Hi, I'm

Andrew Brown

Software engineer. Security practitioner.
Human-first AI developer.


Andrew Brown
Location Youngstown, Ohio
Education
Franklin University B.S. Cybersecurity · Minor: AI
SUNY Adirondack A.S. Business Administration & Management
Focus Software Engineering & Security Human-First AI

From the field to the full stack.

I've been in the field — literally. ISP installations for Starry, NOC monitoring with PRTG and Grafana, 50+ network deployments at ICS, and 3.5 years servicing electronic security systems inside bank branches. Vault doors, alarm panels, IP cameras, the works.

Then I built Vociferous — an offline speech-to-text desktop app, from scratch. 600 hours. 355 commits. 130 releases. I led a team to 20th out of 4,674 teams in the National Cyber League. I'm president of Franklin University's Programming SIG, senior officer in the Cybersecurity SIG, and I've delivered 30+ presentations across both clubs.

I care about what happens to people when they use software. Vociferous exists because it shouldn't take an internet connection to transcribe your own voice. Every system I design starts with the same question: what does the person on the other side of this actually need?

The right amount of complexity is the minimum needed for the current task.

"...[Airplanes] are beautiful dreams. Engineers turn dreams into reality."

— Hayao Miyazaki, The Wind Rises

What I work with

Languages

Python Java 21 SQL HTML/CSS JavaScript Svelte 5

Frameworks & Tools

Litestar Quarkus Svelte 5 + Vite Tailwind CSS SQLAlchemy Pydantic JDA PyQt6

Infrastructure

Docker Linux (Debian) MikroTik RouterOS UniFi Git/GitHub WireGuard VPN KVM/QEMU Graylog

Security

Wireshark hashcat Ghidra Nmap Burp Suite OSINT DMP Panels Volatility

AI / ML

faster-whisper CTranslate2 Prompt Engineering Local LLM Inference RAG Pipelines CUDA / RTX 3090

Monitoring

PRTG Grafana Uptime Kuma PagerDuty Graylog Pi-hole

Where I've worked

Financial Security Systems Specialist

Wittenbach Business Systems

May 2024 — Mar 2025

Physical security contractor whose primary client was Huntington Bank. Maintained all electronic security infrastructure across bank branches — DMP panels, vault doors, KABA locks, IP cameras, NVR systems.

  • Upgrades and preventative maintenance on networked security systems across financial institution branches.
  • Troubleshot alarm systems, access control, and surveillance to restore service and reduce repeat failures.
  • Serviced vault door hardware, electronic lock mechanisms, and DMP alarm panels across Huntington Bank branches.
  • Coordinated service windows directly with branch operations managers to minimize disruption during business hours.
  • Managed IP camera and NVR infrastructure — firmware maintenance, remote diagnostics, and component replacement.

Security Systems Specialist

Cennox, Inc.

Jun 2023 — May 2024

Installed and serviced networked electronic security systems — DMP Remote Link, Wireshark, Wisenet Device Manager.

  • 30+ DMP burglary system takeovers and CCTV deployments.
  • Wrote technical guides and trained 12+ field technicians on integration troubleshooting.
  • Programmed DMP Remote Link and central station communication paths for alarm system takeovers.
  • Diagnosed communication faults between DMP panels and monitoring centers, restoring supervision within SLA windows.
  • Maintained Wisenet IP camera systems — configuration, component replacement, and NVR programming.

Field Services Engineer

ICS Technology Group

Nov 2022 — Apr 2023

Network installations and rehabilitations for SMBs — Ubiquiti and MikroTik deployments.

  • 50+ Ubiquiti and MikroTik devices deployed across routing, switching, and wireless.
  • Delivered a deployment two weeks early. Improved client network performance ~30%.
  • Planned and deployed point-to-point radio internet supporting ~74 households.
  • Configured VLANs, firewall rules, and DHCP scoping across UniFi and MikroTik RouterOS environments.
  • Conducted site surveys and cable plant assessments prior to each deployment.

Reliability Engineer (Remote NOC)

Starry, Inc.

Nov 2021 — Oct 2022

Network operations center — monitoring, triage, and escalation for ISP infrastructure.

  • Monitored network performance with PRTG and Grafana across ISP infrastructure.
  • Resolved 100+ PagerDuty equipment alerts during critical periods.
  • Produced site reports and coordinated restoration during high-alert periods.
  • Triaged alerts by severity — assessing, escalating, or resolving per runbooks with appropriate priority.
  • Maintained shift logs and incident documentation to support handoffs and root-cause investigation.

Subscriber / Installer

Starry, Inc.

Jun 2021 — Nov 2021

Residential wireless internet installation and on-site diagnostics.

  • Installed and maintained fixed wireless CPE equipment for residential broadband subscribers.
  • Performed on-site diagnostics for connectivity, signal quality, and performance issues.
  • Walked subscribers through equipment operation, signal indicators, and self-service troubleshooting at point of install.

How I lead

President of Programming

Franklin University ACM — Programming SIG

2024 — Present
  • Delivered weekly presentations and workshops covering Python, Git workflows, AI architecture, and software engineering fundamentals.
  • 5-episode "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence" series covering ML paradigms, neural network architecture, backpropagation, RAG, AI ethics, and frontier models.
  • 3-part "Fundamentals of GitHub" series teaching professional Git workflows to student developers.
  • Built the organizational structure of the club from scratch — roles, decision-making, communication.

Senior Officer

Cybersecurity Special Interest Group — Franklin University

2024 — Present
  • Designed and delivered defensive-security presentations including "Physical Security for SOC Analysts" — bridging 3.5 years of field experience into cybersecurity context.
  • "Hashing Made Simple" — made cryptographic concepts approachable for non-technical audiences.
  • Built the cybersecurity lab infrastructure: honeypot VMs, VLAN isolation, WireGuard VPN access.
  • Created a comprehensive NCL prep briefing from Fall 2025 experience (20th/4,674 teams).

NCL Team Leader

Team Terminalators

2025
  • Led a team to 20th place out of 4,674 teams nationally in Fall 2025.
  • Individual placement: 121st nationally.
  • Coordinated divide-and-conquer task assignment by team member skillset.
  • Documented full category walkthroughs for Spring 2026 preparation.

Cybersecurity

Cyber Skyline Reports

NCL Report page
1 / 9

Programming

Contribution Activity

Vociferous — solo-developed speech capture & refinement platform

GitHub contribution chart for WanderingAstronomer

Certifications

CompTIA Security+ Jul 2025
CompTIA IT Fundamentals+ Apr 2024
DMP Master Technician Nov 2023

In Progress CompTIA Network+ — Target: Summer 2026

CompTIA Security+ certificate CompTIA Security+

Let's build something.

I'm looking for my first professional software engineering or security role. If you need someone who builds real things, teaches what they learn, and thinks across the full stack — let's talk.