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Portfolio ========= 

Published:   2024-10-29
Last update: 2024-12-22

Table of contents:

In the following sections I would like to describe in more detail some of the projects I was involved in during my career.

Note: Many images here are not my own property, but are shown either with explicit approval from the copyright owner, or they were taken from published marketing presentations. Consequently, I cannot grant any general permissions for these, so please get in contact if you would like to use any of them.

Education

I graduated at St. Ursula high school in Sopron, Hungary in 2006, where in the final exams I chose advanced level IT as optional subject. My first programming language was Visual Basic, which I have picked for the exam as well. Other than that, early on I also had interests in HTML and ActionScript.

I went on studying computer science, and I have received BSc. (2011) and MSc. (2016) degrees in Business IT at the University of West Hungary ("NymE" as abbreviated in Hungarian, although now it is called simply Soproni Egyetem, or University of Sopron). This was a great opportunity to become a trained software developer, having participated in around 30 different courses that involved programming assignments. Java was the mainstream language at NymE, but I have also got formal introduction to C, C++, C#, Pascal, SQL, GLSL, XHTML and PHP as well. I do not want to go into much detail here about theoretical and business courses (full course lists are available upon request), but I have to note that I also had the chance to learn some about CAD (AutoCAD and ArchiCAD) and typography (LaTeX) as well.

Naturally an important part of the curriculum were project lab type of assignments. During my bachelor's I did two such projects both in 2009, first with the title "Chomp! The poisoned cookie game", which was about the analysis and implementation of a logic game in Java. My second project was "3D display in JavaOpenGL", where with two colleagues we have created a graphical demonstration tool for wood engineering students, myself being responsible for the 3-dimensional user interface. I have to note here, that historically wood sciences and forestry were the main fields researched and taught at our University (with wood engineering being a unique programme within Hungary), hence a significant portion of the IT students projects also revolved around this theme.

My BSc. thesis was published in 2010 with the title "Modeling and simulation of road traffic". It was written in C language, based on an existing telecommunication network simulator package which I adopted to use time-based simulation to model road traffic systems.

While doing my master's, I was already employed formally by the University to work on the computer vision project, aimed to detect wood surfaces. There are some details on that further below, I just wanted to mention that basically all my assignments were in some form linked to that same theme throughout the master's programme. In 2012 during my mandatory internship at NymE-Erfaret (which was a non-profit organization loosely tied to the University) I wrote a study investigating how hardware graphics acceleration using shader programs could be exploited to increase detection performance. Later in the same year I handed in "Detection of relevant areas on images", which was about how machine learning techniques could be used in the project.

Two-part image showing first wood logs stacked and photographed axially, then the same image with color overlay by computer analysis.
With stacks of wood logs photographed, my assignment was to detect the useful surface area.

For my MSc. thesis, I had the chance to work on the same flow of development for three semesters, forming a multi-part work. I have defended the last part in 2016 to earn the master's degree. The titles are the following:

To summarize in a few words, the work was centered on the JLensCal software package, which I wrote in Java as a companion tool for our computer vision project to aid in making accurate camera calibrations for lens distortion compensation.

Screenshot from a program showing a photo with dots in a grid pattern.
First step in the calibration process is to generate a reference grid by the program, take a photograph with the desired lens configuration and load it in.
Screenshot from a program showing reference dots with their center marked.
The program automatically detects the center of all reference dots.
Screenshot from a program showing dots connected as a grid, with observable distortion.
The program connects the centers to form the source grid, the pillow-like shape indicates lens distortion.
Screenshot from a program showing dots connected as a grid, now forming straight lines without distortion.
After running the calibration function of the program and obtaining the correction parameters, we can check that the grid is straight and rectangular after image transformation.

Professional projects

After a brief internship working in JavaEE development at a local bank, in 2011 I became an employee in the Institute of IT and Economics at NymE. I was assigned to work on timber volume estimation based on photo-analysis, called the Sarang project (named after the term for "a stack of logs" in Hungarian). The research on the subject was initiated by a branch called Innovation Center (Innovációs Központ) at the University, and soon I got transferred there permanently. Unfortunately at this time of writing I don't have permission to disclose many details about the project, as it is still in active development, now called MobileForester. I had the opportunity to work on this very problem on and off for more than a decade, including six years as sole maintainer. In the first couple of years we used JavaSE in a desktop environment, then I took part in embedded programming in XC8 on PIC and C++ on Linux . Most recently I have been working on algorithm performance optimization using Rust, Vulkan and GLSL Compute Shader.

Image showing a tablet computer having customized enclosure back with instruments.
A picture from a promotional publication of one of the hand-held devices that ran my software. It was on display in multiple industrial trade shows around 2015.

