Alexander Borsuk: Software Engineer, MScEng 🖨
Hi! I’m a software engineer and researcher, a co-founder of Organic Maps (offline maps for iOS and Android), a founding investor in VibroBox (prescriptive maintenance for machinery), and one of the creators of the MapsWithMe (MAPS.ME) app.
Originally from Belarus, I now live and work in Switzerland. I have more than two decades of experience leading development teams and building scalable, cross-platform software for embeded and mobile devices, robots, servers, and desktops. I like open source and love to learn something new every day.
Contacts
Personal values and interests
- Everything should be simple and automated if possible
- Helping engineering teams grow, learn, and deliver while improving quality
- Open source, robotics, maps, and traveling
- Learning Rust, Nix, LLMs, and AI/ML
- Natural language processing (NLP)
- Medical research and biohacking
- Parenting and education
- Healthy lifestyle, healthy food, and healthy environment
My strengths
I’ve worked in a variety of roles across different projects. My strengths include:
As a Software Engineer:
- Modern C/C++ and multithreading
- Mobile, cross-platform, and embedded solutions
- Secure networking and cloud services
- Low latency, code performance and scalability
- Software and hardware optimizations
- Code reviews and troubleshooting
- Testing, automation, and CI/CD
- Learning new programming languages and frameworks
- Getting to the root of the problem
- Conscious use of LLM agents (including Claude, Codex, Copilot, and Gemini) to improve workflows, quality and productivity
- Keeping documentation up to date
As a Team Lead:
- Project management, task definition and estimation, timely delivery
- Teaching and sharing knowledge
- Optimizing team performance and workflows
- Improving code quality
- Reducing the number of bugs and technical debt
As a Product Manager:
- Prioritizing and setting goals
- Product delivery and release notes
- Making product users happy
- Collecting and incorporating user feedback
- Customer relations and support
As a CTO/VP of Engineering:
- Building a strong engineering team and culture
- Optimizing engineering expenses
- Mitigating technology-related risks
- Establishing and automating processes
- Interviewing, hiring, and scaling the team
- Building from the ground up
Software skills
- Extensive experience with C++, C++11, C++14, C++17, C++20, C++23, C, C99, C11, C17, C23, Objective-C/Objective-C++, Swift, Java, Kotlin, JavaScript, Qt, STL, OpenStreetMap, Mapbox, Leaflet, GeoJSON, computational geometry, Hugo, Zola, Bash, HTML5, CSS3, PHP, WTL, WinAPI, WinSock, MFC, ATL, assembly language, Claude, Codex, Copilot, Gemini
- Good knowledge of and experience with Nix, Boost, TypeScript, WebRTC, ESP32, OpenSSL, mbedTLS, MATLAB, Simulink, Scala, Go, Rust, C#, Perl, Python, Visual Basic, SQL, Pascal, XSLT, CUDA, CycloneDDS, FastDDS
- Systems and application development experience with Linux, ROS, ROS2, iOS, Android, Samsung Bada, PocketPC, Windows Mobile 5 and 6, Symbian OS
- Experience with Google Cloud/App Engine, AWS, IBM Cloud, Hetzner Cloud, Cloudflare, Docker, Janus Media Gateway
- Systems administration and development experience with Windows 98/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7/10/11, Debian/Ubuntu/CentOS/Amazon Linux, Solaris, macOS
- Source control systems: Git, GitHub, Gerrit, GitLab, Bitbucket, Mercurial, CVS, SVN, Borland StarTeam, Visual SourceSafe
- CI/CD: TeamCity, Jenkins, GitHub runners, GitLab, Travis CI
- Project management and issue tracking systems: YouTrack, Notion, Trello, Redmine, Trac, Jira, eXplanner, FIT BugTrack, Borland StarTeam, Confluence
- Good knowledge of computer hardware and networks, including CoAP, HTTP, TCP, UDP, IP, DNS
- Experience with secure communications and data encryption, including TLS, DTLS, symmetric and asymmetric ciphers, X.509 certificates, and end-to-end encryption
Languages
- Fluent in English
- Native speaker of Belarusian and Russian
- Learning German (A1)
Education
Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics, Minsk, Belarus
-
2016–2018 Master of Science in Engineering, Faculty of Radioengineering and Electronics.
