BizNews Community speaks: Final-year Stellies student seeking advice for her Master’s

In her letter, final-year Electronic Engineering student, Mia Françoise De Ridder, from Stellenbosch University seeks advice on pursuing a Master’s degree in data science and machine learning. She recently completed a successful project on short-term, high-growth investments in the South African market. She aims to develop a model that maximises investment opportunities in South Africa, benefiting local and international investors. Mia is now seeking funding for her master’s program and is interested in working part-time with a Stellenbosch company to gain industry experience while developing her model.

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Advice for Master’s Degree

From BizNews community member Mia Françoise De Ridder

I am a final-year Electronic Engineering student at Stellenbosch University and would love your advice. I regularly watch your show, and I thought you would be the best person to ask for advice, considering that you have such a broad range of knowledge.

I just completed my final year project, which investigated the short-term, high-growth investment approach for the South African market. I achieved a preliminary mark of 80% for it (the abstract is attached). There’s also a chance that I’ll present my work at a conference later in the year. I was invited to do a Master’s degree at Stellenbosch next year, and my research field is in data science and machine learning. I believe there are immense investment opportunities in South Africa, and I’d like to develop a model to utilise these opportunities as well as possible. The ideal would be that the model performs well enough to provide optimal returns for local investors over a shorter period and inspire international investors to invest locally.

Read Mia’s thesis abstract below

At this stage, I need to get funding for my master’s for next year. I want to partner with a company in Stellenbosch where I can work and gain industry experience part-time while developing this model and strategy. I’d love to know if there are any companies that you can recommend I contact, as well as if you have some ideas of what you think a significant need is in the investment sector so that I can include this in the report objectives and try to find a way to improve them.

Best regards,
Mia