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Student Projects SSC Laboratory

SAINTS is a division of NRF iThemba LABS focusing on the provision of education, training and professional development for students and staff linked in the first instance to iThemba LABS.

Principal Investigators

The Separated Sector Cyclotron Laboratory at NRF iThemba LABS offers advanced student projects focusing on cutting-edge research in nuclear and environmental sciences, radiation detection, and machine learning. These projects involve optimizing drone-based systems for radiation detection, enhancing flight plans and imaging with AI. Research also includes using Monte Carlo simulations for detailed radiation dose analysis and applying machine learning to improve biological image analysis, such as clonogenic survival counts and chromosome classification. The work further explores translating simulation geometries across different computational platforms to advance nuclear science applications.

Research Projects
Technical Projects

2025 Research Projects

SAINTS-Project | 2025
MSc

Supervisor: Dr Pete Jones

Optimisation of drone-based flight plans for nuclear and environmental sciences

iThemba LABS has pioneered the PANGoLINS project - Portable African Neutron- Gamma Laboratory for Innovative Nuclear Science. This is a mobile gamma- and neutron radiation detection platform that is operated via Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (drones) in a research environment. Radiation detectors are used for measurements and further detector developments are planned during the scope of the project. Currently flight plans need to be planned ahead of schedule typically with either surveying or prospecting modes. This project aims to analyse current flight data and to propose new, optimised flight modes.

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SAINTS-Project | 2025
MSc

Supervisor: Neil Muller

Investigate Machine Learning approaches to determine clonogenic assay survival counts

The goal of the project is to use machine learning techniques to determine the clonogenic survival counts from the images produced at iThemba LABS, and assess how well these methods perform compared to the existing tools. Of particular interest is how well such a ML system will do on the difficult cases of overlapping clusters.

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SAINTS-Project | 2025
MSc

Supervisor: Neil Muller

Evaluate methods for translating Simulation Geometry and material specifications between Monte Carlo systems

This project focuses on exploring existing options for converting between different Monte Carlo systems using the same geometry and beam setups as those at iThemba LABS, and comparing the resulting simulation outcomes. The goal is to assess the viability of these tools for our setup and determine whether the converted geometry allows for efficient simulations.

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SAINTS-Project | 2025
MSc

Supervisor: Dr S. Jongile

Low-energy γ-ray decay at high excitation energies

This project aims to investigate the low-energy regime of the photon strength function (PSF) of 57Co using (p,γ) reactions at beam energies of 5 MeV, 4.5 MeV, and 4 MeV at the Tandetron facility of iThemba LABS. The objective is to provide new insights into the characteristics of low-energy gamma-ray decay in the quasi-continuum, with a particular focus on understanding the mechanism of low-energy enhancement, which remains unresolved. The investigation will examine the primary γ-rays and their nature, with implications for nuclear astrophysics and the processes involved in element formation in the cosmos.

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SAINTS-Project | 2025
MSc

Supervisor: Evan De Kock

Monte Carlo characterization of an orthovoltage biological X-ray irradiator

To use Monte Carlo simulations for the detailed characterization of a biological X-ray irradiator and to determine the dose output for the complex geometries presented by various types of cell culture containers.

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SAINTS-Project | 2025
PhD

Supervisor: Dr Pete Jones

Development of drone-based gamma-ray imaging systems for nuclear and environmental sciences

iThemba LABS has pioneered the PANGoLINS project - Portable African Neutron- Gamma Laboratory for Innovative Nuclear Science. This is a mobile gamma- and neutron radiation detection platform that is operated via Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (drones) in a research environment. Currently a single radiation detector is used for measurements. Due to the nature of the commercial measurements (vast areas and the need to pinpoint small differences in these areas) the origin (in 3 dimensions) of the radiation will need to be quantified. We propose using multiple detectors in a Compton camera configuration to vastly improve the spatial resolution of the radiation imaging. The real-time data collected here will need AI techniques to manage and collate this data and merge with the in-flight telemetry data.

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SAINTS-Project | 2025
MSc

Supervisor: Neil Muller

Identification of Dicentric chromosomes in slide images using Machine Learning

This project aims to investigate the use of machine learning techniques to classify dicentric chromosomes from images produced at iThemba LABS, and to evaluate whether these techniques offer any advantages over existing tools.

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SAINTS-Project | 2025
PhD

Supervisor: Dr Pete Jones

Conversion and Pair Electron Spectroscopy of Low-Lying Excited States in Nuclei

Excited 0+ states are the least understood of any low-energy degree of freedom in nuclei. E0 transition strengths are a measure of the off-diagonal matrix elements of the mean-square charge radius operator. Mixing of configurations with different mean- square charge radii produces E0 transition strength. The study of low-lying 0+ states has been a focus of attention in the last two decades because of their implications regarding shape coexistence in nuclei. The aim of this work is to understand the nature of these states (particle, quasiparticle and pairing correlations) through the use of selective reactions, dedicated apparatus, and high-precision studies.

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