About Me
My name is Adam Lynam and I live and breathe computing.
I have been interested in all aspects of computing for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are discovering I could escape from the menu interface our first computer booted into and get into a DOS shell.
My interest in programming as a career started during high school. I started experimenting with C programming and I wrote a text based role playing game with random monsters to fight while I was in 5th Form (commonly known as Year 11 now). At the time, I didn't know how to use functions, so the whole game was written inside the C main function within a massive while loop.
In 6th Form (Year 12) I excelled in my general computing course and I was giving the option to work with HyperCard. I remember it felt a little like a scripted PowerPoint presentation, but it was an amazing step up from running a program on the command line. I guess that experience really let me know I wanted to code for a living.
In 7th Form (Year 13) I couldn't take computing as a subject. At the time computing didn't count for University entrance. I knew I had to take Maths/Science in order to get into the computing qualifications at University, so I took both Math (Statistics and Calculus), Physics and Chemistry and made sure to do well.
My success at High School allowed me to take an advanced first year at Waikato University. The advanced programming stream covered advanced topics, like Design Patterns and formal methods, that the regular stream did not cover. I attribute this early exposure to advanced programming techniques to my current programming prowess. I feel this early start has given me the edge over the typical developer.
As my undergraduate study continued, I had to make choices about the specific direction that I wanted to take my learning. I found myself drawn to Machine Learning, specifically Data Mining. If there was any single advantage to computers it was their ability to process massive amounts of data and capture important data points for us. I wanted to be part of that.
Because I had a strong interest in Machine Learning I investigated the possibility of completing a Masters degree through application of Machine Learning techniques. I was given the opportunity to complete my thesis by exploring if computers could detect Oestrus (heat) in dairy cows. Unfortunately, I didn't come up with any new ground breaking techniques. A human expert was still considerably more effective than the models software could create.
While I was studying, through personal connections I managed to get part time work doing web development for a company called Evos. I continued working with Evos even after they merged with another company to form WebSpring. Once I completed my Masters thesis they wanted me to work full time for them. At WebSpring I was responsible for maintenance of existing and developing new websites in PHP.
After a few years I had the opportunity to move back to Tauranga where I could be closer to family and I got a job working for KAMAR, a company that develops school administration software. I had a number of responsibilities at KAMAR. The majority of my time was spent developing and maintaining a PHP based web portal. In addition to development, if support calls were escalated up to developer level I was expected to provide high level technical support and troubleshoot issues for clients that were running KAMAR solutions.
In 2014 I completed ~4 months travel in Europe and finally settled back down in the UK.
In an attempt to steer my career back in a direction that would take advantage of my Machine Learning skills, I worked on a small, 5 month (extended to closer to 6 months) contract at InTouch Limited. I was the primary Predictive Modeller in the Smart Clean investigation, a feasibility study to build an understanding of pollutant levels in stormwater drains. I successfully produced an ensemble classifier, powered by 4 unique models to predict low/medium/high risk of pollutant levels in the drains. The project was deemed highly successful, however it has yet to produce an exploitation solution.
Despite the project success of my role at InTouch, I turned down further contracts as I once again sought a role in education. I found work at Firefly Learning, in London, where I was back to working on software that is making the lives of school staff easier. After some time in London, I moved to Newcastle, where I worked for both the Department for Work and Pensions and HM Revenue and Customs; my first direct taste of government work.
I returned to New Zealand, where I moved back into software for education, working at Catalyst IT in the e-learning team where I made close connections with the System Administration team and gained a stronger appreciation for software operations as I built automations to manage the large number of eLearning websites.
From there I moved to Toitu Te Whenua LINZ, as part of the Common Services team I helped set patterns and improve practice for their large development team. I continued into the Minstry of Social Development, using my experience in development and operations to improve ways of working and practice within the Data Science team.
I am always looking for further challenges to advance my Software Development career.