Denise Potgieter
Graduate
Computer Science
Lieutenant Denise Potgieter has always loved travelling and adventure. In fact, it was her sense of adventure that brought her to Otago in the first place.
Her first major trip was from homeland South Africa to Dunedin, specifically to study Computer Science at Otago. Here, she says, she soon found herself immersed in student life and loving everything about it - from watching rugby at Carisbrook to social sports and city attractions close at hand.
"I loved meeting so many like-minded and adventurous people!"
Now working as a Weapon Engineering Officer (a systems engineer with a specialisation in weapons, sensors and computer systems), Denise currently works on projects which introduce new capability into the Naval Fleet.
She says the grounding from her Honours degree in Computer Science makes her job a lot easier. "The logical approach to problem-solving really appealed. They taught the principles and theory behind how a computer works - so it's very easy to adapt to other systems."
Her honours project involved augmenting a mathematical-based language to query a GIS database, ultimately enabling the analysis of historic and current land information over time.
Now, Denise's role in the Navy has taken her to the Persian Gulf, England, Russia, China and Japan, to name just a few highlights.
And further opportunities await. Her continuing professional development both as an Officer and in her specialisation - which includes a qualification to be Head of the Weapons Department on-board one of the Navy's ANZAC Class frigates - means she'll one day be managing the department responsible for the ship's combat system, weapons, and defence computer networks during a deployment at sea.
Loving her job full of travel, adventure and variety, Denise's life in the Navy could be called A Life Less Ordinary.