Joel Payippara Shibu
I'm a software engineer in Ontario. I like making things people actually use, whether that's a web app, a self-hosted tool for home, or whatever's on the 3D printer this week.
I started programming in grade 9 in India, writing C and C++. After moving to Canada, I built a small game in Java in grade 10, and that's when I knew this was what I wanted to do.
That led me to Software Engineering at Western University, where I graduated in 2025. Today I work as a developer at a manufacturing company, and I keep building things on my own time too.
3D printing
Designing and printing parts, fixes and the occasional thing nobody needed.
Self-hosting
Running my own apps at home and trying out new software to see what it can do.
Away from the screen
Reading, PC games, fishing and travelling somewhere new.
When I build something, I'd rather build on what already works than start over, and I like knowing what it costs to run.
Capstone, Western University
An AI assistant that answers questions about Western using the university's own web pages. I led the backend: fine-tuning Mistral 7B, building the retrieval pipeline, and serving it from Google Cloud.
Personal project
A self-hosted app for tracking fuel spending across the family's cars. Snap a receipt, it reads it with OCR, you check the numbers, and it's logged and ready to export to Excel.
Personal project
Statically exported with Next.js and served from Firebase Hosting. Every change is linted, type-checked and tested in CI before it deploys.
Since March 2026 I've been a developer at Universal Fabricating North America, writing the internal software the plant runs on. Most of it connects to the company's ERP, so the shop floor and the office see the same numbers.
A web app every department plans from, with an auto-scheduler that works backward from due dates.
Follows each order from release to completion, with barcode labels and bin sheets.
Screens around the plant, managed from one page and updated live.
Raspberry Pi stations so people on the floor can reach these tools without a desk.
Universal Fabricating North America
Building the plant's internal software: scheduling, production tracking, displays and kiosks.
Western University
Capstone: WE.AI, an AI assistant for the university.
Summit SKS Limited
Built React features and Firebase and API integrations for a web app, working remotely.
Before and during university I worked in retail and food service, including three years at Tim Hortons where I ran shifts as a supervisor.