Personal info
- Date of birth: 15 Dec 1989
- Nationality: South African
- Language(s): English
Education
2014–2016 Doctor of Philosophy, Rhodes University, Dept of Mathematics
- Thesis: A contribution to the study of nonholonomic Riemannian manifolds.
- Supervisors: Dr Claudiu C. Remsing, Dr Olga Rossi.
2012–2013 Master of Science (with distinction), Rhodes University, Dept of Mathematics
- Thesis: Invariant optimal control on the three-dimensional semi-Euclidean group: control affine
and quadratic Hamilton–Poisson systems.
- Supervisor: Dr Claudiu C. Remsing.
2011 Bachelor of Science (Honours), Rhodes University, Dept of Mathematics
- Distinction in Mathematics.
2008–2010 Bachelor of Science, Rhodes University
- Distinctions in Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Computer Science.
Work experience
Industry experience
Oct 2023– Technical Lead, Business Science Corporation
Sep 2020–Oct 2023 Analytics Consultant, Business Science Corporation
Selected projects:
-
Logistics (fuel, asset, and labour diagnostics). Fuel consumption, asset utilisation, and labour utilisation
diagnostics for a large logistics company. Starting as an intermediate analytics engtineer on the fuel consumption
stream, I am now tech lead for the project.
We’ve investigated:
- Fuel: Identifying areas for improving fuel consumption.
- Asset utilisation: Identifying locations where time is being wasted by trucks (say, when offloading), and hence can
be improved.
- Labour utilisation: Creating a holistic view of driver activity, especially with a view on overtime and compliance
violations.
The above is reported to the user via an in-house BI tool.
Tech:
Azure Data Factory
Azure Databricks
SQL Server
Spark
SQL
Python
Power BI
Qerent
-
Fintech (proof-of-concept trading platform). The development of a (proof-of-concept) data-driven trading
platform.
As tech lead for the project, I was fully responsible for the technical implementation of the platform, and oversaw a
data engineer who implemented a lakehouse architecture for our data requirements. The platform needed to support:
- A framework for implementing trading strategies.
- A simulation environment for backtesting strategies on historical data, and evaluating the results.
- An optimiser for determining the best version(s) of particular strategies.
Tech:
Azure Databricks
Spark
Python
Git
-
Mining (plant simulation & optimisation). Simulation and optimisation of plant processes at a large gold mine, in
order to increase gold output (particularly during periods of equipment downtime).
I led the development and integration of several micro-services that control the running of the optimiser and
simulations, the fetching/transforming of source data, and the collection of results for reporting. (The actual
simulations, optimiser, and reporting side was handled by other members of my team.) I also took responsibility for
the solution design documentation.
Tech:
Docker
Kubernetes
RabbitMQ
Python
SQL
Power BI
Power Automate
Oct 2018–Aug 2020 Analyst, Business Science Corporation
Selected projects:
-
Healthcare (outbreak detection). Development of an automated alert system for the early detection and prediction
of outbreaks in hospitals (for a large healthcare provider). Given the specialised nature of infection control, good
engagement with the client’s domain experts (including soliciting feedback on results) was crucial.
My duties included developing the pipeline, and assisting with the development (training, testing, feature
engineering, etc.) of machine-learning models for the outbreak detection. I also developed a Power BI dashboard for
reporting on outbreaks, was responsible for the technical solution documentation, as well as SLA-type support.
Tech:
Azure Data Factory
Azure Databricks
Python
SQL
Power BI
-
Telecommunications (contract recommender systems). Regular delivery of contract recommendations for upgrade and
migration campaigns at a large telecommunications provider, together with reporting and post-campaign analysis. Strict
adherence to numerous business and regulatory rules was crucial.
I was responsible for the development, maintenance, and operation of several recommender systems, as well as the
development of a post-campaign analysis dashboard. Ad hoc analyses were also a common request from stakeholders.
Tech:
Oracle SQL
Oracle Apex
Academic experience
2017–Sep 2018 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Rhodes University, Dept of Mathematics
Projects:
- Topics in nonholonomic Riemannian geometry.
