It doesn't matter what you do, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.” – Ray Bradbury

HELÉNE DELPORT

MCom (Operations Research), 2016

"Everything you accept as the norm, you will never change." - Suzette Hatting

CANDICE MULLER

BCom Hons (Operations Research), 2015

GILLIAN TOPLIS

BCom Hons (Quantitative Management), 2015

"Happiness cannot be travelled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude." - Denis Waitley

KIMBERLEY BAILEY

BCom Hons (Operations Research), 2014

"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour and some style." - Maya Angelo

CHANWYN WILLIAMS

BCom Hons (Operations Research), 2013