Building the
right foundation.
Ubayd Hattas, BSc student at the University of Cape Town studying Computer Science, Statistics & Data Science. A degree is a structure; what matters is how deeply you engage with it.
What I'm focused on right now
Strong foundations in computer science, statistics, and mathematics, applied through data products, machine learning, domain adaptation, and AI evaluation research. Coursework and projects reinforce each other.
University of Cape Town
BSc · Computer Science, Statistics & Data Science
2026 to 2029 (expected graduation)
UCT is consistently ranked as Africa's top university and among the world's leading research institutions. Studying Computer Science alongside Statistics & Data Science gives an interdisciplinary foundation: formal mathematical reasoning, computational methods, and applied analysis.
Trafalgar High School
National Senior Certificate (NSC)
Graduated 2025
My high school years taught me the true value of consistency and self-discipline. I built strong results in mathematics and physical sciences through methodical study habits and I spent my senior year both leading the student body as Head Boy and tutoring my peers. I am incredibly grateful to my principal and teachers for their belief in me. The guidance and opportunities they provided gave me the foundation I needed to be exactly where I am today.
Hackathons and research sprints
Hack4Dev Data Science Hackathon
Team entry: Madrid to Amsterdam building-age transfer with class-conditional CORAL (0.36 to 0.65 zero-shot macro-F1, team's internal evaluation) and a spatial adjacency audit of few-shot gains
Digital Minds Research Sprint
Apart Research: capability-controlled LLM introspection study across 9,269 trials (team entry)
Global South AI Safety Hackathon: AfriGuard
Multilingual safety benchmark across seven South African languages and four models, 1,120 responses (team of four). Scoring is being redone
Awards and recognition
Mohamed Sedick Excellence Prize
First place in Physics, Grade 11
NSC Top five
Top achievement award at school level, Matric 2025
NSC Top Achiever for Mathematics
Top achievement award at school level, Matric 2025
NSC Top Achiever for Physical Sciences
Top achievement award at school level, Matric 2025
Head Boy
Led the student body and represented the school at official events
Mathematics Tutor
Voluntarily tutored junior grade students during breaks throughout matric year
Where this leads
Building foundations in CS, statistics & data science while shipping applied projects
Deeper theory, stronger systems skills, and more rigorous research practice
Postgraduate study or industry work in data science, ML, or AI evaluation