This Is
About Me
Hi! I’m Vanilla. I’m a software developer from Austria 🇦🇹, specialising in data science and full-stack web applications. In my free time, I enjoy coding and hacking together small projects to learn about new frameworks and sharing them with my friends. When I’m not building things, I like to engage with and talk about various types of storytelling, including non-fiction literature, movies, video games, and novels.
Since early 2025, I’ve been working on slowly building up and maintaining Vanilla.sh as a portfolio and progress report for my passion projects. I started with occasional blog post updates, and am now working on extending the site with book reviews and project showcases.
Vanilla.sh is a raw display of my passions and sentiments, simple, silly and strange as they may be at times. All content on this website is free of AI writing and fully human-produced, as a sign of respect to my own creativity and as a thank-you to anyone interested enough to engage with it. I hope you enjoy your stay and maybe even learn a thing or two from my escapades.
My Experience
B.Sc. Computer Science
Obtained my bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Innsbruck, with a thesis focused on extracting data smells from datasets via machine learning.M.Sc. Software Engineering
Obtained my master's degree in software engineering from the University of Innsbruck, with a focus on data science and scientific research.Thesis Publication
My master's thesis was published in Findings of ACL 2024 and awarded the 2024 "Best Master's Thesis" title of the department of computer science.Developer in Online Banking
For a little under two years, I worked as a full-stack software developer in online banking, maintaining legacy systems and building new customer-facing solutions.Developer in Lab Diagnostics
Currently, I am working as a full-stack software developer in a medical laboratory, working directly with laboratory staff to improve and automate processes.My Toolbox
The languages and frameworks I work with usually reflect both my current personal interests and requirements from my professional environment. I consider myself somewhat of a programming language polyglot and will pick up new frameworks and languages frequently if they seem to solve a problem I’m facing particularly well. In the interest of finishing more projects and spending more time creating and less time learning, however, I’ve been trying to limit myself to a smaller selection of tools with a wider range of applications.
Node.js
I’ve recently become enamoured with SvelteKit for creating data-driven web applications, which has introduced me to the wider Node.js ecosystem. In the future, I hope to expand my understanding of TypeScript and Node.js so I can create a wider variety of web-based applications.
Rust
Despite my best efforts, I’ve never really managed to become best friends with C++, which left me wanting for a fast compiled language to offload heavy-duty processing tasks to. With Rust being used for such applications at my current job, I’m finally seeing a chance to remedy this.
Python
Python is king when it comes to machine learning and data science. I’ve heavily used it in academic contexts, and still use it for data analysis and machine learning projects to this day, often working with Jupyter Notebooks for quick visualisation tasks.
C#
C# holds a special place in my heart, as it’s the first programming language I worked with. These days, I’ve mostly left the Microsoft ecosystem, so the context in which I can reasonably use C# is dwindling, but I still sometimes work with it, mainly in the context of game development in Unity and Godot.
Hall of Fame
(Temporarily) gone, but not forgotten, is a collection of other programming languages I’ve used in the past. While I currently don’t work with them actively, they remain backup options should a specialised need arise in a personal or professional context.
Java
I’ve worked extensively with Java both academically and professionally, but currently find the language outclassed by others for my specific needs.
Flutter
I’ve previously experimented with Flutter for building cross-platform frontend applications, but found use-cases too limited to keep investing in the ecosystem.
C / C++
I’ve worked with C and C++ before in the context of game development (Unreal Engine) and microcontrollers, but currently have no plans to actively expand my knowledge.
Project Highlights
Currently, I’m in the process of building up a portfolio showcase containing both old and new projects! If you can’t wait until then, here’s a quick preview of what I’m currently working on!
Nya.GG
Spring, JSF, S3
Catgirl-Branded Media Hosting
Hosted on my most valuable domain, Nya.GG is a simple image and video distribution platform, built using a JSF frontend and a Java Spring backend. In its current state, Nya.GG contains user management, image upload, video trimming and processing, and rich embeds for social media.
Vanilla.sh
Hugo, HTML, CSS
A Portfolio That Lasts
Vanilla.sh is a simple portfolio of my work and a space for me to publish hobby-related resources and write-ups. It’s built using Hugo, a static site generator, with a fully custom theme, and is continuously deployed via a CI/CD pipeline. You’re reading it right now!