Hi, I am Brendan West

Software Engineer

a picture of Brendan West smiling

What I do

Systems & Protocol Engineering

I build low-level simulations and protocol implementations that reflect how real defense and aerospace systems communicate. Current work includes a MIL-STD-1553 bus controller/remote terminal simulator built from scratch in Python.

Computer Vision & Applied ML

I build CV systems and apply ML to real sensor data. Recent work includes a real-time multi-target surveillance pipeline using YOLOv8 and ByteTrack, and a GAN-based super-resolution benchmark on Sentinel-2 satellite imagery evaluated with PSNR/SSIM metrics.

Embedded & Flight Systems

I design and fly mid-power rockets, and am currently developing onboard flight instrumentation using Arduino — barometric altimetry, apogee detection, and flight data logging.

My Work

Who I am

Software Engineer — Systems, Computer Vision & Aerospace

Software engineer completing a BS in Computer Science at Western Governors University (April 2026), with prior coursework at Cornell University in systems programming and software engineering.

My focus is on systems-level software for defense and aerospace applications — protocol simulation, computer vision, and applied ML. I'm drawn to work where software has real physical consequences.

Outside of programming I design and fly mid-power rockets under the West-Tek Solutions banner, documenting builds and flight data at westtek.solutions. I'm based in Ithaca, NY and open to relocation.

Brendan standing outside

My Work

A selection of my range of work

MIL-STD-1553 Bus Protocol Simulator

MIL-STD-1553 Bus Simulator

Python UDP Sockets Threading MIL-STD-1553B

A layered simulation of the MIL-STD-1553B avionics data bus protocol, used in the F-35, Predator drones, and the Space Launch System. Implements Bus Controller / Remote Terminal communication, 20-bit frame encoding, and fault tolerance across dual-redundant buses.

Watchpost CV Surveillance Pipeline

Watchpost CV

Python YOLOv8 ByteTrack OpenCV

A modular, config-driven computer vision pipeline for real-time multi-target detection, tracking, and behavioral analytics on fixed-camera video feeds. Detects loitering, zone crossings, and crowd threshold events with persistent object IDs and structured JSON event logging.

Sentinel-2 Super-Resolution Benchmark

Sentinel-2 SR Benchmark

Python PyTorch ONNX GDAL FastAPI GAN

Benchmarks five super-resolution methods on Sentinel-2 satellite imagery over strategic locations including Gaza, Ramstein Air Base, and the Strait of Hormuz. Includes a custom GAN trained on 8,000 real Sentinel-2/NAIP pairs, PSNR/SSIM evaluation, and an interactive swipe-compare viewer serving Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFFs.

West-Tek Solutions Rocketry Project

West-Tek Solutions

ESP32 Arduino C++ Fusion 360 OpenRocket

An ongoing aerospace project documenting the design, construction, and flight of scratch-built and 3D-printed mid-power rockets. Currently flying PETG-construction designs with onboard flight instrumentation in development. Full mission logs at westtek.solutions.