About me
Interests #
As you may see from the post topics, I’m broadly interested in Machine Learning, Mathematics, Optimization & Programming. I’m also getting into self-hosting more. In fact, this website itself is served to you from inside my kitchen cupboard!
Work background #
After graduating from my masters, I first gave the PhD-life a try: the focus was on segmenting organs in (3D) CT-scans and classifying them using Deep Learning approaches (think: U-Net type architectures). This was very cool but I was looking for a bit more diversification and implementations, so I left after a year and a bit and went into Data Science consulting.
Here I learned a crazy amount about applying Machine Learning in practice. In many assignments I started being responsible for more and more of the pipeline like use-case identification, POC implementation, stakeholder management, industrialization of models, ML Engineering, architecture. I feel like I matured as a professional in this field along with the field itself, which was quite nascent in many companies when I started. (This has its ups and downs: We are a lot more effective & efficient in capturing the possibilities that ML offers today, yet the more experimental approaches and projects of earlier days were also exciting to work in.)
During this time as well I discovered my interest in the more personal side of things: I really enjoyed helping out more junior colleagues, advising on technical stuff of course, but also helping them navigate the workplace, their careers and interests.
Eventually I found a role in a major Dutch airline, where I can combine the technical, personal as well as a strategic side of me. I work in a centralized team advising & helping a bunch of data science teams, and making sure the wider organizations decisions align to the needs of DS. This is where I’m still working today.
Education #
- MSc Operational research
- BSc Physics & Astronomy
Contact #
Feel free to message me on jorisbukalablog@gmail.com, or connect with me on Linkedin. I really do appreciate any comments, thoughts or ideas of people reading these posts, so please don’t be a stranger!
Code-wise, some older stuff is still on GitHub, though I am using Codeberg nowadays.