Joe Verbist
Student at heart
Even though I graduated from my MSc in September 2022, I aim to keep undertaking research projects. Recent interests include digital engineering, multi-agent reinforcement learning, and simulations for training robotic systems. Alongside my job as a quantitative analyst in the financial sector in London, I aim to keep the spirit of independent study, and learn by developing. An avid software enthousiast, future projects will expand my skill-set in areas such embedded development and physical production. Other than these technology related interests, I also enjoy cycling, sailing and reading.
University of Oxford
MSc in Mathematical Modelling and Scientific computing
In september 2021 I started a one-year Master's degree at the University of Oxford. During this year I, my academic expectations are to learn about the complete modelling process: going from a verbal problem statement, to finding the governing equations and create a model, to implementing a computational solution and finally validating the answer. In September 2022 I graduated with a final grade of 69.3/100, obtaining a Merit.
Previous Education
European School of Mol
In secondary school, I took advanced Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, and I graduated with a final average of 89%. It is during my last few years that I discovered programming. First HTML, CSS and JS, and then later an Arduino's. In my last year I also started programming in Python and using Linux to repurpose old computers as servers. Upon graduation, I was present with an award from the SCK-CEN nuclear research centre for obtaining the highest grades in science of my graduating year.
Technical University of Delft
In September 2018 I started a bachelor degree of Aerospace Engineering at the Technical University of Delft. During my first year, I joined the Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering (DARE) team, participating in the Small Rocket Project, took part in a part-time internship at satsearch. In the second year I became a part-time member of the Electronics department in DARE working on Stratos IV, and designed and built a cluster of raspberry pi's. In my third year, I took a minor in 'Electronics for Robotics', and researched and coded an RL agent. Obtaining a final average of 8.3/10, I graduated with Cum Laude distinction.
Varia
Languages
Growing up in the province of Antwerp, Belgium, I first learnt Dutch, but then switched schools and learnt French during my first year of primary school. At the European School of Mol, I also learnt English, so that, by the time I graduated from secondary school I was fluent in Dutch, French and English.During my last two years at European School of Mol, I took evening classes at the local college to learn German. For the last 8 years, I have also been slowly but steadily learning Italian, mostly through Duolingo, books and movies, so that I am now able to hold a simple conversation in both German and Italian, and am working to improve my abilities in both languages
Volunteering
In 2016, 2017, and 2018, I volunteered with the 'Bouworde' organisation in Ouitkrazne, Morocco, in Gudevice, Bulgaria, and in Nomadelfia, Italy. In Ouitkrazne, near Taroudant in Morocco, us volunteers built a water basin to feed animals, paved a road with concrete and painted a school. In Gudevica Bulgaria, I assisted in making terraces out of the mountainside, digging drainage canals for a road and expanding the garden. Then, in Nomadelfia, I went to Nomadelfia in Italy, where I helped with the maintenance of a religious center's infrastructure.Varia
2017 - Latinum Europaeum (latin certificate)2017 - Delft B2 (french language certificate)
2017 - Participated in UNIS-UN conference about the refugee crisis at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
2018 - Part of the Media Team for MUN (Model United Nations) in Strasbourg.
2018 - Tech'Office Hackathon in Namur, Belgium - 2nd overall place
2019 - From March to July I performed a paid part-time internship at satsearch in a Computer Science intern role. During this time I built a Python library to access their services, wrote a tutorial on Hohmann transfers and explored web scraping.
2019 - HackDelft - winning team of Optiver Challenge
2020 - BrightNetwork Technology Internship Experience
2021 - TOEFL iBT at home: 113/120.
Core values
Below is a non-exhaustive list of my core values.Dependability
- Your word should have value. When I say I'll do something, be somewhere, help someone, then I will do it, no excuses. I am a reliable partner aiming to under-promise and over-deliver.
- As a friend, if you need me, I'll be there. I'll give up what I value most, time, and help out, no matter the time, no matter the place. What good is a friend if they can't be relied on in times of need?
Respect and Responsibility
- When there is a success, it was us who accomplished, if there is a failure, it is probably my fault. This is my standard point of view, any deviation must be justified.
- Paying respect forward helps create friendships and stability.
- As we usually don't know why anyone does what they do, it helps to avoid making assumptions.
Durability and repairability
- When something breaks, it should be repaired, not thrown away. If it's not worth repairing, it's not worth getting.
- A practical corollary is that I enjoy repairing things.
Privacy and open source
- Being reasonably protective of my privacy, I actively avoid using services from large ad-funded technology companies. This takes the form of running a file storage server, an always-on VPN, and running programs locally when possible.
- Applauding and use open-source software daily, I am consciously aware of what the time and effort volunteers have spent developing it. In the future, I would like to contribute, either by developing or donating.
Always Learning
- There always is a lot I don't know, and thus aim to make learning a habit, leading me to be more curious about the world around me, and hopefully more knowledgeable as well.