Bernardt Duvenhage
Verified Expert in Engineering
C++ Developer
Rocky Mountain House, AB, Canada
Toptal member since October 21, 2020
Bernardt is passionate about developing technology that fundamentally improves lives and broadens our knowledge. He led teams and developed software for computer vision, natural language understanding, modeling and simulation, and computer graphics projects. Bernardt has experience programming in C++ and Python, using frameworks such as scikit-learn and PyTorch for machine learning and deep learning, transformers, Torchvision, CUDA, OpenGL, OpenSceneGraph, OpenCV, and NLTK.
Portfolio
Experience
- C++ - 20 years
- Linux - 15 years
- Computer Vision - 10 years
- Machine Learning - 10 years
- Computer Graphics - 10 years
- Python - 8 years
- PyTorch - 5 years
- NLU - 4 years
Work Experience
Head of R&D | Co-founder
Pipio.ai
- Co-founded a generative AI company called Pipio.ai as the technical co-founder and developed the technology that helped the company attract the first round of funding and grow.
- Built a generative AI company using in-house developed algorithms and models and the backend render service.
- Collaborated with my co-founder and successfully raised capital and grew the R&D team and company.
Machine Learning Lead
Helm.africa
- Developed a natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision service to build task-oriented conversational agents for low-resource languages. Technologies include transformers, PyTorch, Torchvision, Flask-RESTful, and PostgreSQL.
- Created intent classification, sentiment, and entity extraction models that rely on various deep learning and classical machine learning techniques to accommodate various languages. Used transformers, scikit-learn, PyTorch, and TensorFlow.
- Developed a machine vision-based quality assurance application with a machine vision camera interface. The technologies include Torchvision, Flask-RESTful, GenICam, and React. Used deep transfer learning to improve sample efficiency of clients' data.
Research Group Leader | Principal Research Scientist
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
- Developed a real-time image processing framework as well as image enhancement, target detection, object tracking, and state estimation algorithms.
- Developed software interfaces to hardware devices like cameras, pan-tilt-zoom systems, communication radios, and real-time clocks.
- Led the company's image processing team of full-time employees and students, published some papers, and helped with talent management and screening.
Senior Research Scientist, Optronic Sensor Systems
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
- Developed models for a physically based optronics scene simulator. The models were developed in C++ and an in-house 3D modeling tool.
- Developed physically based renderers for the long and medium-wave infrared bands. The full software and hardware accelerated renderers were developed in C++ and OpenGL with GLSL. The rendering algorithms ranged from simple to path tracing.
- Developed physically based renderers for the short wave (reflective) and visual bands. The software and hardware accelerated renderers were developed in C++ and OpenGL with GLSL. The rendering algorithms ranged from simple to path tracing.
Senior Research Scientist, Modelling and Simulation
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
- Developed a faster-than-real-time distributed modeling and simulation framework for wargaming-type simulations. The simulation framework was implemented in C++ and employed TCP communication between the nodes.
- Built vehicle and equipment models for wargaming-type simulations. The models ranged from behavioral to physically based and were implemented in C++.
- Created a 3D simulation viewer and analysis tool using OpenSceneGraph and osgEarth.
Project History
Talking Head | Avatar API
A Natural Language Understanding and Computer Vision Cloud Service
Real-time Image Processing Framework
Physically-based Path Tracing Renderer
Education
PhD in Computer Science
University of Pretoria - South Africa
Certifications
Deeplearning.ai NLP Specialization (In Progress: 3/4 Course Certificates Completed)
Coursera
Deep Reinforcement Learning for Enterprise Nanodegree
Udacity
Google Cloud Certified - Professional Data Engineer
Google Cloud
Deep Learning 5-course Specialization by Deeplearning.ai
Coursera
Skills
Libraries/APIs
PyTorch, OpenCV, REST APIs, Flask-RESTful, OpenGL, Scikit-learn, Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK), NumPy, Pandas, TensorFlow, Google Speech API, OpenAI API, Node.js
Tools
BigQuery, Whisper, AI Prompts, Tableau, OpenSceneGraph, Torchvision, ChatGPT
Languages
Python, C++, GLSL, Assembly, JavaScript, SQL
Paradigms
Agile, ETL
Platforms
Linux, MacOS, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), NVIDIA CUDA, Kubernetes, Docker, Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), NVIDIA NeMo
Storage
Data Pipelines, Google Cloud, Data Integration, Database Management
Frameworks
Unity
Other
NLU, Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, Machine Learning, Computer Science, Image Processing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Data Science, Neural Networks, Text Classification, Image Classification, AI Design, Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Image Generation, Stable Diffusion, Architecture, AI Modeling, AI Content Creation, CI/CD Pipelines, Technical Leadership, Hugging Face, Modeling, Transformers, Google BigQuery, Data Analytics, Simulations, Facial Recognition, Facial Tracking, Video Capture, Image Recognition, Rendering, Visual Computing, Sentiment Analysis, Real-time Vision Systems, Leadership, GPU Computing, Speech-to-Text (STT), Text-to-Speech (TTS), Speech Recognition, Large Language Models (LLMs), Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Team Leadership, Full-stack, Model Deployment, Technical Writing, Writing & Editing, Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), Data Annotation, Audio Processing, Machine Learning Operations (MLOps), Azure Text to Speech, Real-time Audio Processing, Data Cleansing, Data Analysis, Text to Image AI, Containerization, Internet of Things (IoT), Text to Image, Prompt Engineering, Hand Tracking, FastAPI, Diffusion Models, Diffusion-based AI Models, AI Chatbots, Speech Analytics, Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), CTO, Open-source LLMs, API Integration, APIs, Image Manipulation, Mathematics, Physics, Molecular Biology, Hardware Development, Data Engineering, Deep Reinforcement Learning, Deep Learning, Natural Language Understanding (NLU), Embedded Software, Hardware Drivers, Graphical User Interface (GUI), Ray Tracing, Algorithms, 3D Math, Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), Software Development, Product Discovery, Text to Video, Call Centers, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), LoRa, DALL-E, AI Art Visualization
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