Welcome to the Tech universe! Welcome to Techverse!
I describe here my background together with my motivation for creating Techverse. I hope that you will appreciate the content I post on this site as much as I enjoy creating it.
My passion for Computer Science started long before the beginning of my university studies. When I was a teenager, I wrote my first program, a small application that simply computed the average of few numbers. Even though it was trivial, I was astonished to see how one could teach a computer to automate a task. Since then my interest for sciences never stopped growing. In high school, I gained a more academic insight of programming thanks to the project of school-leaving diploma. I developed a software application that helped people to improve their English skills by using speech synthesis and speech recognition technologies for which I received the first price in computer science of Geneva High Schools. Being able to address a specific problem and build something completely new from scratch using creative solutions convinced me to undertake my studies in Computer Science at ETH Zurich.
During my undergraduate studies, I gained strong problem-solving skills, as well as a sharp theoretical background in the different fields of Computer Science, especially in information and data management systems. During the MSc Program, I had the opportunity to work as teaching assistant for the course called, « Data Modeling and Databases ». In addition to participating in common teaching tasks, such as preparing lectures and exercises, I discovered how a team get organized and could play an active role in it. I carried out my Master’s thesis in an ETH startup, which gave me a great insight into the field of entrepreneurship and, more technically, into the field of Big Data and NoSQL databases. The opportunity to work on a challenging project within a team featuring highly motivated engineers, definitely confirmed my enthusiasm for science.
Before concluding my undergraduate studies, I was able to take part in an exchange program at the University of Tokyo. I joined the Creative Informatics laboratory directed, where I could actively contribute to the research process and gained a better understating of Cloud Computing techniques. Furthermore, this experience convinced me of the importance of multicultural understanding and worldwide cooperation. Collaborating with people having different skills and their own cultural background is to me the key for real innovation and success. During my year as a research assistant, I had the opportunity to work with cutting-edge technologies in database systems and machine learning, as well as to gain an invaluable scientific background. This experience confirmed my passion for data science as a whole, as solving data challenges is to me a true motivation and an enthralling topic in which I want to contribute endeavor.
From a professional perspective, I worked as a consultant for several years in the banking sector, where I was involved in the design and development of new components of a large banking system. Today, I worked as a data engineer in the field of asset management, where I get constant exposure to and gain deep understating of the world of finance. This experience considerably strengthen my skills in business analysis and data science applied to asset management. I am also working as a teacher in the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES-SO), where I set up several courses, where students learn the basics of programming in the field of finance using Python, Excel/VBA, SQL and Tableau. In addition to have sharpened both my communication skills and teaching know-how, this experience has also shown me another aspect to education.
In 2017, I eared for the first time about blockchain technologies and a cryptocurrency called Bitcoin. This was something completely new to me that immediately got my attention, as this was the perfect match between my studies in compter science and my professional experience in finance.
For all these reasons, I finally decided to create Tehverse, where I can post scientific and technical content to illustrate my passion for data science, blockchain and computer science as a whole.
Enjoy the content!
Julien