Master’s thesis: Formation of informative features of shock processes using wavelet analysis of non-stationary vibration signals -
1999–2004 Software and Hardware Systems Engineer, Faculty of Computer Systems and Networks.
Bachelor’s thesis: Reliable file downloading for Palm OS. Graduated with a score of 4.71 out of 5.0.
Functional Programming in Scala Specialization, Coursera
- 2018 Functional Programming in Scala Capstone
- 2018 Big Data Analysis with Scala and Spark
- 2016 Parallel Programming
- 2016 Functional Program Design in Scala
- 2016 Functional Programming Principles in Scala
Other education
- 1997–1998 x86 assembly language courses
- 1995–1996 BASIC courses using the YAMAHA YIS-805
- 1988–1999 Graduated from high school in Minsk with a gold medal
Work experience
– Staff Software Engineer at Hexagon Robotics (Zurich, Switzerland)
Hexagon Robotics is a Swiss company developing advanced robotic solutions, including autonomous humanoid robots (see AEON), for industrial applications. Its solutions integrate AI and machine learning technologies to enhance automation and efficiency in manufacturing processes.
Making humanoid robots reliable and efficient as part of the Mission Team.
- Fixed ROS2 communication issues and promoted migration away from ROS
- Improved the robustness of the Imitation Learning (IL) pipeline (Python, real time media processing, inference on Jetson, porting to C++20)
- Performance optimization, robustness improvements, and bug fixes for the Python/C++/ROS2 core engine
- Integration with external hardware and SDKs, including data collection and control for robot’s Absolute Scanner AS1 and Absolute Tracker AT960
- Feature development and testing
- Build system, CI/CD improvements and support
- Code reviews
- Documentation and tooling
- Shared best practices (inlcuding LLM) and knowledge with the team and helped onboard new team members
- Technologies:
- C++20
- Python
- ROS2
- Nix
- CUDA
- CMake
- Boost
- Bash
- VSCode
- Linux
- Isaac Sim
- CUDA
- Windows
- MSVC
- Claude
- Codex
- Copilot
- BehaviorTree.CPP
– C++ and Mobile Performance Engineer at Phenix Real Time Solutions, Inc. (Zurich, Switzerland)
Phenix Real Time Solutions’ technology publishes and streams synchronized, real-time video at scale with a delay of less than 0.5 seconds and a time to first frame (TTFF) of less than a second, broadcasting to millions of viewers across continents.
Development and bug fixes for the low latency C++ core engine in the cloud, including optimization of the build toolchain, improving and fixing bugs in the iOS/Android SDKs.
- Reduced project build times by a factor of 1.5–4 to save development and CI time
- Built an optimized version of FFmpeg from source for macOS and Linux
- Code reviews and sharing best coding practices
- Triaging and bug fixing
- Learned about and participated in the unique development team management approach called the “Phenix Way”
- Hands-on experience with scalable, real-time video streaming and broadcasting
- Feature development, testing, and low latency optimization of the C++ core engine and mobile SDKs for iOS and Android
- Due to company’s financial issues, I was not working in Phenix in January-July 2023
- Technologies:
- C++14
- iOS
- DRM
- Android
- CMake
- Boost
- Bash
- zsh
- Node.js
- JavaScript
- WebRTC
- Live Video Streaming
- Broadcasting
- FFmpeg
- Docker
- YouTrack
- Gerrit
- TeamCity
- Android NDK
- GTest
- Google Cloud
- BigQuery
- BDD
- TDD
– Co-founder and maintainer of Organic Maps (remote, free-time hobby project)
Organic Maps is a free, open-source, donation-based, and privacy-focused offline maps app for Android and iOS. It is based on crowdsourced OpenStreetMap data and is designed for travelers, tourists, drivers, hikers, and cyclists.
