Kaj Grant-Mathiasen
Computer Engineer / Full-Stack Developer / Videographer / Photographer
About
Hi, I'mKaj.- pronounced like Kai (and rhymes with pie 🥧)
I'm a recent Computer Engineering graduate based in Vancouver, BC and Toronto, ON.
I'm passionate about theentirestack... from computer architecture, to reliable back-end infrastructure, and all the way up to brilliant user design.
Currently, I'm looking for a full-time position in a Software Engineering field. I have experience working with large-scale media pipelines, building scalable systems and maintaining core infrastructure.
Send me anemailor explore some of the things I've done below...
Projects
StockTracker
Personal Interest Project, May 2024 - Present
- A full-stack stock and cryptocurrency price tracker focusing on minimal design principles
- Intended for use on a 3.5" raspberry pi screen or within a web browser
- Capable of displaying thousands of unique tickers with both live and delayed price estimates
- Retrives data from the Coinbase Websocket and Finanical Modeling Prep REST API platforms
Relevant Skills: TypeScript, Vue, Vite, Node.js, Docker, Websockets, APIs
Chairable, by Roll Technology
SFU Engineering Capstone, May 2023 - Dec 2023
- Designed a modular attachment for office chairs using a spherical wheel for enhanced powered movement
- Led a team of 5 students to produce a minimum viable product and publicly demonstrate system capabilities
- Built an enclosed electrical circuit with 14+ motor control, communication, logic, and safety elements
- Devised a mechanical system with machined steel and 3D printed components to control a 2200W motor
Relevant Skills: C++, SolidWorks, KiCad, Soldering, Electrical Design, Photoshop
CUDA & FPGA Accelerated Gaussian Elimination Algorithm
ENSC 453/894 Final Project, Sept 2023 - Dec 2023
- Minimized execution time via buffering, tiling, memory, compute, and ping-pong data transfer enhancements
- Achieved an 8.4 speedup factor using Intel Intrinsics and OpenMP optimizations on the CPU-based platform
- Doubled performance of CUDA algorithm based on analysis of underlying GPU architecture and cache layout
- Compared CPU (Intel i9-10900X), FPGA (AMD Alevo U50), and GPU (Nvidia A4000) implementations
Relevant Skills: C, Cuda, Intel Intrinsics, OpenMp, Xilinx Vitis
TransitTracker
Personal Interest Project, Feb 2023
- Personal interest project to explore interactions with the Translink API platform
- Uses either a command line interface or graphical interface intended for a small raspberry pi screen
- Continuously displays current bus schedules and the time remaining till arrival of chosen bus routes
- Includes animated features, a user interface designed for quick comprehension, and robust error handling
Relevant Skills: Python, APIs
Hardware Accelerated Guitar Tuner
ENSC 452/894 Final Project, Jan 2023 - May 2023
- Designed a dual core ARM-based architecture using the Xilinx Zedboard FPGA for a custom guitar tuner
- Streamlined data transfer logic to achieve 1Hz accuracy and an input to output latency of less than 1 second
- Interfaced 9+ Audio Codecs, FFT blocks, GPIO blocks, and VGA controllers with C-based software
- Created an optimized hardware block in VHDL to perform the Harmonic Product Spectrum calculation
Relevant Skills: C, VHDL, Vivado, Xilinx Vitis, Frequency Theory
RISC-V Execution Unit
ENSC 350 Final Project, Jan 2022 - May 2022
- Designed a VHDL based execution unit capable of executing the full RISC-V instruction set
- Implemented barrel shifters, a 64-bit adder, and a logic unit to correctly respond to input signals
- Synthesized on the Cyclone IV FPGA and performed timing analysis using ModelSim waveforms
Relevant Skills: RISC-V, VHDL, Quartus, Modelsim
Experience
SAP Canada Inc.
Agile Developer Co-Op, May 2022 - Dec 2022
In the third year of my computer engineering degree, I chose to futher develop my software engineering expertise and joined the core infrastructure team at SAP Canada Inc. This was my first real taste of working on large-scale code bases and contributing to products used around the world. I was immersed in a wide range of challenges, from juggling asynchronous webpack dependencies to building certificate generation and storage for Go-based configuration servers. I also built automated testing suites using Jest and Jasmine, analyzed Jenkins CI/CD pipelines, managed version bumps, orchestrated cloud deployments with Kubernetes and Docker, and even dove into cross-microservice debugging.
I was fortunate to collaborate with both fellow interns and experienced engineers, following agile methodologies and delivering quality code. I tackled countless Jira tickets, led code reviews, and even ran full team meetings to smoothly incorporate enhancements into existing workflows and brainstorm new approaches. This Co-Op was an incredible learning experience, and I'm proud of the impact I made on the team and the products we delivered.
Relevant Skills: JavaScript, TypeScript, Kubernetes, Docker, Jenkins, Webpack, Maven, Grafana, Prometheus, Python, SQL, Jira, Jest, Jasmine, Node.js, Git, Gerrit
Sony Pictures Imageworks
Systems Engineer Co-Op, Jan 2020 - Sept 2020
During my second year of university, I received an opportunity to join the Systems Engineering Department at Sony Pictures Imageworks. Eager to be part of the immense artistic and technical talent responsible for media like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Lord of the Rings, or Men in Black, I embraced the chance. My time at Sony revolved around solving various challenges in a Unix-based environment where I took on responsibilities involving the maintenance and troubleshooting of the organization's computing infrastructure. Working closely with senior engineers, I contributed to various projects aimed at enhancing both artistic and technical capabilities. I had the privilege of witnessing multi-million-dollar projects progress through every stage of development, from lighting and texturing to animation and rigging. I even received a film credit for the amazing film: The Sea Beast.