How's it going? I'm Thomas.
I love coding. creating a positive impact. being creative. empowering others.

Thomas Tran
"Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability."
--Edsger W. Dijkstra

I am a software engineer with a passion for creating technology that empowers people. I believe that technology can be used to make the world a better place, and I am committed to using my skills to make a positive impact.

My background is in applying technical skills to produce software systems that support people. From my background, I've come to appreciate the profound impact of software engineering on human lives. This field isn't just about coding - it's about creating solutions that empower individuals and communities, addressing their needs and enhancing their quality of life.

I dedicate my career to creating software that empowers people to be the best versions of themselves. This means engineering systems that help people reach their goals, that make life easier for them or their loved ones, and that ultimately improve the human condition.

I believe that software should be designed with the user in mind. It should be intuitive, easy to use, and accessible to everyone. I am committed to designing software that interface well with people, and that benefits the individual, their community, and beyond.

I believe that by creating humanistic systems, we can innovate existing ideas to deliver products that ultimately improve the human condition. I am excited to be a part of this movement, and I am confident that I can make a significant contribution.

Projects


These are the projects I can share. Please select a project for more details.

Click here for a demo

Alif Ba! is an Arabic character recognition system that utilizes a convolutional neural network and a gradient-based optimization machine learning algorithm. Its purpose is to identify individual Arabic alphabet characters while disregarding other character forms like initial, medial, or final. Although Alif Ba! is not flawless, it continuously improves over time.

The underlying implementation of Alif Ba! relies on the Adam optimization algorithm, which serves as an alternative to the conventional stochastic gradient descent method. This algorithm adapts to estimate lower-order moments, making it computationally efficient, requiring minimal memory, invariant to diagonal rescaling of gradients, and well-suited for handling large-scale problems involving substantial amounts of data and parameters. The optimization algorithm updates the network weights iteratively using training data and eventually finds the optimal weight after multiple iterations. The neural network governs the iterations, with forward propagation updating the weights and back propagation optimizing those weights.

Built with Python + Keras + Tensorflow.

MIVVI Shop is an ecommerce platform for selling beauty products. I designed and programmed the entire web app with help from third party open-source libraries. Involved in backend, front-end, database administration, and deployment to Heroku.

Built with Django + Oscar + Solr + Stripe + PostgreSQL + more.

Centipe Text Editor is a fully-functional text editor designed as a free alternative to the proprietary Notepad software available on Windows platforms. It has a wide range of features, including line numbering, text formatting, and search and replace. It also supports a variety of file formats, including plain text, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Python.

Built with core Java + Swing.

Posts


I love writing, and I write about topics that I find interesting. The abridged list below contains posts that I have written throughout my career over the years.

Background


Education
Computer Science, Psychology
Previous Jobs
Software Engineer, Research Assistant, Call Center Sales Agent, Hospice Volunteer
Interests
Writing, thrift shopping, couponing
Spoken Languages
English, Vietnamese