Organic Maps is a fork of MAPS.ME (MapsWithMe). My friends and I created MAPS.ME in 2011, and it was open-sourced in 2015 under the Apache 2.0 license. All unnecessary “features,” such as tracking and statistics collection, were removed from Organic Maps. The main focus is on speed, stability, and up-to-date OpenStreetMap data, with the goal of making it the most secure, fastest, and most battery-efficient offline maps app.
Download and install Organic Maps from the App Store, Google Play, Huawei AppGallery, or F-Droid. You can also install the APK directly from GitHub.
In my free time, I contribute to Organic Maps, maintain the app, and coordinate its development. Here I learn and experiment with new technologies, and learn from the community.
- Maintaining and improving the Organic Maps codebase
- Optimizing workflows and processes for more efficient development, including CI/CD, LLM agents, and code reviews
- Supporting the community and the development of Organic Maps
- Preparing and publishing new releases
- Managing the product roadmap and its features
- Fixing bugs and implementing new features
- Scaling the CDN to deliver map downloads to millions of users
- Reviewing C++23, Java, Swift, Objective-C, Python, Rust, TypeScript and Bash code
- Helping contributors on GitHub
- Supporting users by email, in app stores, through messaging apps, and on social networks
- Technologies:
- C++23
- Rust
- Swift
- Java
- Objective-C/Objective-C++
- OpenStreetMap (OSM)
- JavaScript
- TypeScript
- Python
- CMake
- Cloudflare Workers/Pages/Functions
- GitHub
- F-Droid
- Google Play
- Huawei AppGallery
- App Store
- iOS
- Android
- Linux
- Mac OS X
- protobuf
- GTest
- CI/CD
- Claude
- Codex
- Automated code reviews
– Video Backend and Frontend Engineer at Zenia (remote, part-time project)
Zenia - Interactive Fitness & Yoga is the world’s first virtual assistant app for iOS and Android that uses AI to give real-time feedback on yoga practice.
Implemented scalable live video lessons on desktops and mobile phones for yoga instructors and their students.
- Designed and implemented a scalable AWS video CDN for real-time live classes
- Configured and supported the Janus Media Gateway backend with an SFU topology
- Implemented backend video recording and statistics collection
- Implemented a JavaScript frontend to display and record audio and video
- Integrated a WebRTC WebView video player into iOS and Android apps
- Supported TensorFlow.js for real-time pose detection in the video stream
- Technologies:
- WebRTC
- Janus Media Gateway
- Docker
- JavaScript
- TypeScript
- HTML5
- iOS
- Android
- Python
- nginx
- AWS
- iOS
- Android
- TensorFlow
- React
– Software Engineer and Tech Lead at Qnective AG (Zurich, Switzerland)
Qnective is a leading provider of sophisticated communication solutions and services, with deep expertise in wireless technologies, networking, IoT, infrastructure, and highly secure encryption mechanisms.
Projects I worked on:
- Qtalk, a secure messenger for enterprises and governments (iOS, Android, and Windows)
- Qnet, a secure voice and messaging app for low-end Android devices
- Wearable body sensors for sports and medical applications (ESP32 embedded chip)
Work highlights:
- Led the team of 8 engineers and QA staff for a secure embedded IoT project
- Implemented lightweight SD card support for the ESP32
- Developed and reviewed embedded C/C++ code for encrypted data communication (DTLS over CoAP) on the ESP32
- Worked on peer-to-peer Opus voice communication over DTLS/CoAP on iOS and Android
- Designed and developed a Go routing gateway for peer-to-peer, end-to-end encrypted voice and messaging
- Migrated a large project codebase from C++11 to C++17
- Migrated the codebase to the latest versions of OpenSSL and Qt
- Improved the cross-platform build system
- Performed extensive C/C++/Ruby/Go/Python/Scala code reviews
- Developed several features for iOS and Android apps
- Interviewed job candidates
- Technologies:
- C++17
- C11
- Swift
- iOS
- Java
- Android
- Go
- DTLS
- TLS
- Java
- Bash
- Qt
- OpenSSL
- CoAP
- Opus
- WebRTC
- Ubuntu
- iOS
- Android
- ESP32
- Docker
- Bitbucket
- Jira
- Bamboo
- Jenkins
- GTest
- protobuf
- Unity
- Catch2
- OpenSSL
- mbedTLS
- SARA R4
- qmake
- Kanban
- Scrum
– Founding Investor in VibroBox
VibroBox is a vibration-based diagnostics service for scalable prescriptive maintenance, IIoT, and Industry 4.0. The team of scientists, engineers, and industry experts is focused on digital signal processing, wavelets, machine learning, and other algorithms to prevent failures of industrial equipment by providing timely and automated maintenance instructions.
