Meet #CSIR candidate signal analyst, Sinovuyo Dunga, who studied for an undergraduate degree in BEng (Electrical and Electronics) from the University of Johannesburg and is currently pursuing her master's at the same university.

Sinovuyo Dunga is a candidate signal analyst at the CSIR Defence and Security (Radar and electronic warfare). She studied for an undergraduate degree in BEng (Electrical and Electronics) from the University of Johannesburg and is currently pursuing her master's at the same university. Her research focuses on the detection of small changes in a scene using airborne synthetic aperture radar data.

Sinovuyo joined the CSIR in 2022 as a bursary student, where she did vacation work in the radar group, contributing to projects such as sinkhole detection using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data over the Centurion region and creating a dataset for a machine learning algorithm capable of detecting and segmenting buildings using SAR images. After completing her undergraduate studies, she officially joined the radar and electronic warfare group as a Graduate in Training, where she analysed SAR data using various techniques, such as coherent change detection, to detect subtle changes over a scene that are not visible to the naked eye. This can be done by analysing the phase and amplitude information of a signal.

In her spare time, she enjoys painting, swimming, reading and spending time with family. She draws inspiration from science podcasts, science fiction movies and shows such as Mr. Robot. Her interest in engineering began at an early age when she used to tinker with and take apart electronic devices at home to see what was inside. Her parents supported her passion and enrolled her at a Technical High School, where she gained a strong background in electrical technology.