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Ken Mendes, Software Developer in Antwerp, Belgium
Ken Mendes

Software Developer in Antwerp, Belgium

Member since April 17, 2019
Ken is a full-stack Python developer who has broad experience in different IT roles, including mission-critical operations. He enjoys challenges, algorithms, and distributed systems, and follows a university education in data science and artificial intelligence. Ken cherishes knowledge, responsibility, and integrity, and brings these qualities to all his jobs.
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Portfolio

Experience

Location

Antwerp, Belgium

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Git, Linux

The most amazing...

...thing I've written in Python is a fully-functional C compiler.

Employment

  • Freelance

    2013 - PRESENT
    Muresi
    • Built eCommerce websites, including the development of custom plugins for communicating with payment gateways and shipping handlers.
    • Developed a flexible and automatic billing system in Python for online marketeers. It interfaced with bookkeeping systems and online marketing platforms like AdWords.
    • Built an ecologically inspired social web application using Python, Flask, and React.
    • Developed a popular PrestaShop plugin in PHP that dynamically injects canonical and hreflang tags.
    • Built a proof-of-concept neural network for license plate recognition using Python and Keras.
    Technologies: RDBMS, React, Unix, Linux, Flask, Docker, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI), JavaScript, C++, C, Shell, SQL, Python

  • IT Lecturer

    2016 - 2019
    KdG University College
    • Taught Linux courses focused on platform basics, philosophy, commands, regular expressions, and Shell scripting.
    • Guided students through the Cisco CCNA courses with theory, labs and thesis.
    • Taught basic and advanced networking courses.
    • Helped adapt course content to the current business context.
    • Built network simulations in order to evaluate students' skills and knowledge.
    Technologies: Cisco, Networking, Shell, Linux

  • HR Business Partner for IT and Americas

    2011 - 2013
    SWIFT
    • Attracted and recruited new IT talent to the organisation.
    • Guided performance management cycles in the supported divisions.
    • Supported senior management with facilitation, coaching, and management training.
    • Encouraged and supported a culture of continuous improvement.
    • Designed talent programs and training packages.
    Technologies: SharePoint, Oracle, SAP

  • Senior Unix Engineer

    2008 - 2011
    SWIFT
    • Led the technical team for one of the internal HP-UX teams.
    • Responsible for the internal mission-critical services running on HP-UX Serviceguard clusters and Oracle RDBMS.
    • Wrote business continuity tests and planning.
    • Created post-mortem reports detailing operational incidents.
    • Ensured all managed systems met or exceeded the required security levels and policies.
    Technologies: Java EE, Shell Scripting, HP-UX, Oracle RDBMS

  • Unix and Network engineer

    2006 - 2008
    Reslea NV
    • Responsible for the mission-critical HP-UX (Serviceguard) clusters.
    • Built and managed a pan-European network between the headquarters and branch offices.
    • Created a highly-available Citrix infrastructure for business-critical applications.
    • Implemented server virtualisation using VMWare ESX Server.
    • Built a VPN solution that allowed secure remote working.
    Technologies: VMware, Citrix, Juniper, Linux, HP-UX, Oracle RDBMS

  • IT Coordinator

    2004 - 2006
    KOCA
    • Responsible for the management of the IT infrastructure, networks, and telephone exchanges.
    • Supervised two IT colleagues.
    • Created a Drupal-based website for the organisation.
    • Planned structured cabling as well as network and voice architecture for several new buildings.
    • Devised a buying and replacement strategy for all IT equipment.
    Technologies: JavaScript, PHP, CSS, HTML, Bash, Linux, Cisco

Experience

  • Near Duplicate Image Detection Using Locality Sensitive Hashing (Development)
    https://github.com/mendesk/image-ndd-lsh

    This proof-of-concept uses Locality Sensitive Hashing for near-duplicate image detection and was inspired by Adrian Rosebrock's article Fingerprinting Images for Near-Duplicate Detection. At the end of the article, the author proposes to use K-d trees or VP trees to achieve real near-duplicate detection in a scalable way. This page explains how to achieve that with Locality Sensitive Hashing instead.

Skills

  • Languages

    Python 3, SQL, HTML, Bash, Python, HTML5, PHP, C, JavaScript, C++, CSS

  • Frameworks

    Flask, Bootstrap

  • Libraries/APIs

    React, Google AdWords, Twitter API, AdWords API, Mapbox GL, NumPy, SciPy, Scikit-learn, Pandas, Keras, Formik

  • Tools

    Shell, VMware, Docker Hub, Git, LaTeX

  • Paradigms

    Data Science, Microservices, Database Design

  • Platforms

    Linux, Debian, HP-UX, Citrix, Java EE, Oracle, SharePoint, Docker, Kubernetes, Alpine Linux, Unix

  • Storage

    Databases, Oracle RDBMS, RDBMS, Oracle DBMS, MySQL, PostgreSQL

  • Other

    Networks, Cisco, Juniper, Shell Scripting, SAP, Networking, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning

Education

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science
    2015 - 2018
    University of Antwerp - Antwerp, Belgium
  • Bachelor's degree in Applied Computer Science
    2000 - 2003
    KdG University College - Antwerp, Belgium

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