Hi, I’m Milton Barrera
I’m Milton Josué Barrera Zepeda, a Software Engineer from Costa Rica. The short version of me: I really like learning about different topics and finding great communities to build and grow with. That curiosity is the through-line behind everything on this site — it’s what took me from teaching university programming courses, to earning Harvard’s CS50 AI certificate, to building semantic guardrails for AI systems today. I come from a strong software-engineering background: a patch merged into the Linux kernel, open-source maintenance of an OpenStreetMap app with 50k+ downloads, and a habit of turning messy, real-world data into things that actually work.Data Science & AI
Building semantic guardrails that keep generative-AI systems safe, accurate, and on-topic.
Linux kernel patch
Contributed a HID driver quirk merged into Linus Torvalds’ tree.
Open source at scale
Maintainer of OSMTracker for OpenStreetMap — 50k+ downloads on Google Play.
How I got here
I didn’t set out to contribute to the Linux kernel or to open-source mapping tools — I got there by following problems I actually had. My mouse didn’t work on Linux, so I read enough of the HID subsystem to fix it and sent the patch upstream. I wanted to buy a used car, so I turned the search into a dataset. I wanted to understand genetic algorithms, so I built one that escapes a room on its own. That pattern — find a real question, build my way to the answer, share the result — is how I’ve taught myself most of what I know.What I’m like to work with
Curious and self-directed
I pick things up quickly and don’t need hand-holding to get productive.
Comfortable across the stack
From C at the driver level to web apps and data pipelines — I go where the problem is.
Community-minded
I do a lot of my work in the open and enjoy collaborating with people who care about the craft.
Pragmatic
I care about shipping things that work and are actually useful, not just clever.
Where I’m headed
Building things is where my engineering instincts and my curiosity meet. Day to day I work on AI systems — semantic guardrails in particular — where the challenge is keeping what a model says accurate, safe, and on-topic. Before that I spent years close to data: ETL pipelines, business intelligence, visualization in R and Tableau. I want to keep building at the intersection of software engineering and applied AI, on top of the engineering foundation I already have.What I’m looking for
Note: I’m currently happily employed and not actively looking for a new role. However, I’m always open to connecting with fellow builders, discussing open-source projects, or chatting about applied AI and software engineering!
Get in touch
I’m @miltonials across the web, and always glad to connect — about software, AI and data, open source, or interesting work. Email is the surest way to reach me.in/miltonials
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