ML Engineer — BCI & Real-Time Systems

Kaden VanHoecke

ML Engineer | Production AI Systems, Applied ML, and Industrial Automation

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About

II build production AI systems that automate expert workflows. Not demos, not prototypes. Systems that run daily under real operational constraints. I'm currently ML Engineer at McQueeny Group, where I built McQueenyML: a 74K LOC platform that cut HVAC estimating from 4 hours to 12 minutes with 100% parsing accuracy across 553K indexed files. I also built Adze, a native AI assistant embedded directly inside SOLIDWORKS with 19 grounding tools that read live CAD sessions. And Project Ava is a persistent multi-agent platform with structured memory, orchestrated domain agents, and 900+ tests across the stack. I come from engineering coursework and the trades, not a CS degree. Everything I claim is shipped and quantified. Now building toward real-time signal processing and edge ML. Currently developing SPDRbot, a quadruped robot on Jetson hardware, to build the closed-loop control and latency intuition that brain-computer interface work demands.

Featured Projects

Project Ava

github

Personal AI infrastructure platform built to run persistent assistants, structured memory, and cross-device workflows on dedicated hardware. Includes a mobile-first PWA, operational monitoring, service integrations, and private remote access over Tailscale. Built with React, Express, SQLite, ChromaDB, and OpenClaw orchestration.

Dedicated AI platform with structured memory, private remote access, and 262 smoke-tested endpoints

React 19Vite 8Tailwind 3.4Express 5TypeScript 5.9SQLite (better-sqlite3)ChromaDBOpenClaw

CloudBooks

live

Multi-tenant business management SaaS for informal employers, covering time tracking, invoicing, role-based access, subscription billing, and AI-assisted workflows. Built with React, TypeScript, Supabase, and Stripe, with database-enforced access control and production test coverage.

25-table multi-tenant SaaS with RLS, Stripe billing, and production test coverage deployed to real users

React 18, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Vite, Zustand, TanStack Query, React Router v6, Supabase AuthPostgreSQL, Vitest, Playwright, pg_cron

McQueenyML

Production automation platform for an HVAC contractor's sales engineering workflow. 5-tier matching engine (pgvector embeddings, trigram fuzzy search, Claude AI fallback) indexes 553K files and 3,000+ equipment orders synced from SharePoint. Processes 10K+ XML specifications with 100% parsing accuracy. Built on Next.js, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, and ChromaDB with real-time sync pipelines.

4 hours to 12 minutes: production ML platform serving a sales engineering team across 553K indexed files

Frontend: ReactTypeScriptViteTailwind CSS. Backend: Python 3.11FastAPIuvicorn. Database: PostgreSQL via Supabase (pg_trgmpgvector). ML: Ollama (qwen3:14b, nomic-embed-text). Infrastructure: 7 NSSM services on Windows 11, Cloudflare Tunnel.

Adze — AI for SOLIDWORKS

github

Native SOLIDWORKS assistant implemented as a COM add-in that reads live CAD context through typed tools for dimensions, mates, mass properties, and BOM data. Built in C# on .NET with guarded write operations designed to keep model changes reviewable and reversible.

Native SOLIDWORKS COM add-in with 19 typed CAD grounding tools and guarded write operations

C# .NET 4.8, SOLIDWORKS COM API, NUnit 3, MSBuild, PowerShell, WinForms WebBrowser

Oracle (Trade Signal)

Systematic trading research platform for testing forecasting pipelines, signal fusion, risk gating, and paper-trading execution. Combines time-series models, sentiment inputs, technical signals, walk-forward validation, and an execution layer with explicit controls for sizing and risk.

Walk-forward validated research platform with multi-signal decision logic and explicit risk gating for paper trading

Python 3.13 (miniconda3), FastAPI, SQLite, TensorFlow, PyTorch, transformers (FinBERT), React/TypeScript/Tailwind (ava_hub UI)

Skills

Languages

Python TypeScript C# C/C++ SQL

Frameworks

React Node.js Express FastAPI .NET / COM Interop PyTorch YOLO TensorFlow

Tools

Docker n8n SQLite PostgreSQL Supabase ChromaDB Git / GitHub Tailscale Vite SOLIDWORKS

Domains

Computer Vision Neural Networks Agentic AI Systems Automation Real-Time Systems CAD / Mechanical Engineering

Experience

Founder & ML Engineer

VHTech LLC - Lenexa, Kansas

Jan 2023 - Present
  • Founded ML engineering consultancy supporting production automation and applied AI systems
  • Built and operate McQueenyML, a production HVAC estimating platform that reduced workflows from 4 hours to 12 minutes across 553K indexed files
  • Built Adze, a native SOLIDWORKS AI add-in with 19 typed grounding tools and governed write safety
  • Built Project Ava, a persistent multi-agent infrastructure platform with structured memory, private remote access, and operational monitoring
  • Built CloudBooks, a multi-tenant SaaS platform with real-time sync, subscription billing, and database-enforced access controls
  • Designed automation pipelines that parsed 10K+ XML specifications with 100% accuracy and proved the business case for full ML workflow automation

ML Engineer (Contract)

McQueeny Group Inc. - Lenexa, KS (Remote)

Dec 2025 - Present
  • Sole developer of McQueenyML, a production HVAC estimating automation platform used by a sales engineering team
  • Built a 5-tier product matching pipeline combining pgvector embeddings, trigram search, and Claude fallback with a self-improving corrections loop
  • Reduced estimating workflows from 4 hours to 12 minutes while maintaining 100% XML parsing accuracy across 10K+ specifications
  • Automated SharePoint and Microsoft Graph ingestion across 372+ active projects and 3,000+ equipment orders
  • Operate a 7-service Windows production stack and maintain a 553K-row file index with real-time project lifecycle tracking

Sprayers Technician

Wallboard Specialties - Lenexa, KS

Jun 2018 - May 2025
  • Operated spraying equipment and handled material mixing on commercial job sites
  • Worked across seasonal and full-time trade crews while maintaining production pace and job site coordination
  • Spent 7 years in physical trade work while independently transitioning into software engineering and ML

Mechanical Engineering Coursework

Kansas State University - Manhattan, Kansas

Aug 2021 - May 2023

Contact

kaden@vhtech.me

Lenexa, Kansas

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