VibroBox works with a wide range of rotary equipment, including pumps, turbines, compressors, generators, rotors, engines, bearings, gearboxes, rolling mills, wind farms, and wheel pairs for cars and trains.
My responsibilities at VibroBox:
- IT infrastructure management
- Pilot and production deployments
- Strategy and technology advice
- Business development, negotiations, and presentations
- Financing and accounting
- Translating scientific language into plain English
Engineering highlights:
- Designed a scalable cloud service architecture
- Developed a REST API for the service
- Set up and kept development tools and environments up to date
- Set up and administered cloud server hosting (Ubuntu)
- Developed iOS and Android apps to collect audio and accelerometer data
- Developed and supported the company’s website
- Established and conducted team code reviews
- Technologies:
- AWS Lambda
- AWS SES
- Docker
- Hugo
- HTML5
- CSS3
- Bash
- Linux
- Travis CI
- PHP7
- YII2
- OpenAPI
- MATLAB
- Simulink
- OpenVPN
- MariaDB
– Co-founder, CEO, and CTO of MAPS.ME
MAPS.ME is an open-source offline maps app for iOS and Android. Crowdsourced OpenStreetMap data is used for walking and cycling directions, car navigation, discovering new places, and local sightseeing. As of April 2018, MAPS.ME had been installed by 100 million users worldwide.
I worked in many roles and gained extensive experience in engineering, team and technical leadership, product and project management, business development, user support, marketing, public speaking, hiring and interviewing, and teaching.
- Technologies:
- C++11
- Boost
- Qt
- Objective-C
- Java
- C
- iOS
- Android
- Linux
- Windows
- macOS
- Bada
- OpenStreetMap
- OSRM
- clang
- gcc
- Python
- Bash
- protobuf
- Go
- App Engine
– System Architect/VP of Engineering at MAPS.ME (Mail.Ru Group)
After the acquisition of MAPS.ME, we hired a new engineering team of 25 people in Moscow and transferred all our knowledge to them. I served as VP of Engineering in the Maps department at Mail.Ru Group:
- Transferred the app, code, technology, and knowledge to the new owner (Mail.Ru)
- Interviewed, trained, and led the new development and QA team
- Open-sourced the MAPS.ME code on GitHub
- Developed an offline map editor for MAPS.ME to upload map edits directly to the crowdsourced OpenStreetMap database [source code]
- Developed and integrated Alohalytics, an open-source, scalable, cross-platform statistics engine for iOS, Android, and desktop platforms (C++11), including client-side components and backend data collection
- Promoted MAPS.ME at developer conferences
– Co-founder, CTO
I continued to grow the startup until its acquisition.
- Product management and release delivery
- Moved the codebase from C++99 to C++11
- Scaled the map data distribution cluster and HTTP delivery services to match the growing user base
- Ported Open Source Routing Machine (OSRM) to iOS and Android to add offline navigation support [source code]
- Integrated the Gradle build system for Android
- New product feature development (including navigation) and bug fixes
- Deployment and support of product websites
– Co-founder, CEO
The most challenging period for MAPS.ME was when we grew our team and user base while trying to sell a paid app in the App Store and on Google Play.
