Ross Gardiner

    |   Amsterdam, Netherlands


I am a software engineer who likes to work on deep tech projects that have real world impact. My main focus is on 3D/CAD technologies and building early-stage products. I’m also interested in functional programming and developer tools.

CTO and Co-founder, Midspace

I cofounded and was CTO for Midspace (originally Clowdr), a virtual conference platform that aimed to provide a viable, low-carbon alternative to in-person academic conferences.

  • Built open-source platform for running virtual conferences.
  • Designed and built cloud infrastructure.
  • Worked directly with our customers to design new features and provide support.

The Midspace codebase is completely open source.

Software Engineer, Tracsis

Haskell engineer on cloud-hosted railway operations software.

Software Engineer, 3Shape

I worked on Clear Aligner Studio, which is CAD software used by orthodontists to create clear aligner treatments for their patients.

  • Prototyped, implemented and debugged 3D geometry algorithms.
  • Built CAD applications on an in-house reactive dataflow framework.
  • Maintained team CI pipeline.
  • Worked in an agile team distributed across three countries.
  • Contributed to company-wide packages and documentation.

Software Engineer Intern, Ultraleap

Built an acoustics simulation tool. Produced visualisations and other analyses for internal and customer use.

Vice-President, Computer Science Society

Organise and run events for Computer Science students. Liaise with department to represent students. Raised £6000+ sponsorship and handle industrial relationships.

Performance Analysis Engineering Intern, Arm

Added ARM support to an open-source static analysis framework.

Runner up in the ARM Global Intern Innovation Challenge with an activity for the micro:bit.

Webmaster, Computer Science Society, University of Bristol

Re-architected the existing website to use Jekyll and GitHub Pages. Refreshed society brand identity. Designed posters, email marketing and merchandise. Ran events (talks, hackathons, socials) attracting over 900 attendees throughout the year.

cssbristol.co.uk (source)

Technician, Student Laptop and Mobile Clinic, University of Bristol

Part-time. I fix a wide range of problems for undergraduate and postgraduate students, who use all sorts of devices and software stacks.

Student Laptop and Mobile Clinic

Intern Developer, Just Eat

I worked as a C#/.NET developer for International Engineering. I spent a few weeks researching possible integration of Amazon Machine Learning into the Just Eat platform, after which I joined in with day-to-day sprint work. My colleague and I won part of the Just Eat Hackathon with a Pebble smartwatch app.

Computer Science MEng, University of Bristol

First Class, 76%

Awarded 2018 Wertheimer Memorial Prize for contribution to the Department of Computer Science.

Below is a far-too-long list of things that happened during my degree.

First year

  • Programming and Algorithms (C, Haskell, Java, JavaScript)
  • Theory of Computation (automata, grammars)
  • Introduction to Computer Architecture (digital electronics, ISAs/CPU design, compilers)
  • Mathematical Methods for Computer Scientists (logic, modular arithmetic, probability, calculus)
  • Origins of Computer Science
  • French

December 2014

Presented a vision for bitcoin-mining funded websites as part of the Origins of Computer Science unit and built a small prototype. It came true a few years later (as malware!)

Built an antweight robot for the first Bristol University Robot Wars.

January 2015

Built an 8-step sequencer at the ARM Hackathon.

March 2015

Entered Nicolas Cagefighter into the second BEEES Robot Wars competition. Reserving the name Theresa Mayhem for next time.

Built a responsive webapp using Google App Engine for the 2015 Mubaloo appathon.

Second year

January 2016

Attempted to build a pinball table for the BEEES ARM Hackathon. I wrote most of the embedded software (Python on RPi, C++ on mbed).

Third year

  • High Performance Computing (OpenMP, MPI, OpenCL)
  • Artificial Intelligence with Logic Programming (Prolog)
  • Computer Graphics (raytracer, rasteriser)
  • Image Processing and Computer Vision
  • Computational Neuroscience
  • Introduction to Machine Learning
  • Design Verification (SystemVerilog, e)
  • Games Project (our game: Loan Shark)

February 2017

Organised Boeing-sponsored hackathon (and built a 3D visualisation tool for monitoring device temps).

Fourth year

February 2018

Organised second Boeing-sponsored hackathon (and built AR Mars robot simulator with Iridium sat comms).

April 2018

Attended CHI 2018 in Montreal to present a poster for Choptop.

MI Analyst, Lloyds Banking Group

Built and improved systems for MI storage and reporting. Designed several Microsoft Access databases, used by over a hundred people. Created InfoPath forms to collect data. Built reporting tools using (T-)SQL/ODBC/SQL Server/Access/Excel/VBA. Wrote software to quickly analyse thousands of files and folders on network shares. Ran a physical library hosting over a thousand files. Implemented an ETL pipeline as part of an effort to improve regulatory reporting.

Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge

Student, Bishop's Stortford College

A Level

  • 3 A* (Maths, Further Maths, Physics)
  • 1 A (Chemistry)

AS Level

  • 5 A (Chemistry, History, Maths, Further Maths, Physics)

GCSE

  • 11 A*