Hey, I'm Denis.

Lancaster is where my interests turned into passions—and those passions into real-world projects. From the very start, I sought out opportunities that went beyond lectures and textbooks. I worked as a Teaching Assistant in HCI, became a researcher in the ERC-funded GEMINI Project, and focused my dissertation on gaze-based interaction in XR. These roles gave me more than just technical skills in Unity, C#, Python, or eye-tracking hardware—they taught me how to ask better questions, design experiments, and think critically about how users actually interact with systems. Meanwhile, my growing curiosity for infrastructure and systems led me to explore Docker, CI/CD, and Kubernetes. I set up my own dev environments, built deployment pipelines, and started thinking in terms of scalable, cloud-native tools long before graduation. Just as important, university was where I stepped into leadership roles. As a TA, I supported dozens of students, helped lead seminars, and guided people through complex ideas—all of which boosted my communication, mentorship, and problem-solving abilities. Lancaster gave me a solid foundation, but more than that—it gave me the confidence to build, lead, and keep learning. It's where the journey toward DevOps, XR, and technical project leadership really started.

The IB Diploma challenged me more than anything up to that point. It pushed me to think deeply, organize and optimize my time, and communicate ideas clearly—whether in essays, lab reports, or heated debates in Theory of Knowledge class. I studied a mix of subjects including English, History, Physics, and Math, which forced me to balance analytical and creative thinking constantly. That mix shaped how I approach problems today—from technical debugging to project planning. Stonyhurst also helped me grow socially and emotionally. It's where I started to understand the power of collaboration, especially in diverse, international environments. It wasn't just about getting through the workload—it was about building the resilience, empathy, and global perspective I now bring to every team I work with.

Malvern was the first place I really started to dig into tech. I was the kind of student who enjoyed both building things and figuring out how they worked—from designing basic websites for fun to staying up late trying to understand how games were made. The broad IGCSE curriculum gave me a foundation in everything from the sciences and mathematics to creative writing and literature, which helped shape both my logic and my communication skills. More importantly, it taught me to be curious and self-driven—skills that would later become essential in my development as a technologist.

This was the first time I worked in a proper research environment. I joined the GEMINI project as a student researcher and built an eye-tracking tool in Unity that could measure eye dominance in real time. The goal was to improve usability for XR systems, and we backed everything with real user data and analysis. It was a deep dive into experimental design, XR accessibility, and how people actually use tech—not just how we expect them to. I also gained solid experience in C#, Unity, and research methods, and got comfortable presenting ideas to both academic and technical audiences. What stuck with me most was the mindset: working in research taught me how to ask better questions, build tools fast, and validate with real users before overengineering anything.

This one was kind of unexpected. I didn’t think I’d enjoy teaching, but it turned out to be one of the most rewarding parts of uni. I led 3 weekly seminars (~60 students total), reviewed student code and projects, and helped simplify technical concepts on the fly. It forced me to break down ideas clearly and keep the group engaged—skills that ended up translating really well into both team collaboration and mentoring in dev environments. Plus, hearing students tell me the sessions actually helped them stick with the course? That was a first, and it stuck with me.

I joined Kanex during a transition phase—they were scaling and needed someone to centralize support across multiple locations. I helped manage and troubleshoot both Linux and Windows endpoints, configured firewalls and AD, and automated repetitive support workflows with Python/Bash scripts to save time. It was my intro to system monitoring and backend processes, and also the first time I saw how large distributed orgs work behind the scenes. Not always sexy, but super informative for what I’d go on to do with infrastructure later.

This was my first “real” job in tech. I joined just after high school, supporting both internal teams and external clients via phone, chat, and email. Most of it was classic support: fixing broken machines, setting up workstations, and helping new hires get started. It was basic, but I loved solving problems and making life easier for the people around me, and it was my first taste of how tech and people mix. It planted the seed that led me into studying Computer Science at Lancaster and down my technical jounrey.