Tandis 24 Design Lab : Bricks & Bytes
Where Engineering Precision Meets Creative Design
Where Engineering Precision Meets Creative Design
Hello and welcome! I’m an engineer, researcher, and lifelong LEGO enthusiast from Canada.
I've always been passionate about solving puzzles and building things. As a child, I was drawn to math, LEGO, and mechanical building sets, constantly seeking ways to combine creativity and problem-solving. This curiosity led me to pursue a Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering, where I immersed myself in innovative technologies.
Throughout my academic journey, I also maintained a love for programming. My first exposure to coding came in high school, where I learned Turing as my first programming language. In university, I became captivated by the world of self-driving cars and intelligent transportation. It felt like the ultimate combination of puzzles, programming, math, and innovation, which deepened my passion for software development.
For my PhD and postdoctoral research, I developed simulation platforms from the ground up for Mobility as a Service and Autonomous Vehicle Routing applications, further cementing my love for coding and building software solutions. During the final semesters of my PhD, I rediscovered my passion for LEGO. Building LEGO sets became a way to unwind and relax, helping me stay creative while balancing my demanding research.
I recently discovered LEGO Mindstorms and its vast potential for programmable LEGO creations. This new discovery opened up an exciting world of possibilities, merging my love for LEGO with my passion for coding. Currently, I’m working on a project to build a self-driving LEGO vehicle, which I plan to connect to my traffic simulation software—bringing my fascination with coding, LEGO, and autonomous vehicles together in one project.
After years in academia and industry, I decided to take a sabbatical. During this time, I pursued additional programming courses, explored machine learning, and deepened my passion for LEGO. I also experimented with Stud.io software (the CAD of the LEGO design world) and followed other enthusiasts, even designing a LEGO replica of my childhood vacation home.
It was during this sabbatical that I decided to evolve a hard-coded traffic simulation and routing platform that I had originally developed during my postdoctoral research. The early prototype focused on downtown Toronto and autonomous vehicle routing, but I knew it had the potential to become something far more advanced. I started from scratch, reimagining the platform. This transformation turned the tool into a dynamic, real-time traffic simulation system, laying the foundation for what would eventually become MATDIVERTS a sophisticated platform for vehicle routing and traffic management.
During this time, I also hit a roadblock while watching a foreign TV show that had no good subtitle options. The available services were either costly or complicated, and I knew there had to be a better way. So, I built it.
That’s how Subtitle Sphere was born—a simple, yet powerful tool for creating, translating, and editing subtitles. What started as a personal challenge evolved into a user-friendly platform designed to make video content accessible to everyone—not just professional content creators or video editors. I wanted to create something affordable, easy to use, offering unlimited transcription and translation, privacy-focused, and standalone, so it can even be used offline on a personal computer without the need for costly services.
This combination of problem-solving through programming, my evolving interest in software development, and my growing passion for creative projects like LEGO led me to the creation of Tandis 24 Design Lab Design Lab: Bricks & Bytes—a space where I could merge my engineering expertise with my love for innovation, building solutions that blend creativity and technology.