hi! 👋
Lately, I’ve been building data science and developer tools, learning about IDEs and judging grant proposals. I’m very curious about organizational systems, structure and process. I prefer to build open source software and support open knowledge sharing.
Previously, I’ve worked on an open source Java runtime [
], code security analysis tools [
], a vulnerability management system ['Portal'], and interactive tooling for learning about Web Monetization [
].
I like to be involved in every step of the creative process: ideation ↔ design ↔ implementation ↔ documentation ↔ testing ↔ release ↔ support ↔ community. I’m happiest when building with collaborators and directly engaging with who I’m building for.
Sometimes I do speaking engagements, career coaching and freelance work. Otherwise, I’m probably bouldering at a climbing gym 🧗🏻♀️, biking on a pathway 🚴🏻♀️ or learning a new hobby 🥁.
my previous work
I was part of the Virtual Machine subteam of OpenJ9. My main contributions can be found here. I worked on extending JDK functionality, implementing startup performance enhancements, and unifying the CMake build configuration to support both compressed references and large heap in a single package.
Reshift Security Static Analysis Tool
I worked on prototyping new functionality around vulnerability remediation, as well as the Reshift VS Code IDE Extension (proprietary). I got to play around with the ANTLR parser generator, use and contribute to a Datalog variant for static analysis called Soufflé, and learn how to package and publish a VS Code Extension.
Unfortunately, the startup has since shut down, so the publicly remaining artifacts of this work are the NPM listing, Product Hunt page and the GitHub org.
I co-architected the full-stack app, led development and deployment, and managed a small development team. This is a closed-source application with minimal publicly available information.
The main features I implemented were automated email notifications for upcoming penetration test tasks, a dashboard which organizes the client's software vulnerabilities, role-based access control and automated communications between the client and our penetration testing team.
Coded, designed, wrote, spoke and illustrated for The Akita Project, a Grant for the Web funded project that teaches Web Monetization concepts through storytelling, easy-to-use tools and community outreach. This project was co-created with Elliot.
| 
Akita Browser Extension | 
'A Web Monetization Story' | 
Community Outreach |
| :-------------: |:-------------:| :-------------: |
| A browser extension that gives you insight into your engagement with Web Monetization. | An interactive, story-based Web Monetization tutorial for online creators. | community.interledger.org/akita
dev.to/esse-dev
twitter.com/esse_dev |