Robert Duncan
Story
In Highschool I was drawn to shop classes, primarily metalshop where we could work with lathes and a cnc mill. My free time was spent riding mountain bikes and dirt bikes, flipping used motorcycles, learning about aircraft from the mechanic at IYK, and dreaming of ways I could build parts for those hobbies. My first technical job was as an electronics technician for NAWCWD in my hometown Ridgecrest, CA. Four years of this had me developing an interest in how electronics worked internally, and the financial aspect provided a seed for an entreprenurial venture. I aquired a heavily used SMT line in March 2019 with the intent of fixing and reselling, or starting a contract manufacturing service. I pursued the latter. It proved to be a monumental learning experience but ultimately needed more attention than I was able to provide, and was dissolved during the summer of 2023. Toward the end of the venture I had discovered the potential of having data housed in something like a custom Django or Flask webapp (instead of myriad Excel workbooks), and stumbled upon ERPNext. I was able to land an internship with Agritheory which proved to be an invaluable experience for learning about the platform while honing technical skills. I recieved a BS in electrical engineering from CSULB AVEP in 2023 while self-studying computer science. During internships and summers I implemented features in ERPNext apps for Agritheory and NetProfit XL, automated processes in Microsoft 365 and Python for AFRL at Edwards AFB, and built an uncertainty propagation Flask app for Senior design. My career has begun by contininuing to implement features in (primarily open-source) enterprise software systems throughout the technology stack.