Engineer · Builder · Stellenbosch

Hi, I'm Corné.
I build aircraft parts.

I'm a mechatronic engineer doing an MEng at Stellenbosch University. I like problems that join simulation to real hardware, I enjoy learning and exploring new things.

See what I've made →Read my CV

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That's me. Usually less still.

Things I'm into

Curiosity is the most important value someone can have. This is what I am curios about:

Selectedwork

Everything →
01A wing that blows its own flapMEng research · short-field take-off for a hydrogen UAVIn progress2026 – 2027

AerodynamicsSoftware

MEng researcher · supervised by Dr A. Venter and Dr R. Heise

I'm designing an internally blown Coandă flap that can be retrofitted to a fixed-wing, hydrogen fuel-cell UAV. The aim is to cut its ground roll from roughly 100 m to under 10 m. To get there I built a fully scripted CFD pipeline and used it to run a 98-case flap study. Wind-tunnel validation comes next.

  • Scripted 2D RANS pipeline in Python that generates flapped sections, meshes them with Gmsh and drives ANSYS Fluent through generated journals
  • 98-case flap study run end to end without manual meshing
  • Design work at several fidelity levels, from vortex-lattice (AeroSandbox, OpenVSP, XFLR5) up to 2D and 3D RANS
  • Validation planned on a static Coandă bench, a section model in the low-speed wind tunnel and a propeller traverse

ANSYS Fluent · PyFluent · Gmsh · Python · AeroSandbox · OpenVSP · XFLR5 · XFOIL

Read the full story →

02nook.A planning app I designed, built and sell on my ownLive2026 – now

Software

Founder, designer and developer

nook. is a planning web app I built solo, from the product idea to billing. It runs on Cloudflare Workers with Supabase behind it, and I keep shipping features for its users.

Cloudflare Workers · Supabase · JavaScript · SQL

nookapp.cc ↗

03A referee for SpikeballBEng final-year project · computer vision2025 – 2026

Robotics & visionSoftware

Final-year project, BEng Mechatronic Engineering

An automatic rally-detection and video-capture system for Spikeball. It uses computer-vision algorithms and other tracking techniques to act as a referee and highlight extractor: it spots when a rally starts and ends and clips it.

Python · OpenCV · NumPy

How I got here

  1. 2026 – 2027MEng (Research), Mechanical EngineeringStellenbosch University

    Short-field take-off enhancement of UAVs using blown flap technology.

  2. 2022 – 2026BEng Mechatronic EngineeringStellenbosch University

    Final-year project: automatic rally detection and video capture for Spikeball using computer vision.

  3. 2026 – nowLaboratory EngineerDept. of Mechanical & Mechatronic Engineering, SU

    Responsible for four materials laboratories.

Got a problem that needs a curious engineer?

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