About me

(Updated February 2024)

A little background

My initials are A.V.; I prefer not to disclose my full name unless there is a reason to. I am from Rīga, the capital of Latvia. I’ve lived my whole life here, but at the moment I’m looking to study abroad after I finish school in the spring of 2024. Hopefully I won’t forget to update this page as time goes by. 😅 I am really passionate about all the things I do. Studies, work, hobbies: give it all to me. I love to explore, learn, and find out new things. I am keen on finding new friends and experiences.

My abilities, qualifications, and experience

Unfortunately, I don’t have any official educational qualifications as of yet, however, here are some of my achievements and plans for the future:

  • I am graduating an engineering-focused secondary school programme in 2024.
  • As of 01.02.2024. I have defended a research paper in computer science: THE INFLUENCE OF AI HELP ON THE PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF PROBLEM SOLVING (originally in Latvian: MĀKSLĪGĀ INTELEKTA PALĪDZĪBAS IETEKME UZ PROBLĒMRISINĀŠANAS PRODUKTIVITĀTI UN EFEKTIVITĀTI).
  • I am really into physics and I have multiple city and state-level awards for physics olympiads and competitions.
  • My preferred programming languages are TypeScript and Python. I started out working on Discord bots with discord.js and discord.py, but now I am mostly focused on web development. I do also have limited game dev experience with Unity/C#. At the moment, Next.js is my go-to full-stack tool. I prefer SQL databases, but I’ve also got experience with MongoDB and Redis (as cache and as DB). I also have experience working on electron apps, to be honest had a lot of fun with that and would love to touch electron again.
  • This year I am hoping to get into SDU - University of Southern Denmark, BEng (Bachelor of Engineering) or BSc (Bachelor of Science) in Mechatronics.

My interests and some facts about me

I am fascinated with aviation for many years already. I love spending time studying aircraft systems in-depth and exploring differences in airspace structures around the world. To greater enhance my experience I started simulating flights on my home PC, gosh, I was 5 back then. Later I joined the VATSIM network and started to explore the “other side of the radar” and joined Latvia vACC to go through another learning journey. Now I hold a C1 rating and frequently participate in events and other stuff on the network.

VATSIM is a 100% volunteer organisation. All of its 100 000+ members work and spend their time completely for free, because we all have one common goal: Aviate. Educate. Communicate. ✈️ To find out more about my experience with VATSIM and the network in general click here.

I am a perfectionist and sometimes that trait of mine becomes unreasonable. That made me an A* student for my whole life (well, Latvia uses 1-10 grading system, and for many years getting a 10 was my only goal). I am fluent in 3 languages: Latvian, English, and Russian. I am also somewhat experienced with Esperanto and German.

My free time and taste

I spend most of my free time jumping between different sources of information. By that I mean that a Google search about Elizabeth II can go down a rabbit hole and turn into me reading about the mission of Voyager 1. I also read a lot of non-scientific literature. My favourite authors and books are:

  • Jules Verne, literally any book of his for me is a masterpiece
  • A book series called “39 clues” by various authors
  • “Professor Dowell’s Head” (Russian: “Голова профессора Доуэля”) by Alexander Belyaev

I will also list some of my musical preferences here, because why not:

  • pyrokinesis (Russian: пирокинезис)
  • Rewind (Russian: Перемотка)
  • Electrophoresis (Russian: Электрофорез)
  • Owl (Russian: Сова)
  • Give Us A Tank (!) (Russian: Дайте танк (!))
  • Bad Taste (Russian: Дурной Вкус)
  • Måneskin
  • Lana Del Rey
  • Muse
  • Alec Benjamin
  • Depeche Mode
  • Linkin Park
  • Imagine Dragons
  • girl in red
  • Billie Eilish
  • Tessa Violet
  • Nothing But Thieves

Oh yeah. I also love coffee and I am very meticulous about it. I am a picky eater and can consume anything at the same time somehow.

My vision for life

I want to try out, see, experience as much as I can. Travelling the world, eating new foods, meeting new people - I love all of it. Well, maybe I am a little cautious with people at times, but in general it’s fine. Regardless of what awaits me, I want to pursue every opportunity that life presents me and learn as many skills as I can.

For now, that’s it.

Let the skies be clear. ✈️