UCT’s Top CS Student · Technology & Business · AI-Driven Development

I'm a third-year Business Science student specialising in Computer Science at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and ranked first in my cohort. I am also a backend engineer at a Cape Town fintech, working at the intersection of technology and business.

My professional interests include software development, data science, practical applications of AI, business innovation, and technology-driven problem solving.

Computer Science Fundamentals: Algorithms, data structures, OOP principles, parallel and concurrent programming, software testing, debugging, and version control best practices

AI Tools & Workflows: Claude (Claude.ai, Claude Code), ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, MCP integrations, prompt engineering, agentic AI development

Languages: Proficient in Java, Python, C#, and PHP / Laravel (with some experience in SQL, HTML, CSS, R, MIPS Assembly, and Delphi)

Operating Systems & Environments: Windows, Linux (Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server, Omarchy), WSL, VMware Workstation

IDE & Productivity Tools: JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ, PHPStorm, WebStorm, PyCharm), VSCode, Visual Studio, RStudio

Version Control & Collaboration: Git, GitHub, Slack, Linear

Homelab & Infrastructure: Docker, Cloudflare, Tailscale, Grafana, Prometheus, Backblaze, n8n

You can read more about my achievements on my LinkedIn, but some notable ones include:

• 🏆 UCT Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship, UCT – Top 10 applicants from Western Cape
• 🥉 Bain & Company Award – 3rd Place in First-Year Bachelor of Business Science
• 🏆 BSG Price – Best 2nd-Year Computer Science Student
• 🥇 Class Medals, ranked 1st in cohort: CSC1016S (Object-Oriented Programming, ~800 students), STA2020F (Applied Statistics, ~520 students), CSC2002S (Computer Science 2B, ~430 students)
• 🥈 Silver Medal at the South African Computer Applications Olympiad (top 3 out of ~18,300 students)

• 📝 External Moderator, South African Applications Olympiad and Talent Search (2026–Present)
• 👨‍💻 Scientific Committee Member, South African Programming Olympiad (2024–Present)
• 🎓 Prefect, Cannons Creek High School (2023)
• 🎧 Head, Sound, Lighting & AV Team (2021–2022)
• 📷 Chairperson, School Photographic Society (2021–2022)

When I’m not coding or studying, I enjoy:

• Backpacking 🥾
• Trail Running 🏃‍♂️
• SCUBA diving 🤿

• 📧 Email: contact@thomaskabalin.com
• 💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thomaskabalin
• 💻 Website: thomaskabalin.com
• 📍 Based in Cape Town, South Africa