Derek Jacoby
Chief Technology Officer at Insurgent AI
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolDerek Jacoby is a CTO and interdisciplinary technology leader with 15+ years building scalable, GPU‑accelerated cloud systems for complex data — from speech and linguistic models at Microsoft Research to biological EEG and satellite imagery analytics at the University of Victoria. He combines hands-on engineering and program management with a strong record of founding and growing mission-driven organizations, including Canada's first community biology lab at Victoria Makerspace and the environmental nonprofit Pacific Coastal Computing Association. Derek leads teams that bridge academia, industry, and government on projects such as AI for Earth satellite analytics and a multi‑year national digital health and geospatial contract, favoring flat, agile organizations where diverse voices shape long-term impact. He founded boutique VR/NLP company QVirt to bring speech and natural interaction to immersive experiences and now focuses on trustworthy, knowledge-graph backed AI for decision-critical systems as CTO of Insurgent AI. A PhD-trained computer scientist and experienced instructor, he blends technical depth with a passion for teaching and community mentorship that informs his pragmatic, people-centered leadership.
15 years of coding experience
26 years of employment as a software developer
Phd computer science Computer Science, Phd computer science Computer Science at University of VictoriaBA Psychology, BA Psychology at Rice UniversitySingularity University
English, French
Github Skills (50)
python8
machine-learning8
pytorch8
react-redux8
oculus7
data-science7
tensorflow7
deep-learning7
arcgis-js-api7
boilerplate6
sdk6
redux6
mount6
react5
game-development5
Programming languages (7)
Github contributions (5)
derekja/P3Speller
Jan 2014 - Apr 2016
Contributions:12 commits, 1 push in 2 years 3 months
derekja/qvirt_landing
Sep 2016 - Oct 2019
Contributions:7 pushes, 1 branch in 3 years
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