Science prodigy Johannes Jacobus Deysel, a Gr. 11 learner at the Jim Fouché High School in Bloemfontein will be testing his scientific ability internationally against his peers at the National Taiwan Science Education Center in Taipei. The science fair, taking place from 27 January until 2 February, will feature prospective future scientists from 27 countries, South Africa included.
Deysel is the only learner from the Free State, but one of two learners to represent South Africa. The other candidate is Lethabo Molobi, a Gr. 12 learner at the Zinniaville Secondary School in the North West.
The pair will be amongst the 630 prospective future scientists representing their countries. Deysel and Molobi were selected for the international edition due to their outstanding performances at the 2023 Eskom Expo for Young Scientists International Science Fair (ISF) in October.
Deysel was awarded a gold medal for the excellent presentation of his research science project, “Breaking a Caesar Cipher/Vigenère Cipher Encryption for secure data communication”, at last year’s ISF expo. This project aims at identifying vulnerabilities in ciphers and explore the factors influencing the strength of an encryption system by breaking both Caesar and Vigenère ciphers. The research reveals that cipher text generated using Caesar and Vigenère algorithms can be easily compromised through brute force methods.
Deysel’s project has further revealed the evolution of technology application in the past decade and the technological advancements that have been accompanied by prominent data breaches, underscoring the critical issue of data security.