- The study of curves (particularly, using the method of moving frames) in homogeneous spaces.
2012–2013 Lecturer (Part Time), Rhodes University, Dept of Mathematics
Courses:
- Numerical Methods with MATLAB.
- Transformation Geometry.
2011–2016 Teaching Assistant (Part Time), Rhodes University, Dept of Mathematics
2009–2010 Research Assistant (Part Time), Rhodes University, Dept of Computer Science
Achievements
Academic honours and awards
2008–2011 Undergraduate
- Top science student in the academic year (2008, 2009, 2010).
- Dean’s List and Academic Half-Colours (2008, 2009, 2010).
- Graduated with Academic Honours.
- Most outstanding Bachelors graduate in the Faculty of Science (RU Foundation scholarship).
- Most outstanding Honours graduate in the Faculty of Science (Henry Bradlow scholarship).
2012–2016 Postgraduate
- Recipient of the 2014 South African Association for the Advancement of Science (S2A3) medallion. (Awarded for the
most outstanding MSc thesis at Rhodes University.)
Scholarships
2008–2011 Undergraduate
- RU scholarship (2009, 2010); Alfred Beit scholarship (2009); Rhodes Governor’s scholarship (2010).
- RU Foundation scholarship (2011); NRF Innovations scholarship (2011).
2012–2016 Postgraduate
- Henry Bradlow scholarship (2012).
- RU Prestigious (Henderson) scholarship for MSc (2012–2013) and PhD (2014–2016).
- NRF–DAAD scholarship for MSc (2012–2013) and PhD (2014–2016).
2017–2018 Postdoctoral
- NRF Freestanding Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Publications
- D.I. Barrett, C.C. Remsing, On the Schouten and Wagner curvature tensors.
Rend. Circ. Mat. Palermo, II. Ser 72(2023), 1–26.
rg
- D.I. Barrett, C.C. Remsing, Restricted Jacobi fields.
Int. Electron. J. Geom. 14(2021), 247–265.
rg
- D.I. Barrett and C.C. Remsing, A note on flat nonholonomic Riemannian structures on three-dimensional Lie groups.
Beitr Algebra Geom 60(2019), 419–436
rg
- D.I. Barrett, C.E. McLean, C.C. Remsing, Control systems on the Engel group.
J. Dyn. Control Syst. 25(2019), 377–402.
rg
- D.I. Barrett, C.C. Remsing, On geodesic invariance and curvature in nonholonomic Riemannian geometry.
Publ. Math. Debrecen 94(2019), 197–213.
rg
- D.I. Barrett, R. Biggs and C.C. Remsing, Quadratic Hamilton–Poisson systems on $\mathfrak{se}(1, 1)^{*}_{-}$: the inhomogeneous case,
Acta Appl. Math. 154(2018), 189–230.
rg
- D.I. Barrett, R. Biggs, C.C. Remsing and O. Rossi, Invariant nonholonomic Riemannian structures on three-dimensional Lie groups,
J. Geom. Mech. 8(2016), 139–167.
rg
- D.I. Barrett, R. Biggs and C.C. Remsing, Affine distributions on a four-dimensional extension of the semi-Euclidean group,
Note Mat. 35(2015), 81–97.
rg
- D.I. Barrett, R. Biggs and C.C. Remsing, Quadratic Hamilton–Poisson systems on $\mathfrak{se}(1, 1)^{*}_{-}$: the homogeneous case,
Int. J. Geom. Methods Mod. Phys. 12(2015), 1550011 (17 pages).
rg
- D.I. Barrett, R. Biggs and C.C. Remsing, Optimal control of drift-free invariant control systems on the group of motions of the Minkowski plane,
Proc. 13th European Control Conference, Strasbourg, France, 2014, 2466–2471.
rg
- D.I. Barrett, R. Biggs and C.C. Remsing, Affine subspaces of the Lie algebra $\mathfrak{se}(1, 1)$,
Eur. J. Pure Appl. Math. 7(2014), 140–155.
rg