Carolyn Langen

Software engineer / data scientist

I am a research engineer with experience in a wide variety of fields. I am currently working at Almende BV, where I am involved in both data science and software development in research projects, with the general theme of agent-based modelling.

I am originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. When I studied bioinformatics at the University of Calgary, I got my first taste of computer science and research, including experience in swarm simulations, proteomics and the wet lab. I went on to industry work as a software developer on customization of software for pipeline control systems. Eventually I wanted to have a bit of adventure in my life, and so I move to the Netherlands (and then Sweden) to pursue a masters in computer simulation. I recently completed my PhD on the topic of neuroimaging and brain connectivity. In my spare time I enjoy several hobbies, including indoor gardening, cooking, general fitness and learning about new technologies.

Latest stories

A couple of months ago I got an email from my website hosting service: "30 days left until service expiration." At first I was tempted to simply renew the service and be done with it. But when it came down to it, I found it hard to justify paying what I consider to be a fairly large expense for a site which is perfectly suited to be a static site. Static sites are much less vulnerable than dynamic…

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The brain is the supercomputer of the body. It is a complex network of computational units, all working together to control our bodies and provide us with thoughts and emotions. We have come to better understand the inner workings of the brain by studying brain connectivity, but we still have a lot to learn. Recently I defended my PhD thesis, in which I studied the relationship between the brain’s…

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After a year of working on my PhD in my spare time I have finally sent it to the printers. What a relief! One of the most fun parts of making my thesis was making my own cover using Adobe Illustrator. I chose Illustrator because I wanted to make a vector graphic that would scale well and because it offers many sophisticated features. Also, since I am still not done my PhD I could get the entire…

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It has been a long time since I’ve last posted anything. I must admit that it is only partly because I’m busy trying to finish my PhD in my spare time. Sometimes I’ve also felt a bit too lazy to use up what little time I have left over to write a post. But it has been too long now! Lately at my job I’ve been working a lot with Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Simple Storage Solution (S3), which provides…

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about ways to both simplify household tasks and live more sustainably. I love to have plants around the house, so making a passive watering system seemed like a great opportunity to attempt to achieve both goals. Since I don’t have a balcony or garden, I focused on plants that I could grow indoors. I also wanted to grow edible plants because eating locally grown…

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I am a former academic who crossed over to industry as of four and a half months ago. Actually, “crossed over” is not completely accurate, since I am not yet done my PhD. Nevertheless, I have joined The Hyve as a software developer / data scientist, and am finishing my PhD on the side (I’m almost done, I swear!). I am learning A LOT and thinking of side projects that I’d like to tackle once I am…

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In my last post I wrote about why I made this website. Now I’d like to go over how I made the website and customized it. I had no idea what I was doing, but it was not so difficult in the end. At first I used wordpress.com to register my domain name and host my website. However, when I realized that adding plugins wasn’t included in their “personal” package I decided that a provider that gives me…

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