CV

Multidisciplinary engineer — optical instrumentation from schematic to shipped software. PDF available on request.

Contact Information

Name Joseph Demarest
Professional Title Founding Engineer at Vyir Inc
Email joseph@demarest.dev
Location New York, NY
Website https://demarest.dev

Professional Summary

Multidisciplinary engineer who owns an entire instrumentation stack end-to-end — Python backends, REST services, and PyQt desktop apps on top; embedded firmware and custom PCBs underneath. I turn research requirements into shipped, validated instruments and build the internal platforms and automation that let a one-person engineering org ship like a full team.

Experience

  • 2025 -

    New York, NY (Remote)

    Founding Engineer
    Vyir Inc
    Sole engineer for the company. I architect, build, and maintain every layer of the product: Python services and REST APIs, PyQt/PyQtGraph desktop software, embedded firmware, and the custom PCBs they run on.
    • Designed and own Vyir’s instrumentation monorepo — the single codebase driving every instrument’s data acquisition, processing, and distribution pipeline — standardizing how the company builds, tests, and ships software.
    • Deliver optical-metrology instruments from schematic to validated data, and built the internal tooling that compresses build–test–iterate cycles across software, firmware, and hardware.
    • Built a suite of Google Apps Script automations that integrate Workspace data, reporting, and operational workflows, eliminating hours of recurring manual work each week.
  • 2023 - 2025

    New York, NY (Remote)

    Software Engineer
    Vyir Inc
    Full-stack engineering for R&D: lab automation, data acquisition, and analysis platforms.
    • Engineered and deployed a full-stack Python lab-automation platform that cut core experimental analysis from ~3 hours to ~5 minutes — an estimated $2.5M and 9 engineer-years saved annually.
    • Architected the R&D data-acquisition system that became the team’s core platform, improving deployment efficiency by over 70%.
    • Built Python/Flask backend services and REST APIs delivering experimental data to internal analytics applications, owning the full SDLC from system design and firmware through testing and production deployment.
  • 2023 - 2023

    New York, NY (Remote)

    Software Engineering Intern
    Vyir Inc
    Low-cost instrumentation prototyping on Raspberry Pi.
    • Prototyped a Raspberry Pi beam profiler using an RPi 4 with three camera modules (Camera v2, v3, and HQ) to capture raw beam images and compute beam-profile metrics.
    • Benchmarked it against a commercial beam profiler to prove feasibility; the validated approach was then built out into a more capable in-house instrument.
    • Developed additional Raspberry Pi data-logging and experimental setups to support ongoing R&D at low cost.

Education

  • - 2023

    New York, NY

    B.S.
    College of Staten Island (CUNY)
    Computer Science

Skills

Languages: Python, C, C++, JavaScript, SQL (PostgreSQL), Bash / Shell
Backend & Data: Flask, FastAPI, REST APIs, Pandas, NumPy, PostgreSQL, SQLite
Frontend & Desktop: PyQt, PyQtGraph, React
Hardware: PCB Design (KiCad), Embedded Firmware, Motion Control, Data Acquisition, Scientific Instrumentation, Optoelectronics, SolidWorks
AI & Automation: Claude Code, Agentic LLM Workflows, Local LLM Inference, Google Apps Script
DevOps & Tooling: Docker, Linux, Proxmox, Git, GitHub Actions, MATLAB, uv

Languages

English : Native speaker

Interests

Optics & Photonics: Beam profiling, Spectroscopy, Optical metrology
Agentic AI Systems: Multi-agent orchestration, Cost-governed autonomy, Local inference
Homelab & Self-hosting: Proxmox, Linux, Networking
Game Tooling & Modding: Path of Exile economics, Project Zomboid modding, Godot

Projects

  • Evolver
    • Hard per-backend cost caps with a race-safe kill-switch governor, DB-backed rate limiting, and a two-tier game-proof verifier (public seed + private held-out re-verification).
    • Heterogeneous roster across ~14 LLM providers with per-role routing (proposer / builder / verifier), personas, and a shared playbook for cross-agent knowledge transfer.
    • KernelBench-style GPU tasks on AMD ROCm (RX 7900 XTX via WSL2).
  • Midas Touch
    • Canonical item registry as the load-bearing join key across data sources, with normalized [0,1] scoring signals and confidence/staleness flags.
    • FastAPI + HTMX dashboard, SQLite + Alembic storage, ~120 TDD tests.
  • aiusage
    • Rolling-window block analytics, burn rate, per-model pricing engine, and notional-vs-subscription ROI reporting.
    • FastAPI + SSE dashboard; statusline integration for live quota display.
  • Path of Exile Economy Scraper & Analytics
  • Containerized Pastebin Service