Kevin Lacaille

astrophysicist ➡️ software engineer

🔭 I was an observational astronomer working in the field of galaxy evolution and dynamics, where I used the world's best telescopes to look deep into space, and back in time, to a time when galaxies were younger and and more violent than they are today.

⭐ By studying their galactic dust and gas heated by exploding stars and active black holes, I uncovered how galaxies use them to fuel their star formation.

👨‍💻 I applied my knowledge in both physics and astrophysics to create innovative computer vision and image processing algorithms for aerospace and maritime technology in industry.

🛰️ Now, I develop tools to empower fellow scientists and developers to explore the Earth at with Planet Labs' tiny satellites!

talking

PyCon 2023

SciPy 2022

writing

Unique astrophysics projects

Published papers

(peer-reviewed)

811

Citations

1133

Reads

(past 90 days)

Skills

I primarily develop in Python, version controlling using git on GitHub & GitLab. I am currently learning C++, SQL, and web development! Below are the relative strengths for the languages and tools I use in my stack:

Python 100%

MATLAB 90%

C++ 40%

bash 60%

git 80%

PostgreSQL 30%

Resume

Summary

Kevin Lacaille

Innovative & enthusiastic Software Engineer with 7+ years of experience developing intuitive and user-friendly APIs, novel computer vision solutions, data science frameworks, image processing techniques, in both industry and academia.

Professional Experience

Software Engineer

Planet Labs, Remote, Canada

2021 - present

Developer Relations

Developing tools to enable and empower fellow scientists and developers to do amazing things using Planet's APIs and imagery.
Developing Planet's Python SDK, including a Python client library and command line interface (CLI) for Planet's public APIs.
Planet SDK
Working on developing code examples and demo apps, contributing to open source developer tools and libraries, and create code-focused tutorials.
Planet Notebooks
Creating end-to-end data projects for Planet APIs in Python.
Planet School
Writing technical blog posts for Planet's Developer Center.
Developer Center Blog
Maintaining documentain for Planet developer tools and APIs.
Developer Center

Python:

asyncio, click, httpx, Rasterio, geojson, NumPy, Matplotlib, OpenCV, SciPy

Web Dev:

HTML, JS, CSS, Redoc, Jinja, Pelican

Tools:

git, bash, GitHub, GitLab, Jupyter Notebooks, Docker, Atlassian Tools, Google Earth Engine (GEE)

Cloud:

Google Cloud Platform (CGP)

OS:

MacOS

Algorithm Engineer

L3Harris WESCAM, Burlington, ON

2019 - 2021

Advanced Processing Team

The lead algorithm developer for two novel infrared-based imaging systems.
Developed the core object detection, multi-target tracking, track to track association, and track fusion algorithms for multiple imaging systems.
Collaborated with multiple teams to develop a synthetic data generator, which allows for ad hoc generation of synthetic scenery, resulting in a massive reduction in labour hours spent in gathering field imagery.
Refactored and updated an in-house ground truth and data ingestion application, maintained the optical flow model (FlowNet2) and incorporated an object classifier (YOLOv4).
Lead a team of 5 for process improvement related to unit testing guidelines, code styling, code guidelines, git workflow, and code reviews.

Python:

Matplotlib, NumPy, OpenCV, Pytorch, Tensorflow, Keras, SciPy, Scikit-learn

MATLAB:

Image Processing, Computer Vision, Signal Processing, Deep Learning

Tools:

git, bash, Docker, Atlassian Tools

OS:

Linux

Research Assistant

McMaster University, Hamilton, ON

Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS

2012 - 2019

Developed spectral line fitting algorithms, modelled galaxy's dynamics, and used statistical analysis to uncover distant galaxies.
Designed algorithms to align obscured star maps to unprecedented accuracy to measure small changes in a star's luminosity.

Python:

Matplotlib, NumPy, SciPy, Pandas, AstroPy, AplPy, PyFits, Galpak

Tools:

git, Starlink, CASA, LaTeX

OS:

Linux, MacOS

Resident Scientist

East Asian Obervatory, Hilo, HI

2016

Assisted in commissioning of an instrument on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT)
Conducted >450 hrs of scientific observations with the JCMT's legacy and prototype instruments

Python:

Matplotlib, NumPy, AstroPy, AplPy, PyFits

Tools:

git, bash, Starlink

OS:

Linux