Polly Ramaselele

I am currently pursuing my Honours degree in Geoinformatics (BScHons), a science that aims to solve geospatial problems such as hazard mapping and monitoring, water quality checking using information technology. Thus, as a holder of this degree, I am well-versed in dealing with data and topics related to analysing it, including programming, spatial analysis, machine learning, geovisualisation (maps, dashboards etc.), data ethics, and data governance. I was drawn into this field simply because of my love for Geography in high school.

Topics such as Demographics, Geomorphology, Map interpretation and Weather Systems all incited a curiosity in me that lives to this day. I always want to know more about human-nature interaction and that is why I have come this far in my journey. When I learned of the opportunity to combine this Geography passion with information systems, this was the holy grail.

In my spare time, I watch sports or play them. My favourite sports to watch are F1, basketball and Athletics while I stay fit mainly by playing soccer or basketball. I sometimes spend my days honing my front-end web development skills by creating websites/portfolios for peers or creating pamphlet designs for small entrepreneurs. I watch a load of movies and aspire to meet Donald Glover, an established writer and director.

My first job was as a Retail Store Assistant in Adidas Concept Store in Sandton at the end of my Matric year. It immediately exposed me to the world of work and unleashed my sales abilities - abilities I did not know I had until then. I would process transactions, ensure that clothing items are properly displayed and interact effectively with many diverse people.

I then started working for Smollan as a Brand Ambassador, displaying and educating potential customers on the specifics of certain items. This helped me hone my interpersonal and communication skills as I had to meet many strangers and get my selling point across within a few minutes. I am able to quickly absorb knowledge and teach it in a short period.

I had a stint as a Session Producer for a conference at the University of Pretoria, ensuring that attendees both in-person and online communicated smoothly.

From February to April, I started my first GIS related job with Kartoza as a GIS intern. We started off with Cartography as this forms the basis of a GIS technician's ability. After visualisation we went into data science, focusing on Python data manipulation and creating classes.

I performed User Acceptance Testing for the current SASDI Electronic Metadata Catalogue. I also completed a project alongside fellow interns that demostrates how to create, read, update and delete records in a relational database using SQL, Python libraries, Mergin Maps and how this relates to the Entity-Relation diagrams. We used Multi-Decision Criteria Analyses to find optimal routes and locations for parks, arable land and wind farms.

Acquired a Bachelor of Science in Geoinformatics at the University of Pretoria in 2022.