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.

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:

• YouTuber turns a Raspberry Pi-powered truck into a giant printer
• Man defends against package thieves using machine learning AI, flour, and very loud sirens

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).

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.

General Aviation

I love everything to do with aviation. I'm a licensed sea-plane pilot in Canada and the USA (for fun), and have been flying since I was a kid. In Canada, as long as your feet are long-enough to reach the rudder pedals, you can start to learn to fly. I needed two booster seats to see above the dash when I started; I now only need one.

I'm currently saving to hopefully get my rotary wing (helicopter) license.