Introduction

In another example of an engineer turned software developer, we are pleased to feature community member and codebase contributor Hồ Văn Chương. Currently working as a Computational Design Researcher in Singapore for Exyte, he is building an audience as an active tech blogger in Vietnamese and English over at https://chuongmep.com/. He received more attention for a recent repost of one of Speckle's social media than our original one did.

Interview

Can you tell us about your current job as a Computational Design Researcher at Exyte Singapore?

Chuong Ho: Sure, I am currently working at Exyte Singapore, serving customers who require the highest technique in markets such as semiconductors, batteries, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and data centers. My main job focus now is collaborating with Artificial Intelligence Engineers, Data Scientist Engineers, and Engineers in the AEC industry to solve significant problems with complex model data for businesses and generative design.

You've worked at a few companies throughout your career. What attracted you to Exyte?

Chuong Ho: I have worked in 4 companies. I was a supervisory engineer working for my first company, including electricity, water, ventilation and air conditioning before I switched to a technical engineer and design engineer and engaged in modelling. After about 2 years, I moved to work at TBF as a technologist specializing in working with automation tools and dealing with model problems that engineers have with projects from all over the world—around the world, training on automation software like Dynamo for the company.

That didn’t stop me from having to do inherently repetitive work, so 2 years later, I switched to a Singapore-headquartered ONGONG architecture firm as a BIM specialist at the time and worked as a software engineer, focusing on software aspects and developing high-quality business automation software combined with less exciting automation finishing processes for the team. It was around that time that I felt I had stepped out of the world of design engineer and changed my perspective as a full-time software engineer. When talking about Exyte Singapore, what attracts me is that they work with various clients and focus on developing and improving technology in the AEC industry. It's a very exciting place to be right now, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the future holds for me here.

That sounds like an interesting and challenging role. Is that where you first came across Speckle?

Chuong Ho: Absolutely. Speckle is my destination to exploit all the strengths of the BIM industry about both information exchange between software and how to use that data, open up an exchange and share evil. It's easier for AEC engineers than ever. I am promoting how people come to Speckle by sharing articles about it on my blog and collaborating with the code to improve the connection between core geometry library software and the inside library. Some of my recent posts, such as From Lidar Point Cloud to Speckle or Connect forge API With Speckle, are interesting, and you can see. For me, Speckle is an exciting platform right now, and there is a lot ahead that I have not been able to share with you. I am sure that Speckle and open source will promote construction companies and change how we do with the data and connection data between software for the AEC industry.

Some of your contributions to the Speckle GitHub resources seem like you are interested in the Objects library with geometry definition outside of authoring apps.

Chuong Ho: Yes, I'm inquisitive about geometry and some of the algorithms involved, which is also part of my current job. I am writing some critical components for geometry objects based on open-source projects in my current company. My open-source projects are generic discovery projects; I want them to be free for all developers worldwide, making a significant change in the industry. Many developers respond positively to that, and many new developers are interested in joining the race.

It sounds like you have a lot of experience and knowledge about AEC and BIM in particular, can you tell us about your background and how you got into this field?

Chuong Ho: I have done a lot of diverse positions, from supervision engineers and design to BIM Specialists, Software Development engineers for popular software products such as AutoCAD, Revit, Navisworks, Dynamo, etc. I have experienced a lot of pain in developing that software and shared many useful open sources that you can see on my GitHub.

You regularly blog about AEC Tech, writing in English and Vietnamese, and working in Singapore. How did you get into that?

Chuong Ho: I started blogging about 4 years ago, and that’s when I took some of my free time over the weekend to start exploring the automation aspects of the AEC industry. Blogging makes me happy. It opens up more worlds with this industry and has many relationships. I’ve also progressed rapidly by collecting a ton of industry news each week, which makes me feel like I have more stories than ever. I was very happy to be recently nominated to the Autodesk Expert Elite program.

I used to intend to blog in another language when I moved to a new country, but then I decided to keep it because I didn’t want to bulk change my posts in the mainstream language I was writing. used before, limited time makes me keep them working until now.

Away from work, you are still focussed on technology. You have several open-source projects on the go.

Chuong Ho: I have published a series of Add-in Managers and python shells tools which I am happy to share with anyone. Concentrating on some of the leading Autodesk software, these tools enable a more agile way to test plugin code against the running application without always having to quit, rebuild and restart to reload assemblies. I am assembling as many resources on Dynamo into an online "book" https://chuongmep.github.io/Awesome-Dynamo/intro.html. This is all the best I can find, gathered into one place. Again, this is open-sourced.

At the end of every year, I travel to countries with sea and coastline for entertainment and relaxation. However, most of my time is spent on academic research and technology as a passion. I am keen on photography, taking pictures of all the places I visit and live.

Speckle: Thanks for sharing your insights with us, Chuong Ho.

Conclusion

The Featured Developer series is where we at Speckle would like to celebrate people using or contributing to Speckle. If you would like to share something you are working on that you are proud of, or if you would like to share your insight with the community and us, let us know! Even if you don’t consider yourself a developer but are creating something with speckle in a more tangible sense, we will also feature interesting projects Built with Speckle.