Hi, I'm Alan 👋

Staff Engineer at the C++ Alliance since its inception.
I work on high-leverage C++ developer tooling at the compiler boundary – LLVM/Clang front ends, AST analysis, and infrastructure that makes C++ easier to build, document, and maintain.

🏗️ Core Engineering Work

Tools and systems used across the C++ ecosystem.

• C++ Alliance (Staff Engineer)

  • MrDocs – responsible for major subsystems across the project and for coordinating contributors, aligning technical direction, and managing the overall workflow. This includes Clang/LLVM integration, AST analysis pipelines, and tooling architecture. I also help onboard new contributors and guide them through the relevant parts of the Clang front end.
  • cpp-actions – organization-wide CI automation for C++. I maintain the architecture, coordinate contributions, and keep workflows consistent across teams, improving reliability and reducing friction for all Alliance projects.

• Open-source projects
  These projects involve guiding contributors, supporting users, shaping long-term technical direction, and coordinating changes across ecosystems. Notable projects include:

  • Matplot++ – a widely adopted C++ plotting and scientific-computing library with thousands of GitHub stars. I maintain long-term direction and support an active community of contributors and users.
  • Boost.URL – co-author of the library introduced into the Boost collection; collaborated with maintainers across Boost to define interfaces, testing strategy, cross-library integration, and release readiness

🧠 Research and Academic Background

Optimization methods applied to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

• Ph.D. specializing in many-objective optimization and its applications to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
• Author of 50+ high-impact peer-reviewed publications, including:
  • Aggregation Trees (Elsevier Information Sciences)
  • Data structures for Pareto fronts (Swarm and Evolutionary Computation)
• Former professor, teaching C++, algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and optimization from undergraduate through doctoral levels.
  Supervised Ph.D. students, mentored research teams, and developed methods for explaining complex technical topics clearly and systematically.
• Earlier engineering work at Rolls-Royce Control and Systems UTC, applying optimization methods to aircraft engine design workflows, and experience as an EU Marie Curie researcher delivering optimization techniques for production engineering