Nicolas Desprès
Computer Science Teacher at SpiriTech
Martigny, Wallis, Switzerland
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolNicolas Desprès is a seasoned software engineer and high-school computer science teacher in Switzerland with 17 years of experience spanning system and GUI programming, build systems, and machine learning. He combines deep C++ and Python expertise with a longtime focus on Unix tooling and build automation, contributing notable improvements to high-profile open-source projects like Ninja and CMake to streamline developer workflows. Since 2019 he balances classroom teaching with freelance engineering, bringing research-grade ML experience from PhD work to practical software delivery. Comfortable across low-level systems, Qt GUIs, and CI/build integrations, he often tackles the less-visible but critical infrastructure work that makes large projects maintainable and fast.
17 years of coding experience
12 years of employment as a software developer
Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI)Master of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, With honors, Master of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, With honors at Pierre and Marie Curie UniversitySecondary and high-school education diploma, Secondary Education and Teaching, Secondary and high-school education diploma, Secondary Education and Teaching at HEP Valais / PH WallisMaster, Computer Science, Master, Computer Science at Ecole pour I'Informatique et les Techniques AvancéesComputer Science, Computer Science at Universiteit Utrecht / University of Utrecht
English, Spanish, French
Stackoverflow
1reputation
0reached
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Github Skills (20)
ninja10
debugging10
c-language10
bash10
build-system10
cmake10
automation10
script10
compiler-compiler10
build-automation10
compiler10
automations10
cprogramming-language10
error-handling9
bash-shell9
Programming languages (8)
Github contributions (5)
ninja-build/ninja
Mar 2011 - Feb 2017
a small build system with a focus on speed
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer & Automation Engineer
Back-end Developer & Automation EngineerContributions:66 commits, 18 PRs, 70 comments in 5 years 11 months
Contributions summary:Nicolas primarily focused on improving the build system, enhancing error reporting and debugging capabilities within the Ninja build system. They added support for Doxygen documentation generation and implemented tools like the 'clean' and 'targets' tools, which streamline development workflows. Further improvements include implementing options such as -C and -l, demonstrating a focus on refining build processes and user experience.
build-system
Kitware/CMake
Jan 2011 - May 2016
Mirror of CMake upstream repository
Role in this project:Automation Engineer / Build & Release Engineer
Automation Engineer / Build & Release EngineerContributions:51 commits in 5 years 5 months
Contributions summary:Nicolas primarily focused on enhancing the Ninja build system within the CMake project. Their contributions involved pre-computing target names, converting file paths and object names to ninja-compatible paths, and centralizing path handling. They also added support for embedding CMake as a subninja project, introducing a new variable for output path prefixes. This work streamlined the build process and improved the integration capabilities within more complex build environments.
cmake
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