I was offered a two-year contract whereby I would be able to complete myMaster’s degree in engineering while also gaining valuable work experience asan optimisation engineer for an energy savings company.In my time at ETA Operations I specialized in creating process simulations. Icreated simulations of power plants steam networks, mining compressed airnetworks and mining water reticulation systems with the use of an in-housesimulation package called Process Toolbox.Within my first few months I was able to master the software and soon begangiving training on how to use the software to new and existing employees of thecompany.My simulations were used to identify and quantify energy saving opportunitiesas well as possible operational improvements. I also gained experience in thesetup of business cases for large multi-million rand projects as well as proposalsfor new contracts.

This was a temporary job in order to fund the final year of my undergraduatestudies. Prior to the job I had no experience in programming and thereforetaught myself Java, JavaScript and HTML5 within a few short weeks.In this time, I gained a lot of experience with SAP ERP systems, specifically SAPS4-HANA. I also did development work on an existing SAP system for a bigindustry client.

Vacation work as part of completing bachelor’s degree.Did an investigation for a project to upgrade the water condensate system for achrome manufacturing plant, by evaluating the possibly of installing a heatexchanger to use condensate water to cool down the product stream from thereactors.Gained valuable experience in designing of process equipment, updating ofengineering flow diagrams, plant maintenance and production management.