Born in São Paulo, Brazil, and moved to Greater Manchester, UK in 2009. From a young age, I have always been interested in anything related to computers, video gaming, and maths. I guess these hobbies came about when I got access to my first Windows 98, Pentium 4 powered computer in the late 90s / early 00s. I have very good memories of having to wait until the late hours to use our dial-up connection so I could play my favourite low-quality flash games on a website called “Fliperama”, which, unfortunately, is no longer around for obvious reasons.
During my teenage years, I decided to work hard so I could enrol into a Computer Science and Mathematics course. In 2014, I gained a place to study just that at the University of Sheffield, where I graduated with a first-class degree.
Playing with computers has always been a huge part of my life. This interest had naturally led me to learn a few different programming languages. Of the handful of languages I learned, I only really stuck with a couple of them: Python and C++. Of course, during and after my university course, I found jobs that allowed me to do just what I liked. The points below give a very brief summary of my work experience so far. If you’re looking for more details, check out my CV.
- As an undergrad student, I assisted a couple of professors as a lab assistant. This basically means that I helped people spot their mistakes in their Computer Science lab classes. Mostly typos if I am honest.
- During my master’s year, I decided to do some freelance Python work online. I managed to get a few gigs related to machine learning stuff, nothing major.
- Once I completed my master’s degree, I was offered a job as a research assistant. This basically consisted of reimplementing my final year project: a system for recognizing Papilloedema in fundus images with OpenCV and the Numpy stack.
- In 2018, I worked for Aveva maintaining a computer graphics solution for engineering firms. Creating tools for importing 3D models, OpenGL work and general software engineering practices kept me busy there.
- In 2020, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) employed me to develop software for cars. I have worked there for two years, and during my time there, I was exposed to different areas of software engineering I wasn’t previously very comfortable with. I learned many things from my teammates: best CI/CD practices, in-depth software architecture, various frameworks for moving data around, and cyber-security.
- Currently, I am a senior software engineer at Microsoft. Interestingly, the projects I am working on involve machine learning and computer vision, with a focus on portability between different devices.
Aside from all the boring, nerdy stuff, I’d like to think that I am a half decent cook. I often find my girlfriend and myself trying out different recipes from the internet, always looking at what could be improved and making minor adjustments. In addition, I do enjoy a little exercise to keep myself physically fit: running, cycling and regularly going to the gym allows me to take my head off work and focus on other aspects of life.