SP le Roux leaves no stone unturned to stop rhino poaching
He admitted to being totally focused on his studies during his student years, burning the midnight oil, but made time to explore the countryside.
The cockles of the heart of parents and residents of Standerton were warmed alike, but also those of teachers at his alma mater when Dr SP le Roux received recognition for his research on rhino conservation.
SP made time to talk to the Standerton Advertiser and wanted to convey a message to Hoërskool Standerton.
“‘SHS is bakgat’,” he said.
The son of Barend and Amanda le Roux attended the University of Stellenbosch after school and successfully graduated with an engineering degree, completing a masters degree cum laude before enrolling for his Ph.D in engineering, still at the same tertiary institution.
From a very young age, technology fascinated him and combined with his passionate interest in nature, the die was cast for a dissertation that included both electronic design and embedded machine learning techniques for the real-time behaviour classification of rhinoceros.
Enter the fight against rhino poaching and leaving a green footprint.
SP described Dr Riaan Wolhuter and Prof Thomas Niesler, who supervised his masters and doctorate degrees, as important role players.
To quote from a 2018 publication: The ability to study animal behaviour is important in many fields of science, including behavioural ecology, conservation, and precision farming.
In a nutshell, animal-borne sensors are used to automatically classify animal behaviour in real-time.
This entrepreneur has since founded his own company where creative solving of relevant problems are done, using state of the art technology.
Young women, the bad news is that he has been spoken for as SP married Salomi, a teacher, in 2015.
He admitted to being totally focused on his studies during his student years, burning the midnight oil, but made time to explore the countryside.
Forget everything you heard about a computer geek because the veld, mountains, and Karoo speak to him and with Stellenbosch in close proximity to that which nature offers, the quiet isolation renews his batteries.
Reading is not considered a relaxing past time because the chances are good he will be engrossed in how artificial intelligence can contribute to a better life on our planet.
SP le Roux’s mind and heart are set on the cause.
