From shipping apps to studying AI
My first degree was in Computer Science and Engineering. After that I spent more than three years building web and mobile applications: backend integrations, performance work, reliability, user experience, and supporting the people who used what we shipped, often with distributed, remote teams.
That work left me with a question I wanted to study properly: how do we build intelligent systems people can actually trust? That’s why I moved to Wales for an MSc in Artificial Intelligence.
What I care about in software
Systems that fail gracefully, interfaces that respect people’s time, and AI that’s honest about what it doesn’t know. I like the unglamorous parts: error states, offline behaviour, and working out why something broke.
- artificial intelligence
- machine learning
- software engineering
- mobile applications
- web applications
- backend systems
- APIs
- developer tooling
- automation
- human–computer interaction
Away from the keyboard
I’ve finished an Ironman 70.3 and trekked in the Himalayas, and most weeks I run along the Welsh coast in whatever weather turns up. I read slowly and mostly literary fiction, and I brew coffee as if it were a lab experiment.
None of that is separate from the engineering. Pacing, patience and knowing when to turn back are as useful at a desk as on a mountain.
Start before conditions are perfect, pace yourself for the whole distance, and be honest about how sure you are.
I don’t always manage it. Writing this garden is how I keep track.