Open to opportunities

Hi, I'm
Donald James

Engineering intelligent awareness systems for autonomous vehicles — bridging perception and navigation through real-time hazard classification with ROS2 Jazzy & C++.

Donald James
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// 01. about

About Me

I'm a Senior Autonomy Engineer at Auriga, working on next-generation autonomous vehicle stacks using ROS2 Jazzy and C++. My primary domain is the Awareness module — the intelligent layer that sits between perception and navigation.

My system ingests tracked objects from the perception pipeline, filters them against the ego vehicle's pose, classifies hazardous objects in real-time, and triggers velocity and path adjustments in the navigation stack — essentially a behavioural planner purpose-built for safety.

Beyond awareness, I work hands-on with localization (Extended Kalman Filter, LiDAR Odometry) and perception (point cloud clustering). I hold an MSc in Data Science with Distinction, grounding my robotics work in strong ML fundamentals.

0
Years Experience
0
Degrees
0
Technologies
// LIDAR AWARENESS SIMULATION
// 02. experience

Work Experience

Sep 2020 — Present
Senior Autonomy Engineer
Auriga (formerly Aidrivers) · London, UK
ROS2 JazzyC++ AwarenessEKF Localization LiDAR OdometryPoint Cloud Current
  • Engineered the Awareness module — behavioural planner equivalent — classifying hazardous tracked objects from perception and triggering navigation velocity/path adjustments in real-time.
  • Hands-on localization work: Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and LiDAR Odometry for accurate ego vehicle pose estimation in dynamic port environments.
  • Contributed to perception pipeline including point cloud clustering algorithms for obstacle detection.
  • Led migration from ROS to ROS2 Jazzy, modernising the entire autonomy stack.
  • Supported codebase migration from Python/Julia to C++ for improved runtime performance.
  • Built hybrid ML scheduler (Genetic Algorithm + XGBoost) for real-time logistics job scheduling — trained on live site data, now in production.
2017 — 2019
Full Stack Developer
Alokin · Kerala, India
PythonDjango Wagtail CMSPostgreSQLMySQL
  • Designed and deployed full-stack applications using Python (Django) and Wagtail CMS.
  • Maintained and upgraded web-based solutions across various industry domains.
  • Managed database design and development using MySQL and PostgreSQL.
// 03. skills

Technical Skills

Robotics & Autonomy

ROS2 JazzyROS Awareness SystemsEKF LiDAR OdometryPoint Cloud Clustering Hazard DetectionAutonomous Vehicles

Programming Languages

C++Python JuliaR JavaScriptSQL

ML & AI

XGBoostGenetic Algorithms TensorFlowscikit-learn OpenCVNLP (R) Deep LearningRegression Models

Tools & Infrastructure

DockerLinux GitMercurial PostgreSQLMySQL Agile/ScrumDjango
// 04. projects

Featured Projects

🛡️
Autonomous Awareness System

Real-time hazard classification module bridging perception and navigation. Ingests tracked objects, filters against ego vehicle pose, and triggers safety responses — the "decision brain" of the autonomy stack.

C++ROS2Hazard DetectionProduction
🧬
Hybrid ML Job Scheduler

Combines Genetic Algorithm search with XGBoost Regression for real-time logistics job scheduling. Trained on live port data and deployed at Aidrivers. MSc dissertation project, published and in active use.

PythonXGBoostGenetic AlgorithmDeployed
🌐
Geopolitical Dispute Predictor

Supervised ML model in R to classify outcomes of international geopolitical disputes. NLP-driven feature engineering on historical conflict data. Client-based academic project at University of Surrey.

RNLPClassificationAcademic
✈️
Travelogue Platform

Full-stack social platform for sharing travel stories. Built as MCA dissertation and deployed under student startup Oliu Technologies, supported by Startup Village and Kerala Government TBI.

DjangoPythonPostgreSQLStartup
// 05. education

Education

M.Sc. Data Science
University of Surrey, UK
Sep 2019 – Sep 2021 · Full-time with Placement
72.5% — Distinction

Dissertation: Hybrid ML system for job scheduling (GA + XGBoost) for Aidrivers. Academic project: Geopolitical dispute outcome prediction using R & NLP.

Master in Computer Application
M G University, Kerala, India
Dec 2013 – Dec 2016 · Full-time
73% — Distinction

Dissertation: Travelogue portal for student startup Oliu Technologies, supported by Startup Village & Kerala Technical Business Incubation.

B.Sc. Mathematics
M G University, Kerala, India
Jun 2010 – Mar 2013 · Full-time
75% — Distinction

Modules: Discrete Mathematics, Probability, Fuzzy Logic, Statistical Inference, Complex Analysis.

// 06. leadership

Leadership & Ventures

🚀
Oliu Technologies
Founder · Student Startup

Founded and built a tech startup under Startup Village & Kerala Technical Business Incubation. Developed and deployed web applications for educational institutions and private organisations.

🎯
Startup Bootcamp RIT Kottayam
Chief Operating Officer

Led startup mentorship programmes and organised entrepreneurship workshops in collaboration with Startup Village (sv.co), empowering students to build ventures.

🏆
Course Representative
Master in Computer Application · MG University

Elected batch leader for the MCA programme. Coordinated academic initiatives, managed communication between students and faculty, and organised extracurricular events.

// 07. contact

Get In Touch

Let's Connect

Whether you're interested in collaboration, autonomous systems, or a new opportunity — I'd love to hear from you.

// perception → awareness → navigation
// hazard detected → response triggered
// autonomous systems, built for safety