Zachary Kilboy

My name is Zachary Kilboy. I usually go by Zach. I spend most of my time fixing things or making things. Occasionally I take pictures and write about stuff.

In 2015 I completed my Physics B.Sc. and started a job working on financial technology products. Responsibilities started as routine maintenance and repairs grew to include management, training, and technical support. As I moved from the field to the warehouse to the office I found that much of the time consuming work was repetitive, and this type of work was always increasing in volume. While the workload of repetitive tasks increased, the size of my team decreased. So faced with this crunch I innovated.
While my job responsibilities did not require me to create solutions, merely solving problems would not meet the realities of the role. So with a Python script a task that would require constant attention 12+ hours a day, 7 days a week was totally automated. A small C# program distributed to clients automatically sent archives to our ftp server, eliminating the need for dispatching someone to each location to retrieve data. Some SQL integrations to Slack and our technicians in the field could type in an error code and have a bot tell them what it meant and how to solve it, so they wouldn’t have to call me or search through manuals. An encrypted string of text from a processing network would take a full day to decipher, but with some C++ and HTML not just decryption but emulation could be achieved in under a minute.
With my regular responsibilities and my additional projects I had my plate pretty full, but the drive to innovate and improve couldn’t be stifled. It was brought to my attention how much my employer was spending on plastic parts of poor quality and limited design. I got to work drawing up improved models and producing them on my own DIY 3D printer in my spare time. Models I created were higher quality, compatible with more equipment, and cheaper by a factor of around 2000.

I continue to create, innovate, and improve. While I am not in a position to share some of my professional work I am eager to share some personal projects here.