About Me
In case you are curious, here's a bit about me, my skills, passions, and interests. Most of my focus lies at the intersection of Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Content Creation, and Creativity.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Development
I'm currently very involved in the development of AI based projects - both the creation and fine-tuning of new AI models, and the implementation of solutions for companies.
A few of the AI projects I've worked on are:
- A machine-learning vision pipeline that takes GPS-encoded dashcam footage, and plots specific objects on a map.
- A package-theft detecting AI vision model, to alert users about stolen porch packages.
- An enterprise-level LLM-based chat assistant for post-secondary students.
- A fully automated, AI generated, daily language learning podcast.
Full Stack Software Development
I've been developing full-stack bespoke software solutions for companies for many years now.
A few of the full-stack projects I've built are:
- The Brock University mobile app
- A scientific laboratory management software, with advanced reporting, logging, and experimental monitoring.
- Big data pipelines for a large biomedical data startup.
Software Infrastructure Development
Software Infrastructure has been my main focus for the majority of my career (believe it or not, content creation doesn't pay the bills). At the staff engineering level, I focus on big projects involving public clouds, data centres, distributed systems, and highly-fault-tolerant infrastructure.
A few infrastructure-related projects I've contributed to are:
- The creation of a global kubernetes distribution and security platform for a Fortune 500 company
- An on-premise, highly customizable CI/CD solution for enterprise clients.
- Several zero-downtime cross cloud migrations for North American based startups.
- On-premise data centre management, and data-centre to cloud migrations.
Technical (and non-technical) Writing
When I started travelling full-time in 2012, I got my start with writing travel articles. From there, I used the skills I'd learned to break into technical writing.
My preferred writing style is casual and conversational (human). When writing technical documentation I strive to write things in the simplest terms possible, as I'm empathetic for the newly hired engineer who might not understand everything that's being discussed (as that was once me).
I currently write Freelance for Tom's Hardware, on Raspberry Pi and Arduino based projects.
Here are a few articles I've written:
- How to Turn a Rotary Phone into Google Assistant with Raspberry Pi
- How to Build a Raspberry Pi Alarm that Sprays Porch Pirates
- How To Host a Public Website on Your Home Raspberry Pi
And here are a few written about me:
Rapid Prototyping
One of my biggest and most well-practised skills is the ability to build things quickly. Be it software, AI, or hardware, I'm incredibly fast at getting the MVP of a project built quickly, from my years of experience working in the startup ecosystem, and creating content professionally. To quote a client: "wow".
Creative "Engineering"
I like to build weird and wonderful things. My background is in Biomedical Science and Engineering, and my professional focus in software infrastructure. Creative Engineering for me is a creative outlet that allows me to express weirdness into the universe.
Some of my favourite projects that I've built include:
- A hat that allowed the internet to pull my hair like the movie Ratatouille (we made cookies on a livestream).
- A crowdsourced butter churning machine.
- A dot matrix printer built out of my pick-up truck.
- The Christmas lights from Stranger Things, that allowed the internet to send me anonymous messages.
- An app that changed the colours of lights on a building at my university.
- A morse code instant messaging system between a buddy's apartment and mine (2 km distance).
Content Creation
I got into content creation completely by accident, but I now do it primarily a way for me to have a creative outlet.
My personal content rules
- Never put anyone on the internet who doesn't want to be there
- Always build the technology or device - no faking it
My goals
- Make the internet weirder
- Create things that don't need to exist
- Get 100k youtube subs - i want that play button
Creativity Wishlist
I wanted to add this section, in case anyone reading this has a connection, or interest in working together. These are a few things I would absolutely love to work on:
Control The Lights on the CN Tower (or other big landmarks)
I've always wanted to do a project that involves controlling the lights on the CN Tower. I've got a few different ideas for creative projects along these lines.
A vending machine that makes any drink in the world
I'd love to partner with a big soft-drink provider to build the next-level AI version of those crazy soda machines with a bunch of flavours.
A self-driving Ford Model A
My dad has one but he won't let me tear it apart to make it a fully autonomous vehicle.
Robotic Dog Sledding
Exactly what it says. Each one of them is about 10,000 USD minimum and I need at least 4.
Travel
I'm super passionate about travel. One thing I do when I'm not creating, is spend my time travelling. Here are a few of the countries I've been fortunate enough to visit.
- Australia
- Canada
- United States
- Mexico
- Guatemala
- Cuba
- Costa Rica
- Bahamas
- Colombia
- Peru
- Bolivia
- Chile
- Argentina
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Scotland
- England
- Wales
- France
- Spain
- Portugal
- Morocco
- Egypt
- Belgium
- Netherlands
- Germany
- Switzerland
- Italy
- Austria
- Czech Republic
- Hungary
- Bulgaria
- Romania
- Turkey
- Israel
- Thailand
- Laos
- Singapore
- Indonesia
- Australia
- Hong Kong
- China
- Taiwan
- Japan
- South Korea
I've done my fair share of backpacking, digital-nomading, and miscellaneous travel. These days, I prefer to slow-travel, spending at least a month immersing myself in a city, and getting plenty of time to explore.
I'm also a big fan of hiking / multi-day trekking. I've summited an active Volcano in Guatemala, the 72-km Salkantay Trail in Peru, and my highest climb so far has been to 17,000 feet. I've got plans for Everest Base Camp in the next few years.