One of the other major fields at the Innovation Center was energy research for buildings. To evaluate innovative heat storage solutions, there was a need for an integrated system to be able to gather measurements at the field. From around 2014, I was involved as lead developer in creating a data collection system written in C++ for Raspberry Pi devices that could be deployed on site. Later it got expanded to handle actuators as well, with everything based on a PostgreSQL database to keep all historic states of the system and be able to analyze afterwards in a convenient way. The system was deployed in several research projects over the following years.

Image showing sensors attached to industrial equipment.
Measuring wood chip moisture content at a sawmill.

In 2019 we used the system to evaluate rubber flooring tile material properties, to be used in an experimental heat collector system. With the help of the software, we could compare different tile thicknesses, configurations, and also circulation pump control schemes.

Image showing PIR blocks sandwiched, cables coming from the inside and connected to measuring equipment.
Measurement of some device-under-test in a lab environment.
Image showing rubber flooring tiles installed in an outdoor testing environment.
Tiles in the experimental installation with sensor leads coming out under the collector array.
Image showing time series graphs.
Part of a sample dataset from the experiment.

Last on this subject, I was involved in building a large climate chamber at the Innovation Center, with instrumentation managed by our software system. We were able to precisely control and hold the temperature and humidity levels in the chamber for extended periods of time, storing every bit of measurement data through the process, while still being able to monitor the status remotely.

Two-part image, first showing a thick and heavy door with cables and instruments on the side, and the second depicting the inside of a chamber with some equipment and metal racking.
Climate chamber, with door closed (left) and open (right).

You might have noticed that the copyright notices are different on the later images. Due to financial difficulties the University had to let go most of the Innovation Center research staff in 2016. I have got the opportunity to join the company Faforrás Kft. (also known as Woodspring Ltd.), which acquired rights for most of the IP linked to our projects, so the team could keep on working without major impacts. In fact we kept good relations with the University, often collaborating with the remaining Innovation Center, which was unfortunately dissolved at last around 2021.

The third major project during my time at IK/Woodspring was a custom enterprise resource planning software we designed and developed in Lazarus/FreePascal for a furniture factory in 2015-2016. I have worked on the project first as a database specialist, then as lead maintainer after the company change. The system included component and product warehouse management, demand registration, suggestions for the order of manufacture, aid for shipping logistics, and printouts for basically every step imaginable.

Please excuse that I don't have permission to present anything from the actual ERP system, but I can show a screenshot from a companion software which I wrote in Java, to aid our customer organizing their component shelving.

Image showing graphical representation of shelves, and rectangles in various sizes overlaid with component information.
The program generated to-scale 2D graphical representations of the shelves and groups of each of the hundreds of different components, which then could be arranged in a drag-and-drop manner.

I was also involved in a couple of experimental pilot projects during these years. One of those was the 3D log scanner prototype, which was put on hold in 2017 sadly. This involved real-time laser detection from a camera image, which I implemented in FPGA using VHDL.

Image showing a wood log laying longitudinally in an artificial environment, and a line-shaped laser beam coming from above.
Log scanner in operation.
Image showing a schematic block diagram.
As a companion program for this project I have written a schematic block diagram drawing application in Java, in order to aid in designing the flow of digital signals through the system.

In 2020, we built an 8-way parallel digital timer for internal company use, to help performing plastic molding tasks concurrently. With functionality, form-factor and most of the components already specified, I designed the circuit and PCB, as well as wrote the 8-bit PIC firmware for the device.

Image showing a 3-dimensional rendering of a circuit board.
Part of the circuit board design.
Image showing a custom device with buttons, lights and digital display, on top of another instrument.
The timer prototype in use, placed at a handy position attached to the top of a vacuum chamber.

To the custom order and specifications from the University, in 2021 we built a differential chamber instrument, for the purpose of running thermal conductivity measurements on construction material samples. I was responsible for all IT hardware in the device and for creating the on-board controller software in Rust as well.

Image showing a large metal box on trolley wheels, with displays and instruments.
The completed instrument during its trial runs.
Image showing the simplified internals of an instrument, with multitude of data and statistical values displayed on each side.
Measurement readout interface, depicting some of the internal physical structure in more detail.

Starting from 2019, the company took part in MiniStor, a Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme by the European Union. I was responsible for administration of the IT infrastructure and environmental monitoring system at the Hungarian demonstration building. Operations included the development of custom command line tools in Bash and Rust.

From 2022 onwards, Woodspring was involved in another Horizon Europe project, REHOUSE. I was participating on multiple fronts, first I had to oversee the installation of environmental monitoring equipment in the Hungarian demo building. This included creating an interface with an old-fashioned gas meter that only had impulse output, using a Raspberry Pi and Pico system.

Also in this project we have developed the so-called Intelligent Window System, which is a controlled secondary layer over existing windows, to battle the heat loss of buildings. For this I have designed the PIC firmware, and later I was also responsible for the PCB assembly for all instances which were to be installed in the demo building during the project.

Image showing PCBs and soldering equipment.
Printed Circuit Board assembly during the first small-scale production run of around 40 IWS systems.