I'm Declan — a first-year Electrical Engineering student at the University of Cape Town, with a track record of building things that actually fly.
I led a team of seven to design, build, and program a student payload currently on a month-long mission aboard the International Space Station. Before that: a suborbital rocket payload, two high-altitude balloon launches, a thermoacoustic engine, and a satellite ground station — all before finishing high school.
I've represented South Africa at two international physics tournaments (IYPT in Sweden, Hellenic YPT in Greece), won multiple Eskom Expo gold medals, and hold a licensed amateur radio callsign: ZS1DEX.
My work sits at the intersection of embedded systems, space hardware, and experimental physics. I write firmware, solder boards, crunch data, and occasionally send things to space.
University of Cape Town (UCT) — BSc(Eng) Electrical Engineering, 2026–2029 (Expected). First-year student pursuing a professional degree in Electrical Engineering.
Parklands College High School — National Senior Certificate, 2020–2025. Graduated with 7 Distinctions including Physical Sciences, Digital Electronics, Information Technology, and Pure Mathematics. Completed IEB Further Studies Mathematics and Further Studies Physics.
Led the design, construction, and programming of a student-developed payload selected for a month-long mission aboard the International Space Station. The payload conducts a vibrational analysis experiment aimed at predictive maintenance for systems in space — monitoring structural vibration signatures to detect early-stage mechanical anomalies before failure occurs.
Managed the full project lifecycle: schedules, system integration, verification testing, and compliance with stringent spaceflight requirements. Led a team of seven students through design review cycles and pre-flight qualification, coordinating hardware, firmware, and documentation workstreams simultaneously.
Delivered structured training in programming and embedded electronics to a broader student cohort, building institutional capacity for future space projects. Gained applied experience in space systems engineering, embedded systems architecture, and payload operations.
Assisted with programming a payload for a NASA-operated high-altitude balloon mission (2025) aimed at validating vibrational analysis techniques ahead of the ISS mission. The balloon reached near-space altitudes, providing a flight environment with partial vacuum, extreme temperatures, and strongly reduced atmospheric damping — conditions that partially approximate those experienced on the ISS.
Collected and analysed in-flight vibration data across ascent, float, and descent phases. Systematically assessed different vibrational analysis algorithms — comparing sensitivity, noise tolerance, and computational overhead — to determine the most effective approach for the ISS hardware environment.
This built on an earlier solo-built payload flown on a NASA-operated balloon in 2023, built around MaxIQ chips, which ascended to stratospheric altitude under conditions of extreme cold, low pressure, and intense UV radiation — a demanding environment that tests hardware reliability and software robustness. Coordinated stakeholder engagement and system validation, and performed post-flight data analysis to extract experimental results from the collected sensor logs.
Led the South African team at the International Young Physicists' Tournament (IYPT) in Lund, Sweden — one of the most prestigious international physics competitions for students. The research problem involved a magnet climbing a rotating vertical rod through stick-slip dynamics.
Designed and constructed a precision mechanical system demonstrating how anisotropic frictional forces and rotational inertia produce net vertical displacement of a magnet on a spinning rod. The mechanism exploits the difference between static and kinetic friction in a rotating reference frame.
Performed rigorous quantitative analysis of rotational motion, frictional force regimes, and constrained mechanical systems. Produced a full research report with theoretical model, experimental validation, and error analysis.
Subsequently appointed as a juror for the South African Young Physicists' Tournament (SAYPT), evaluating student research presentations against international standards.
Experimentally investigated the Zeeman effect — the magnetic-field-induced splitting of atomic spectral lines — using a low-pressure sodium lamp placed within a strong external magnetic field. The sodium D-lines provide a clean doublet well-suited to observing both normal and anomalous Zeeman splitting.
Observed and precisely measured magnetic-field-induced spectral line separation and hyperfine structure effects. The experiment required careful optical alignment, custom magnetic field control circuitry, and spectroscopic imaging to resolve sub-nanometre line separations.
Represented South Africa at the Hellenic Young Physicists' Tournament, achieving a Top 3 overall placement against international teams. The research was independently evaluated and recognised at both national and international level.
Awards: Gold Medal + Mayor's Award — Eskom Science Expo. International Silver Medal — Hellenic Young Physicists' Tournament. R40,000 Wits University Electrical Engineering Bursary.
Programmed and deployed a TinyGS ground station — part of a global network of amateur LoRa receivers that continuously decode telemetry from small satellites passing overhead. The station monitors the sky for satellite beacons and uplinks decoded packets to the TinyGS distributed network in real time.
Designed and installed a custom radio antenna system optimised for the satellite communication bands used by the TinyGS constellation. The antenna installation enables reliable line-of-sight contact during satellite passes, maximising decode rate per overhead pass.
Designed, built, and tested a thermoacoustic engine — a device that converts thermal gradients into acoustic power through resonant pressure oscillations, with no moving mechanical parts. The engine exploits standing acoustic waves driven by a temperature differential across a porous regenerator stack placed within a resonance tube.
Conducted systematic experiments characterising resonance frequency, optimal temperature differential, stack geometry effects, and acoustic output power across a range of operating conditions. Analysed the relationship between thermal input and conversion efficiency and compared results against theoretical predictions from thermoacoustic theory.
Produced a complete research report with theoretical framework, experimental methodology, results, and discussion of practical energy harvesting applications.
Awards: Best in Category — Eskom Science Expo. Gold Medal — Eskom Science Expo. PERT Award — Eskom Science Expo.
Designed, built, programmed, and flight-qualified a scientific payload for the Phoenix 1C suborbital sounding rocket. The payload was required to survive the mechanical stresses of launch acceleration and vibration as well as aerodynamic heating, demanding robust mechanical packaging and careful thermal management.
Instrumented the payload with accelerometers, temperature sensors, and humidity sensors to capture atmospheric and dynamic data throughout the flight profile — launch, motor burn, coast phase, apogee, and recovery. Conducted the launch at Arniston test range and performed post-flight data analysis to reconstruct the full flight dynamics and extract atmospheric measurements.
Languages: C/C++ (primary), Python, Zephyr, React, Delphi, x86 assembly, RISC-V.
Embedded systems platforms: ESP32, Arduino, Nordic nRF series. Embedded systems skills: RTOS fundamentals, IoT systems, I2C/UART/SPI communication protocols, embedded systems architecture, sensor integration.
Data & energy tools: NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, MATLAB, PySAM, PVsyst, ArcGIS, SDL2.
Tools & workflow: Git & GitHub, PlatformIO, Microsoft Suite, Google Suite.
Email: declan@declansaul.com. Location: Cape Town, South Africa. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/declansaul.
Open to embedded systems & hardware projects, space/aerospace engineering opportunities, research collaborations, and interesting builds and experiments.