I'm Jordan, a curious guy who likes building and doing things that make a difference: AI, robots, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and teamwork.
I started coding at seven, and my first real win came in the primary division of the NSW Lego Robotics Competition, held at UNSW. That early habit of building things and testing them against other people's has stuck.
Since then I've kept it up in the classroom too. I came first in my school in an accelerated software engineering course, and have held an average raw mark above 95% across software engineering and enterprise computing over the past two years. I'm now applying to UNSW's co-op program and UTS IDeA, looking for the next place to keep building.
Outside the classroom, my interests spread out. I coach and train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, helped build my school's chess team from nothing into back to back champions, and still take on home renovation projects with my parents, working directly with tradies. Different problems, same instinct: figure out how the thing actually works, then make it better.
Every day before training I saw how our existing system for enrolling, cancelling, and following up with memberships was complicated. Staff struggled with the technical tasks, especially since English was not their first language.
I realised that verbal communication alone would keep creating misunderstandings. So I used something we all shared: visuals. At that point, all I needed from them was a simple wave of the hand. Now it's being used every day.
I built a system that flags bushfire risk across remote and regional Australia, combining weather variables with thermal hotspot data from NASA's FIRMS satellite program and feeding both into an XGBoost model.
My first approach tried to detect fires directly from satellite imagery, but the signal was too noisy to be reliable. Pivoting to a weather based prediction model worked, and the finished project scored 100%.
My first competitive build, and the project that got me hooked on making things that have to actually work under pressure, not just in theory.
I helped grow my school's chess team from a two person operation into a full squad, then coached and played our way to conference championships in consecutive years.
I've trained Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for just over ten years, and now coach it alongside training myself several times a week.
It's taught me patience and how to break a complicated problem down into small, controllable pieces, the same instinct I bring to engineering.
Applying to UNSW's co-op program and UTS IDeA, looking for the next place to keep building.