- Product management and release delivery
- Increased the worldwide user base from 120,000 to 2.5 million
- Reached the break-even point with a paid version of MAPS.ME (MapsWithMe)
- Built development and marketing teams (13 people)
- Developed and released 26 offline travel guide apps for iOS and Android (GuideWithMe)
- Established a development office in Minsk
- Business development, PR, and marketing
- New product feature development and bug fixes
- Perfected user support
– Co-founder
At that time, I led our small team of 3 in Minsk and was responsible for a cross-platform build environment, code reviews, iOS, and Android. The most notable tasks included:
- Server-side OpenStreetMap data processing pipeline
- High-load client/server map distribution via HTTP
- Fast Unicode normalization algorithm for multilingual offline search
- Native UI for iOS and Android, Qt UI for easier development on macOS, Windows, and Linux
- Compilation and porting of core code for iOS, Android, Bada, Mac OS X, MinGW, Linux, and Windows XP/Vista/7
– CTO at BLRSoft
BLRSoft, the R&D subsidiary of Abaxia, developed Launcher software and firmware for Vodafone, Orange, and other EU network operators. BLRSoft was acqui-hired by HTC in 2010 and renamed HTC BLR.
I held several roles, including Senior Software Engineer, Team and Technical Lead, Project Manager, and Technical Director, while developing mobile software for Symbian and Windows Mobile.
Work highlights:
- Implemented text indexing and search functionality for data on Symbian devices.
- Worked on the Universal Content Provider project for Symbian and Windows Mobile.
- Implemented and maintained Symbian data providers with access to device contacts, messages, calendars, bookmarks, and network connections.
- Ported a library to different Symbian platforms (3.1, 3.2, 5.0, N97) and maintained Windows Mobile compatibility.
- Developed Symbian “home screens” for European network operators.
- Managed project tasks, built and organized local development and QA teams, and supported testing on different prototype devices.
- Designed project architectures for several Symbian platforms.
- Developed core components, including the UI, networking, calendar events, contacts database, missed calls, messages, email, and status pane.
- Ported projects to Symbian 3.1, 3.2, and 5.0 (touch) devices.
- Wrote technical and architectural specifications.
- Integrated best practices from Agile, Scrum, and Extreme Programming.
- Worked on the CardBrowser library for Symbian (microSD card auto-launch menu).
- Planned timelines and designed architectures and components.
- Implemented various parts of the UI and core library, including interactive controls, an animation engine, an INI parser, and an image loading and caching mechanism.
- Supported a cross-platform mobile GUI library for Windows Mobile and Symbian.
- Investigated and reviewed existing code and architecture.
- Migrated the codebase from C to C++ and from SVN to Mercurial.
- Developed and maintained different system components, including messaging, networking, and UI.
- Supported and administered internal company infrastructure.
- Interviewed and hired new developers and QA staff.
- Ubuntu/Debian administration: virtual servers, backups, mail, networking, wiki, LDAP, Mercurial, etc.
- Managed project documentation in Trac and the internal wiki.
- Implemented a cross-platform Python build automation system.
- Technologies:
- C++
- C
- Symbian
- Windows Mobile
– Senior Software Engineer at InfoTechnology
InfoTechnology was a Belarusian division of XIM, a company based in San Francisco.
I developed a music, humming, and singing recognition app for Symbian devices called Midomi for SoundHound Inc.
Work highlights:
- Gained extensive development experience with the Symbian OS system environment and development tools.
- Designed and implemented the GUI for Midomi, along with HTTP-based advertising and an HTTP player.
- Worked on Openwave C++ firmware for low-end mobile phones.
- Developed XSL transformations to convert internal XML documentation (which is also the source for C++ headers) into DITA XML format.
- Automated QA processes with supporting Perl scripts, including a URL grabber, a Purify log analyzer, and an HTML report generator.
- Technologies:
- C++
- Symbian
- Solaris
- XSLT
- Pair Programming
– Software Engineer (freelance)
Development of the DVD Ripper/Player Station project, a Windows application that allows users to play and rip DVD content easily on touchscreen devices.
Together with another developer, I implemented:
- GUI
- Movie library
- Video file and DVD playback with DirectShow
- Support for a second monitor or projector
- Support for multiple DVD drives
- Technologies:
- Visual C++
- DVD
- AVI
- WinAPI
- FFmpeg
- DirectShow
– Software Engineer and Team Lead at Belsoft-Borlas Group
Development and support of "Smart IP," a transparent TCP/UDP network optimizer and switcher for desktop and mobile platforms, for a US-based customer.
Work highlights:
- Redesigned the Windows Mobile client GUI and ported it to WM5.0.
