My Studies - 2006
My
final year of my undergraduate degree was boosted to a
good start by the chemistry department of UCT expressing their
unwillingness to let me continue in chemistry thanks to some time table
issues. Not willing to be deterred from my plan, I found a work-around
and in the process met Professor Kevin Naidoo.
Professor Naidoo in turn introduced me to computational chemistry. With his group I started doing some work using DelPhi and CHARMM in the study of the platinum group metals Ruthenium, Platinum and Palladium. This was my first introduction to the world of research.
As a part of the mathematics major programme, I had to complete an undergraduate study project. I chose to do it in cryptography under the supervision of Dr. Christine Swart. My topic title was "Discrete Log Attacks: The Square-Root Methods" and consisted of an overview of possible attacks on public key cryptosystems that employ discrete logs as the basis for their security. As well as writing the overview I also scripted the attacks in Python to get an idea of how they worked and an estimate of the running times.
The physics major also had a project component as well as a research essay component. For my research essay I decided to look into the physical reasons of the dangers of nuclear waste. For my project I decided to continue with this theme. I decided to calculate the critical mass of Uranium via Monte Carlo simulations.
Both my mathematics and my physics projects can be found under the projects section.
My results for my third and final undergraduate year are:
I passed the year with distinction for my physics major and recieving distinction for my degree overall. I also recieved the highest marks in the class for PHY3021F and PHY3022S and thus the Ivor Lewin Prize.
Professor Naidoo in turn introduced me to computational chemistry. With his group I started doing some work using DelPhi and CHARMM in the study of the platinum group metals Ruthenium, Platinum and Palladium. This was my first introduction to the world of research.
As a part of the mathematics major programme, I had to complete an undergraduate study project. I chose to do it in cryptography under the supervision of Dr. Christine Swart. My topic title was "Discrete Log Attacks: The Square-Root Methods" and consisted of an overview of possible attacks on public key cryptosystems that employ discrete logs as the basis for their security. As well as writing the overview I also scripted the attacks in Python to get an idea of how they worked and an estimate of the running times.
The physics major also had a project component as well as a research essay component. For my research essay I decided to look into the physical reasons of the dangers of nuclear waste. For my project I decided to continue with this theme. I decided to calculate the critical mass of Uranium via Monte Carlo simulations.
Both my mathematics and my physics projects can be found under the projects section.
My results for my third and final undergraduate year are:
| CEM2007F |
Physical
Chemistry and Spectroscopy |
80% |
| CEM2008S |
Organic
and Inorgranic Chemistry |
72% |
| MAM3000W |
Mathematics
III |
71% |
| PHY3021F |
Advanced
Physics 1 |
84% |
| PHY3022S |
Advanced
Physics 2 |
85% |
I passed the year with distinction for my physics major and recieving distinction for my degree overall. I also recieved the highest marks in the class for PHY3021F and PHY3022S and thus the Ivor Lewin Prize.