SAAM Sponsors
Executive committee
President
Prof. Daniel N. Wilke
Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, University of Pretoria
Physics-based (FEA, DEM, SPH) and data-driven generative modelling accelerated by graphical processing compute and gradients whenever possible. Applications focus on adding value to mining comminution and materials handling. Passionate about optimization with practical application in response surfaces (gradient enhanced and gradient-only focus) for digital twins and parameter estimation inverse problems, with a particular focus on practically solving the parameter identifiability problem. The intermediate educational aim is to enhance tertiary engineering education by incorporating practical sensing, basic data science and statistical modelling as a golden thread in engineering curricula.
Secretary
Dr. Muaaz Bhamjee
Staff Research Scientist, IBM Research – Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa
Dr. Muaaz Bhamjee is currently a Staff Research Scientist at IBM Research – Africa. He has been involved in research and has published in the fields of Computational fluid dynamics (CFD), Heat and Mass Transfer, Experimental Fluid Dynamics, Lattice Boltzmann Modelling, Multiphase Flow, Solar and Renewable Energy, Solar Air Heating, Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) Modelling, Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI), Fluid Dynamics in Biomedical Applications and Engineering Education.
Treasurer
Dr. Jan-Hendrik Kruger
Senior Lecturer, Fluid Mechanics at Mechanical Engineering, North-West University (South Africa)
Dr Jan-Hendrik Kruger has a keen interest in the practical use of engineering simulation across a wide range of applications. These include the use of computational fluid dynamics focussed on packed pebble bed thermal-hydraulics in nuclear reactors, centrifugal pump flow analysis, dilute phase gas-particle flow simulation, as well as aerodynamic analysis in the competitive sailplane and solar car racing environments. Simulation in mechanical design also features through his work in a research team focussed on the development of upper and lower limb prosthetic devices, where biotech meets mechatronics and composite materials.
He is a senior lecturer in Fluid Mechanics at Mechanical Engineering at the North-West University (South Africa) where he combines his love of teaching with his passion for research.
Head of Special Interest Groups
Dr. Andie de Villiers
Lecturer, Applied Mathematics, Stellenbosch University
Andie obtained a B.Eng and M.Eng in mechanical engineering at the North-West University and completed a PhD at the University of Cape Town. She enjoys teaching mechanics-related modules to science and engineering students. Her research interests range from peridynamics, to mechanical modelling of biological materials to modelling and simulation of biomedical applications.
Head of Social Media
A Prof. Quinn Reynolds
Technical Specialist: Computational Modelling, Pyrometallurgy Division, Mintek
Associate Professor: Department of Process Engineering, University of Stellenbosch
Quinn holds degrees in Engineering and Applied Mathematics. He has worked in the Pyrometallurgy Division at Mintek for the past two decades, a state-owned research institute serving the extensive mineral and metallurgical processing sector in South Africa. His expertise includes mathematical and computational modelling of complex coupled phenomena in high-temperature processes, and in particular, the application of high-performance computing and open-source software platforms to pyrometallurgy. His current areas of research include magnetohydrodynamic modelling of electric arcs, multiphysics fluid flow problems in furnace tapping and phase separation, combustion modelling for metallurgical processing, and discrete element modelling for particle flow problems.
Head of Website and IT
Dr. Benjamin Alheit
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Research in Computational and Applied Mechanics, University of Cape Town
Ben completed his PhD specialising in multiscale computational modelling of biological structures at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2021. He currently holds a postdoctoral research fellowship at UCT. His interests span a broad range of topics in computational solid mechanics: nonlinear viscoelasticity, multiscale modelling, crystal plasticity, etc. However, his current research focus is on multiscale thermomechanical modelling of aluminium alloys during manufacturing processing.
Academic Members
Prof. Sebastian Skatulla
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Cape Town
Sebastian is a Professor of Structural Engineering and Materials at the University of Cape Town. He graduated with a Masters degree in Civil Engineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in 2003 and was awarded his PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Adelaide in 2007. His research interest are broadly in multiscale modelling of materials, with current focus on biomechanics and glaciology applications.
A Prof. Philip Loveday
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand
Philip joined the University of the Witwatersrand in May 2020 and is the Head of the Applied Mechanics Stream. Prior to joining Wits, he led a Research Group in the area of Smart Materials and Structures at the CSIR. His current interests include the industrial application of ultrasound, particularly guided wave ultrasound where he researches numerical modelling and measurement techniques which support the development of inspection and monitoring systems.
Special Industrial Members
Dr. Danie de Kock
Director, Qfinsoft
Danie obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pretoria in 2006 and where he was also appointed as senior lecturer. He currently holds the position of managing director of Qfinsoft. Qfinsoft is the leading Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) software and services supplier in Southern Africa through best-in-class software, technical excellence and highest-quality technical support.
Mr Paul Naudé
Managing Director, SIMTEQ Engineering
Paul completed his master’s degree in mechanical engineering at UP in 2004 after graduating as a civil engineer in 1998. He has a passion for simulation technology, mentoring and training and joined ESTEQ Engineering in 2008. He became the company’s Managing Director in 2019 after rebranding as SIMTEQ Engineering and leads the company’s educational programs. SIMTEQ Engineering is the sole provider of MSC Software (now Hexagon Design & Engineering) in Sub-Sahara Africa, with products such as MSC Nastran, Adams, Marc and MSC Apex, the international de facto standards for FEA, manufacturing and system dynamics simulations.
International Affiliations