- Integrated an automatic code signing pipeline for Windows Mobile 5.0, including developer certificates at the development stage and VeriSign certificates for production, based on the Microsoft Mobile2Market program.
- Developed and maintained software installation packages for different Windows platforms.
- Ported existing client/server code to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, including LSP and NDIS network drivers.
- Implemented a log file analyzer and statistics generator.
- Created a dozen functional specifications and design documents for different software components.
- Technologies:
- Visual C++
- Windows Mobile
- WinNT
- NDIS
- IP Networking
– Software Engineer at Credo Dialogue
Credo Dialogue is a scientific and industrial company developing CAD systems that form an integrated workflow for information processing (topographical and geotechnical surveys, engineering design, terrain modeling, etc.).
I worked on Topoplan and Genplan CAD software, 3D terrain and building modeling and editing, computational geometry algorithms, and project documentation.
Here I met my future MAPS.ME co-founders Yury Melnichek and Viktar Havaka.
Work highlights:
- Designed and implemented several software modules to manipulate geometric primitives (creating and editing 3D points on the terrain, aligning circles with splines, creating and editing parabolas, etc.).
- Implemented several complex UI dialogs.
- Organized and maintained internal project documentation, including a website and an automated code documentation system using Doxygen.
- Gained extensive experience with C++99, STL algorithms, and large data sets.
- Technologies:
- Visual C++
- STL
- IncrediBuild
- Doxygen
- Borland StarTeam
– Software Engineer and Team Lead at Spark IT
I organized and managed a team of 5 engineers to develop “Messenger2” (“M2”) for a customer in the UK. This internet messaging app, similar to Trillian, supported the ICQ, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and IRC protocols, chat encryption, file sharing, and video and audio conferencing.
- Technologies:
- C++
- TCP/UDP sockets
- STL
- WTL
- WinAPI
- ICQ
- AIM
Hobby projects
– Cross-platform IRC news feed publishing bot
I designed and implemented a configurable IRC bot for Windows and Linux that parsed RSS, Atom, and XML feeds with support for a full range of character encodings. It remained active until 2016.
- Technologies:
- C++
- Linux
- Windows
- curl
- Atom
- RSS
- XML
– Co-founder and coordinator of the ByNets IRC network
ByNets was the largest IRC network in Belarus, connecting thousands of people from universities, dormitories, companies, and residential districts in Minsk.
- Technologies:
- IRC
- UnrealIRCd
- Linux
- Drupal
– Home network administrator
I built, administered, and maintained an Ethernet network in Minsk with more than 300 users in my neighborhood (and more than 1,500 users in total, including nearby neighborhoods).
- Technologies:
- Debian Linux
- Windows Server
- DNS
- DHCP
- Bash
- Perl
– Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics
Optimization (10× speedup) and statistical visualization of random number generators based on linear feedback shift registers.
- Technologies:
- Visual C++
- Assembler
Publications
- Algorithms for refinement of the shaft rotational speed for solving the problems of vibration diagnostics of rotary equipment / Y. Aslamov, I. Davydov, A. Borsuk, A. Aslamov // First World Congress on Condition Monitoring, London, 13–16 June 2017, Session 6E: Vibration condition monitoring methods and technologies / The British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing.
- Sparse wavelet decomposition of signals for solving vibration diagnostics problems / Y. Aslamov, I. Davydov, A. Borsuk, A. Aslamov // First World Congress on Condition Monitoring, London, 13–16 June 2017, Session 7E: Vibration condition monitoring methods and technologies / The British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing.
- Sparse wavelet decomposition in problems of vibration-based diagnostics of rotary equipment / Y.P. Aslamov, A.P. Aslamov, I.G. Davydov, A.V. Borsuk // Doklady BGUIR [BSUIR reports], 2017, no. 8 (110), pp. 91–98. (in Russian)
- Formation of informative features of shock processes using wavelet analysis of non-stationary vibration signals: the author’s abstract. Diss. MSc in Engineering: 1-39 81 03 / A.V. Borsuk; scientific adviser I.G. Davydov // Minsk: BSUIR, 2018. (in Russian)