I'm a Senior Software Developer and DevSecOps team lead with over 6 years of experience. Currently I lead our team of developers in building out GIS solutions for our customers. I believe in improving lives through software.
I love learning things and solving problems. My aptitude for spatial reasoning is my super power and I want to use it to help people. I've found that software engineering is a great way to unite my talents, experience, and passion.
I am a FOSS power user and advocate; I believe that its underlying principles are the most ethical and effecient way to distribute software. In particular I find Linux, including many Ubuntu and Arch based distributions, to be especially freeing due to the granular control and robust community ecosystems that are available. As a GIS professional, the open source tools, like QGIS, Leaflet, GeoDjango, or PostGIS, are enjoyable to employ due to their high agility. However, my professional repertoire is broad and I am equally capable of deploying propreitary software where the requirements demand it.
I see GIS as a field that leads revolutions in technology infrastructure. The need for Google's users to have responsive web maps is what lead to the dynamic responsive content that dominates the internet today. My deep involvement in GIS application development has ensured that I understand what it means to develop responsive applications for demanding users.
I believe designing good software goes beyond writing; it also means understanding how it works as part of system. This is the type of thinking that I excel in, from the time that I got my first personal computer I was using it to create websites and host servers. Through pain and endurance, I have learned that things like logging, documentation, system processes, testing, etc are not optional, they are essential to building sustainable projects.
I think Data is fascinating! It is an underrated backbone that drives most modern technological advancements. Generative AI, accurate posiitioning systems, autonomous vehicles, edge computing devices and more all rely on high quality and accurate data. One of the challenges in working with data is to make sure that it can be ingested and understood in the devices/applications that it needs to be in. This is where I come in to normalize databases and make sure that the data is interoperable, secure and usable inside applications.
I am always engaged in active self learning. Whether that is finding tutorials or building my own custom projects there is always something new to learn. My formal education trained me in Sociology and Theatre Design. It doesn't sound like software engineering... It's not. But, Sociology built strong skills in understanding the people behind the systems and how complicated networks can interact or be studied. Theatre Design on the other hand taught fundamentals that are useful for understanding even software design for users. My path has truly become cemented by my Master's education where I was able to employ GIS based software design in Spatial Data Science through practical and theoritical applications.
Never! Hahaha. My journey is far from over and I’m always looking to expand and deepen my knowledge. New things I'm actively working on learning include, Computer Vision, AI, VR/AR, 3D Simulations through game engines, and the Japanese language. I'm going to keep using this website to post my own personal projects, and hopefully collaborate with other enthusiastic developers in the near future.