Adeline Cook.

I have spent more than 20 years making software work under real constraints: complex data, tight performance budgets, unfamiliar hardware, production deadlines and users who need the tool to be ready when they are.

My professional work has ranged from Java/Spring services and geometry processing for construction design to Unreal Engine pipelines for broadcast production. I have built editorial tools for the NZ Herald and The Listener, the Octane renderer plugin for Unreal, rehabilitation games connected to Bluetooth hardware, and real-time 3D systems for browser and desktop. I also originated the outline technique behind Advanced Cel Shader, maintained it as a commercial product, and later sold it to Epic Games.

Poppy and Buddy exercises a different part of the job. It is a bilingual children's title spanning published books, a companion app, original animation and narration, and a QR-linked read-along system. Owning the whole product has meant making the engineering, design, content and release decisions together.

My current personal project is Nova, a self-hosted Smart Home Control Surface used in my household. It brings lighting, climate, reminders, energy data and local voice control into one interface across a wall kiosk, browsers and Apple TV. It is a useful test of architecture and operations because it has to keep working after the development session ends.

I use coding agents extensively and have built local tooling around them, but the valuable part is still engineering judgment: a clear brief, sensible boundaries, review, tests and measured results. I am comfortable moving between product detail and low-level diagnosis, and I communicate plainly when a design needs to change.