WhoamiI’m a astronomy and programming nerd turned software engineer/ data science engineer.
I obtained my PhD in very-high-energy astrophysics studying TeV blazars with the VERITAS telescope, with a focus on implementing advanced analysis techniques into the VERITAS analysis chain (mostly C++[Cern’s ROOT]).
Since then I’ve worked developing next generation instruments to study the cosmos at McGill University (C++ [Geant4], Python). As a Computer Technology Fellow at the Trottier Space Institute (TSI), I focused on supporting high performance computing within the TSI and conducting computational research in astrophysics, planetary science, atmospheric science, astrobiology and other space-related research.
At the TSI, I also focused on teaching programming methods, development, and best practices to graduate students and researchers. My philosophy is to remove boundaries to programming and development, rather than teaching dense low-level topics that the end user doesn’t need to know. Instead, I focus on tools to simplify workflow, teaching skills at a practical level, and encouraging increasing complexity when it is needed. If you don’t need to massively parallelize your code, then you don’t need to spend a week writing/debugging the code to do it!
Currently, I work as a data science engineer focusing on building end-to-end agentic workflows. From design to implementation, I focus on developing the harness that LLMs can operate within. Allowing LLMs to utilize powerful tools, in a secure and well-defined manner.
In my free time I program, watch rugby and sci-fi TV, and pet my two cats.
Ste O’Brien