Hi, I'm Barry

Since university graduation, I continued my final year project to automate everything in the home.

My dream is to make fully integrated and localised home automation accessible for everyone. That meant bringing the entire house to life by automating everything such as lights, fans, windows, curtains, doors, air conditioning etc. This involved sourcing low cost mechatronics and hardware from China and networking them such that they can be operated remotely via an automation system - adopting and writing integrations for the opensource Home Assistant + ESPHome.

After 3 years working on the project and doing freelance jobs, I came across an opportunity to embark on a software engineering career with PayPal in August 2021. I have since learnt much about payment systems and how software is done in the enterprise. In the process, I have contributed to efforts in pushing new features and maintenance of the Merchant Settlement codebase. In Jan 2022, I represented PayPal as a co-hacker in the Hack for Public Good 2022 hackathon organised by Open Government Products, where I collaborated with a team on a project and contributed frontend React.js code.

At home, I usually spend my free time watching shows, playing video games, keeping up on latest tech developments and making stuff. Outside, I do make time to occasionally hang out with friends and meet new people.

Overseas trips, I usually prefer adventurous outdoor activities like mountain climbing, trekking and exploring the expanse of nature. In Feb 2024, a passionate diver friend introduced me to scuba diving and I am now a certified PADI Open Water Diver.