Intro

Hello, I'm Tomas Helander from Turku, Finland.

I'm currently working as a software engineer at Nortal Finland.

In Spring of 2022 I graduated from University of Stirling with a BSc. with Honours in Business Computing.

I have a wide variety of previous work experience prior to beginning to pursue a career in CS full-time in 2018.

My final year dissertation project involved computer vision and machine learning: The task was to build a model and accompanying mobile application to identify insects from pictures in the wild. The project was built in Python (PyTorch, sklearn). I learned a lot about automated image recognition and classification, and the project received a first class grade.

Hobbies & Interests

I have a broad range of interests, including:

• Reading on a Kindle (see Goodreads link under my picture)
• Music: I play several instruments, mostly 5-string banjo since 2007, and attempt to sing as well. For more, see the Soundcloud link under my picture.
• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: White belt, trained on and off since ~2010. Goal is to get to blue belt before I graduate.
• Yoga: Seriously got into it during the lockdowns, using the Down Dog app.
• Cooking: Only plants as of 2021.
• PC Gaming: Currently working with a HP Omen 15 laptop.
• Watercolour: Another lockdown hobby started.
• Woodworking: During my time in Australia, I designed and built (with the help of my grandfather-in-law) a fitout to transform my 2009 Holden Berlina station wagon into a campervan(wagon?) with a full size queen bed, and lived in it for four months while doing backpacker jobs.
• Cardistry: Yet another lockdown hobby. Gone from not knowing how to shuffle to knowing several shuffles and deck cuts.

Fun facts

• As a Finnish native, I speak Finnish, Swedish, and English.
• I have lived and worked in three different countries: Finland, Australia, and Scotland.
• Since 2018, I have kept a daily journal, tracking most things I do on an app called Daylio.