Programme People

The people behind the questions.

Meet the RAMMS staff and the students who have approved a public profile. Student profiles are published individually only after their profile and public details have been explicitly approved.

Programme staff

7 programme leads and staff

Five RAMMS team members standing in an outdoor University of Pretoria amphitheatre — Members of the RAMMS programme team at the University of Pretoria. The programme connects mining and mechanical engineering, research coordination and postgraduate supervision.

Research Supervisor · Asset Managementassociate

Dr Johann Wannenburg

Johann supervises part-time research in mine productivity, reliability, predictive maintenance and asset-management decision support.

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Researcher · Digital Twins and Mechanised Systemscurrent

Dr Luke van Eyk

Luke develops digital-twin and hybrid-modelling methods for safer, more productive mechanised mining systems and helps coordinate student research.

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Research Supervisor · Mechanical Engineeringcurrent

Dr Stephan Schmidt

Stephan supervises modelling and machine-intelligence research, including visual odometry, engine models and conveyor digital twins.

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Project Administratorcurrent

Miss Thobeka Masango

Thobeka supports RAMMS research delivery through programme coordination, financial reporting, stakeholder liaison and research administration.

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Research Supervisor · Mechanical Engineeringcurrent

Prof Abrie Oberholster

Abrie supervises the diamond core-drill digital-twin research and supports experimental machine-dynamics work in RAMMS.

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Research Competence Leader · Mining Engineeringcurrent

Prof Francois Malan

Francois leads RAMMS mining-engineering research and contributes rock-engineering expertise to mechanisation and stability studies.

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Professor and RAMMS Coordinatorcurrent

Prof Stephan Heyns

Professor Stephan Heyns coordinates RAMMS and leads work in condition monitoring, structural health monitoring and engineering digital twins at the University of Pretoria.

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Research thrust 01

Cutting and Drilling Hard Rock

1 current students and alumni connected to this thrust.

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MEng candidate · Mechanical Engineeringcurrent

Eduan du Plessis

Eduan is investigating how laboratory testing, finite-element modelling and transfer learning can help predict the strength of UG2 chromitite pillars.

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Research thrust 02

Productivity and Maintenance Optimisation of Mining Equipment

1 current students and alumni connected to this thrust.

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Portrait of MEng researcher Christophar Chagwedera

MEng Mechanical Engineering · University of Pretoriacurrent

Christophar is developing a RAM-C-based decision model that brings reliability, availability, maintainability and cost together to assess maintenance strategies and sourcing options for mechanised mining equipment.

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Research thrust 03

Utilisation, Performance and Condition Monitoring of Mechanised Mining Equipment

2 current students and alumni connected to this thrust.

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Working toward MEng Mechanical Engineering · Holds BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineeringcurrent

Phemelo Thapedi Selomane

Phemelo is developing a digital-twin framework that combines conveyor-system dynamics and machine learning to support condition-based maintenance in mining.

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