Zak Kohler
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
Akron, OH, United States
Toptal member since May 27, 2021
Zak is a chemical engineer by training but a hacker at heart. With extensive programming experience (starting in third grade), he excels at delivering the right solution that meets goals for functionality, performance, reliability, and maintainability. While serving as a chemical and software engineer at Cooper Tire & Rubber Company since 2015, he has applied his knowledge of C, Compilers, operating systems, and CPUs, and presented talks on CPUs, Renode, and RISC-V.
Portfolio
Experience
Availability
Preferred Environment
Linux, Vim Text Editor, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), GCC, Clang, Make, Clean Code, Python, Test-driven Development (TDD), Bash, GNU Debugger (GDB)
The most amazing...
...success I've achieved was building an ML-based expert system that outperforms humans in the chemical engineer role for which I was originally hired.
Work Experience
Full-stack Developer
Radical Semiconductor Inc
- Developed a CI/CD pipeline for a custom fork of OpenSSL, a Flask back-end, and a .NET front-end.
- Created automated unit and integration testing for all back-end functionality.
- Suggested and implemented improvements to the overall project architecture, which led to increased maintainability and improved the deployment experience.
Chemical and Software Engineer
Cooper Tire and Rubber Company
- Identified an opportunity to use machine learning to automate a core skill set required in my chemical engineering role. Successful execution involved building the data infrastructure, ML deployment, and a UI that naturally augments engineers.
- Developed an image analysis algorithm that is unprecedented in the industry. This was a curiosity, outside my duties, from the manufacturing side. It reduced a task that took three hours to the time required to scan the samples.
- Created a self-serve DevOps system for "engineers who code." This involved creating the automation and documentation, code review, and pair programming to enable non-developers to use Git and Python to develop and deploy engineering apps.
Front-end Python Developer
Stanford University - Main
- Developed a new interactive Jupyter Notebook within a multi-notebook analysis workflow. This included a full GUI experience built using ipywidgets.
- Unit tested all back-end functionality according to existing testing standards.
- Suggested and implemented improvements to the user interface specification, which made the end user experience much smoother than initially conceived.
Molecular Dynamics Intern | Tread Compounding Intern
Cooper Tire and Rubber Company
- Created analytics tools used globally by 50+ materials engineers.
- Experimented with accelerating molecular dynamics simulations using GPUs by recompiling LAMMPS, which resulted in a two-time speed up.
- Evaluated 10+ experimental raw materials in rubber compounds, such as resin and liquid polymer.
Web Developer
Freelance
- Customized an open-source forum and integrated it with an existing website.
- Maintained legacy websites for multiple clients, always responding promptly to requests for adjustments.
- Created a book launch promotion that enabled fans to send a themed email to their friends.
Experience
Baremetal RISC-V Renode
https://github.com/y2kbugger/baremetal-riscv-renodeI was the sole developer of the code examples and compilation instructions, along with a blog post and LinuxFest 2020 conference talk on the subject. This lowers the barrier of entry for new Embedded C and ASM developers while adding to the ecosystem for open hardware standards such as RISC-V.
Conference Talk on How CPUs Work
https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/y2kbugger/sapy.git/mybinder-releaseMy talk, "Learn How Computers Work Between Silicon and Assembly: Build a CPU with Python," helps high-level programmers understand what is happening in a computer at a lower level. During the talk, we build up a CPU focused on transparency, interactivity, and modularity. Our CPU has a configurable architecture and machine language, and it is extensible with new instructions to add functionality. The talk covers registers, data and address buses, memory (ROM and RAM), IO, and assemblers.
A Simple RISC-V Multitasking OS for Learning
https://blog.y2kbugger.com/2021-12-03-ohiolinuxfest.htmlEducation
Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering
University of Akron - Akron, Ohio, USA
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Polymer, SQL, Matplotlib, OpenSSL, Protobuf
Tools
Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX), GCC, Make, Valgrind, Vim Text Editor, Jupyter, Pytest, GNU Debugger (GDB)
Languages
Python, Visual Basic, Visual Basic, SQL, C#, Bash, Excel VBA, C, Embedded C, Assembly, HTML, PHP, CSS, JavaScript, HTML5, Python
Frameworks
Flask, .NET, Renode, Blazor, OAuth
Paradigms
Clean Code, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), DevOps, Iterative Design, Agile Development, RISC-V, REST, Continuous Integration (CI)
Storage
JSON, SQL Server
Platforms
Linux, Jupyter Notebook, Visual Studio Development, Web Development, Azure
Other
Machine Learning, Public Speaking, GUI Design, Data Structures, Back-end Developers, Full-stack, Software Architecture, Architecture, Simulations, Biotechnology, Monte Carlo Simulations, Differential Equations, PID Controllers, Cell Biology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Process Economics, CPU Design, Compilers, Molecular Biology, Widgets, Linux, Operating Systems, System Security, .NET 6, CI/CD Pipelines, Open Source Development, APIs, SSL
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