“That curiosity is what eventually guided me towards my engineering career, as I wanted to further my understanding so that I could fix what was broken,” he explains.
Shaniel began fulfilling this desire professionally by attaining his Bachelor of Science degree in mechatronic engineering. This, he explains, combines elements of electrical and mechanical engineering with a focus on robotics and control of dynamic systems.
“That degree changed and honed my way of thinking, enabling me to more easily understand underlying systems and the principles used in solving problems,” he elaborated. He then added to this most recently by completing his master’s degree in SmartGrid Technologies, through Stellenbosch University.
Following his undergrad graduation, he joined WSP in the Johannesburg office as an electronic engineer, under the Property and Buildings (P&B) services division and designing extra low voltage services for projects in different sectors.
Electronic services, he explains, is constantly evolving with technology and has meant constantly learning new systems required for the next project. The list of systems that he has experience designing vary greatly from structured cabling, life safety, security, audio visual and building management systems.
Building management systems – which log the consumption of water and electricity in the building is one of the of systems that Shaniel designs - are often important for companies with green building and carbon reduction goals, who need to monitor the performance of their buildings and ensure that this aligns with their environment, social and governance (ESG) commitments.
He explains that while not every client may require it, this has become a service offering that is important to many clients, particularly multinational companies that have a head office in South Africa but need to comply with international CSR guidelines.
After eight years at WSP, Shaniel briefly left WSP to pursue another opportunity, and gain some international experience as the senior ICT engineer at another company. There, he worked on a large 18 story maternity hospital for a client in Kuwait. After three years he returned to WSP, to take up his current role.
“The people and the culture at WSP are what attracted me back, along with the variety of projects that I can work on here. For example, since I have been back, I have been involved in a mix of both local and international projects, which I really like. Another major drawcard was being able to get on-site experience, and see our projects being built,” he elaborates.
A particularly noteworthy project has entailed doing building management systems, electronic access control, camera surveillance, and audio-visual systems for a hospitality client in the Seychelles.
Another project that Shaniel considers a highlight was a project for pharmaceutical company Roche, implementing electronic services and an environmental monitoring system in a laboratory. This enabled the lab to monitor and log changing temperatures in various pieces of equipment, and ensure they were within the range required for product testing and certification.
Beyond the major projects that Shaniel is involved in, his day-to-day professional life varies from one day to the next. Some days are packed with meetings whereas others require him to travel to site inspections. Other days are filled with design work and meeting project deliverables.
His days are invariably also filled with collaboration. “One of the advantages of working on electronic services such as building management systems is that it enables me to interact with all of our mechanical, electrical and public health engineers to ensure that all of our systems are on the same page, talking the same language” he adds.
This collaboration is not just with local peers, but international ones too, as the most recent feather in his cap was presenting a conference paper based on his master's degree project at the 2024 EEEIC International Conference on Environment and Electrical Engineering that took place in Rome. The paper showed that the current PV power profile used in South Africa’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) is not representative of the simulated least cost PV tracking choice.
When not working, or hiking, Shaniel is a tinkerer at heart and in home, with a variety of projects that he works on for his own enjoyment that keep him busy. From creating a home hydroponic garden, to using a microcontroller to run precision temperature controls on his coffee machine, his curiosity has not only brought him a varied profession, but also, an enjoyable way to make his own personal life multi-faceted as well.
