Adrian Wyngaard was surprised to hear he graduates his MEng Electrical Engineering summa cum laude at this year’s autumn graduation.

The 26-year-old had never even considered working towards this kind of accolade, concentrating instead on the work that interested him.

He is one of the first two students to ever achieve this particular distinction at CPUT – it means both of his examiners for his Masters gave him more than 75% in their final assessment.

Wyngaard’s thesis was overseen by Dr Kessie Govender, a physicist in the Electrical Engineering department.

Govender started the Quantum Physics Research Group in 2014 and Wyngaard joined a year later. He says the other lecturer who also helped get him started on this particular path was Prof Christine Steenkamp from Stellenbosch University.

Growing up Wyngaard was the child who took things apart and he always knew he wanted to study computer engineering. Originally he wanted to get into designing the circuitry that makes up the computer but he soon realised he was interested in both programming and circuit design after his first year at CPUT.

He did his in-service training at the South African Astronomical Observatory and connected to the research environment, which spurred him to return to CPUT.

His Masters topic was Saturated absorption spectroscopy of rubidium and feedback control of Laster frequency for Doppler cooling, which meant investigating how to use a laser to cool atoms.

“We knew it could be done, but could we do it in our lab,” asked Wyngaard.

“Dr Kessie is an experimental physicist and has been working on quantum technologies previously at UKZN. When he joined CPUT he started a new research group in this field."

“We are one of three academic groups in South Africa doing this kind of research.”

He thinks the summa cum laude pass mark will help on his CV when applying for funding. He points out that applying for grants and attending conferences is still slow going because CPUT does not have a physics department dealing with fundamental research so they have to continually justify what the research group is doing. 

“It shows the calibre of students coming through the group. We are learning about quantum physics that is not taught on our engineering curriculum."

“It shows students can learn on their own, and yes, I know that is expected on a Masters level. But, it took two or three years to cover the work required and I did this while also working on my thesis.”

Next, he wants to work on a doctorate as the group continues and see where research and development take them.

Written by Theresa Smith
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Provides coverage for the Applied Sciences and Engineering Faculties and the Wellington Campus.

Building computers from atoms may sound far-fetched, but at CPUT this is the future of science and technology.

To make sure the institution becomes a world player in the development of this new technology is a task that is being undertaken by Dr Kessie Govender, a physicist based in the Electrical Engineering Department.

During the next few months, Govender will set up a team of researchers that will focus on the research and development of the basic components that are used in quantum computing and quantum information processing. The workings of these components rely on the principles of quantum physics.

Quantum computers will increase the computational power beyond that which is attainable by a traditional computer. 

For example, these computers will be able to solve mathematical problems such as factorizing a large number into its prime factors, within seconds, whereas current computers could take several hours or days to solve the same problem, says Govender.

“This is the technology of the future” he says.

Govender first began to dabble in this area of research whilst lecturing physics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and still continues to work with quantum researchers there. He later moved to the South African National Space Agency’s directorate in Hermanus, where he was also involved in the technical developmental aspects of ZACUBE-01.

Govender says to conduct this type of research you need a team of people who have a good knowledge of physics.

To grow this area of research, Govender says, engineering curricula at universities will have to look at incorporating more physics into the curriculum.

“Physics opens the door to curiosity and it allows you to branch into a number of other areas,” he says.

Students and staff interested in this area of research should contact Dr Govender on 021 4603762 or via email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Written by Candes Keating
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Provides coverage for the Engineering and Applied Sciences Faculties; the Bellville and Wellington Campuses, and research and innovation news.

The Western Cape may have experienced a heat wave in October, but CPUT’s Bellville campus underwent a cold spell.

Physicist Dr Kessie Govender, leader of the CPUT Quantum Physics Research Group, succeeded in cooling a cloud of rubidium atoms to around 17 micro Kelvins, which is approximately -273 degrees Celsius below zero. The research group managed to obtain an approximately 3mm square cloud of cold Rubidium 87 atoms at around noon on Thursday 4 October 2018.

The group currently includes doctoral students Adrian Wyngaard and Rory Pentz, and masters student Victory Opeolu, all of whom are actively involved in this project.

“We are one of a few groups to achieve this in South Africa and possibly Africa. The other research group that claims to have cold atoms is the group at UKZN, however no reported measurements of the temperature or cloud parameters have been published by them as far I know,” said Govender about this first step in developing components for quantum computing locally.

Govender started the Quantum Physics Research Group in 2015 to investigate laser cooling of atoms and the development of quantum information processing components.

“There are many platforms for doing quantum computing and we’ve chosen one particular platform where we use lasers to cool down atoms. You can do a lot of things with cold atoms. For example, you can make atomic clocks, which is something I want to do because we work closely with the satellite programme on campus, F’SATI.”

“The idea is to shrink it down to be used in the nano-satellite. Data is sent from one satellite to the next but all the data needs to be tagged with a time stamp. While everything does have a margin of error, the atomic clock’s margin of error is a lot smaller than any other kind.”

Govender is pleased that he has gotten this far with his research based on a set-up that the research group assembled themselves.

Over the past three years the Quantum Physics Research Group has built and grown their own electronic set-up, spending the last six months optimising the system’s parameters. The system, positioned on two optical tables, consists of a saturated spectroscopy set-up to control the cooling and re-pumping lasers plus a vacuum chamber where the atoms are cooled. The vacuum chamber is an octagonal chamber, from Kimball Physics, with a large view port in front and a number of small view ports on the sides.

Next they have to think about how to expand the system as they continue their experiments.

“We still need to characterise the cloud and do experiments on them, move them into little traps. Then we have to move on to creating a Bose-Einstein Condensate,” he said.

Written by Theresa Smith
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The world of higher education is swift to respond to new trends and innovations, therefore, it is not surprising that new master’s and doctoral programmes are constantly emerging to address the needs of students in a changing world in numerous academic fields.

Hence, the Quantum Physics Research Group in the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering at CPUT is engaged in developing quantum technology components. The group currently has funding for master’s and doctoral students. Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering Lecturer, Rory Pent, said the prospective students will be engaged in developing electronic subsystems/ devices or experimental apparatus that will support the quantum technology research of the group.

The prerequisite for this programme is an Honours degree in Electrical Engineering (or experimental physics) for master’s studies or a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering (or experimental physics) for doctoral studies.

Pentz said: “The student must be interested in quantum technologies such as quantum computing, quantum sensors and quantum communications… We have constructed a cold-atoms experiment using rubidium. The cold atoms will be used in a four-wave mixing experiment to create entangled photons for the quantum key distribution system and to develop quantum sensors. We are also developing commercial products such as laser drivers, classical photo detectors, signal photon detectors and electronic counting/timing units.”

He said the research that the student will be doing is cutting-edge research in the field of quantum technology. “Students undertaking this research will be a leader in the area of quantum technology after completion of his/her studies and will be able to contribute to emerging quantum technologies. Students having this knowledge will be more marketable.”

These are postgraduate research degrees and consist of 100% research component. Upon completion, students have the choice of starting their own spin-of companies or becoming academics at institutions of higher learning or working for existing quantum technology companies.

For a master’s degree, the duration is usually two years and for doctoral studies the duration is three years. Funding is available for 2023 to 2025.

For 2023 studies, students need to apply before 31 March 2023. Students should apply to Dr Atanda Raji: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), representing the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering within the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment.

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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