Jackie Kay
United Kingdom
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolJackie Kay is a software engineer and research engineer with 11 years of experience building robust robotics and AI infrastructure, including core contributions to ROS and Gazebo that improved transform stability and physical model accuracy. They spent multiple years at DeepMind working on the infrastructure behind cutting-edge AI and are completing a PhD at UCL AI Centre that bridges machine learning with philosophy, STS, and ethics of generative AI. Jackie’s open-source work shows deep systems-level expertise—fixing subtle transform and timing bugs in rcl/rclcpp and refining simulation inertias for more realistic physics. Comfortable across C++ back-end systems and research environments, they combine production-grade engineering with academic rigor. Notably, their background includes early robotics research at CMU and the Open Source Robotics Foundation, giving them practical experience in energy-aware planning and simulator fidelity. This mix of interdisciplinary theory and hands-on systems work makes Jackie well suited to roles at the intersection of safe ML, robotics, and infrastructure.
11 years of coding experience
11 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Arts (BA), Computer Science, Bachelor of Arts (BA), Computer Science at Swarthmore CollegePhillips Exeter Academy
Chinese
Stackoverflow
806reputation
15kreached
5answers
8questions
Github Skills (33)
timers10
c-language10
gazebosim10
python10
rc10
simulations10
memory-management10
timer10
c1110
c1710
sdformat10
3d-models10
physics10
robot-simulator10
rcpp10
Programming languages (9)
Github contributions (5)
ros2/rclcpp
Jul 2015 - Apr 2016
rclcpp (ROS Client Library for C++)
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:45 commits, 103 PRs, 353 pushes in 9 months
Contributions summary:Jackie contributed significantly to the rclcpp library, focusing on core functionalities. Their work involved implementing memory strategies with vectors, enhancing executor functionalities by adding and removing guard conditions, and refactoring code to integrate with the rcl framework. This includes fixing build issues and performing code cleanup tasks. These contributions likely improve performance and stability of the library.
client-librarycpprosrclcpp
ros2/rcl
Dec 2015 - Jun 2016
Library to support implementation of language specific ROS Client Libraries.
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:21 commits, 42 PRs, 168 pushes in 5 months
Contributions summary:Jackie's contributions primarily focused on enhancing the `rcl` library within the ROS 2 ecosystem. They incorporated `rmw_waitset` functionality, fixed array semantics, and addressed issues related to timer logic, aiming to improve the library's robustness. The user also improved the wait set by incorporating guard conditions and handled negative timeouts, showcasing their efforts to improve core functionalities.
roboticsros2implementation-supportclient-librariesros
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