Roland Sharp

Independent AI researcher building novel neural architectures from physics. Created Resonance, a neural network built from the damped harmonic oscillator equation — signal-native encoding where raw data feeds directly into an oscillator bank, no tokenizer. Demonstrated 4x parameter efficiency over hand-designed encodings and consistent scaling from 21K to 1M parameters. Previously built a neurosymbolic language model and an encrypted messaging platform. Co-founder of JSON Resume (4.2K GitHub stars). 5+ years Node.js/TypeScript in production.

Experience

AI Researcher & Technical Architect Jan 2022 — Present

Independent Research

Building novel neural architectures grounded in physics. Created Resonance, where the damped harmonic oscillator transfer function H(ω) = 1/(ω₀² - ω² + 2iγω) is the only learnable transform. Discovered that signal-native encoding — feeding raw data directly into the oscillator bank — outperforms hand-designed encodings by 4x. Architecture scales consistently (PPL 1.77 at 21K to 1.14 at 1M params), works for both audio and text, and is provably an energy-based model. Previously built Vidya (neurosymbolic LM in OCaml) and sshmail (encrypted messaging over SSH in Go). All work open-source.

Node.js Developer & Data Engineer Apr 2021 — Nov 2021

Sifchain

Built the TypeScript client SDK and public data API for a decentralized exchange. Complex aggregate SQL queries, Ethereum and Cosmos JavaScript APIs, AWS Lambda deployment.

Senior Node.js Developer Apr 2018 — Mar 2019

Blockbid

Maintained and built out the API gateway for an Australian cryptocurrency exchange. Built the initial market-starting arbitrage bot. TypeScript, GraphQL, TypeORM, Redis, JWT and TOTP multi-factor authentication.

Systems Engineer Sep 2017 — Apr 2018

Everledger

Built a zero-knowledge query service for a consortium blockchain — the first company to use Hyperledger in production. Homomorphic encryption, private blockchain for immutable audit logs. 15+ Docker containers orchestrated with Docker Compose.

Node.js Developer May 2016 — Aug 2017

Adimeo

Built the server for laplateforme.com, France's largest building construction hardware retailer. Mentored PHP developers on modern JavaScript. Node.js, Express.js, Mocha.js, MySQL.

Node.js Developer Dec 2014 — Feb 2016

Lighthouse

Built the main REST API for beacon location tracking on Android devices. Node.js, Express, MongoDB, Mongoose.

Junior Node.js Developer May 2013 — Nov 2014

Payment Network International

Geo-monitoring applications using Node.js. Built modules for meteorological and geological data processing. Maintained 500+ end-to-end and unit tests.

Co-founder & Original CLI Author

JSON Resume

Co-founded the open-source initiative to create a JSON-based standard for resumes. Built the original CLI tool and registry server. 4.2K GitHub stars. The standard is still actively maintained and widely used.

Skills

AI-Directed Development

Claude CodeSystem architectureTechnical direction of AI agentsDesign decisions and trade-off analysisShipping complex projects from concept to deployment

Hands-on Programming

Node.jsTypeScriptJavaScriptExpressREST APIsGraphQL

AI / ML Research

Physics-grounded neural architecturesOscillator networks and transfer functionsSignal processing (FFT, filterbanks, spectral analysis)Transformer architectureEnergy-based modelsPyTorchNeurosymbolic systemsReinforcement learning

Infrastructure

PostgreSQLSQLiteMongoDBRedisDockerAWS LambdaLinux

Projects

Resonance

Neural network built from one equation: the damped harmonic oscillator transfer function. Signal-native encoding where raw bytes feed directly into an oscillator bank — no tokenizer, no embedding table. 4x more parameter-efficient than hand-designed encodings. Scales from 21K to 1M params with no plateau. Works for both audio (causal speech generation) and text (character-level LM). 280 lines of PyTorch.

Vidya

Neurosymbolic language model — GPT-2 transformer with Forth-based symbolic constraints, reinforcement learning, and online memory. Architected by me, implemented in OCaml with Claude Code. Published with full technical documentation.

sshmail

Encrypted messaging hub over SSH for humans and AI agents. SSH-key identity, Discord-like TUI, JSON API, E2E encryption via age. Architected by me, implemented in Go with Claude Code. Deployed at sshmail.dev.

NEUROMANCY

Technical blog documenting AI research, systems programming, and open-source hardware. 30+ posts covering transformer implementation, reinforcement learning, bare-metal programming, and AI-directed development.

JSON Resume

Open-source resume standard. Co-founded the project, built the original CLI tool and registry server. 4.2K GitHub stars.

Education

University of Queensland Jan 2011 — Dec 2012

Bachelor of Science and Art

Linear AlgebraStatic and Dynamic ForcesIntroduction to Electrical EngineeringCritical Reasoning and Formal LogicIntroduction to NeuroscienceKant and European PhilosophyPhilosophy of ArtIntroduction to PhilosophyIntroduction to StatisticsWriting for Engineers

References

I've known Roland for many years, and had the privilege of working closely with him at Blockbid, an Australian crypto currency exchange. Together we built out an API gateway which fronted a distributed system with Kubenetes on AWS. We used Open API v3 to define a schema for our public facing API, we built a custom schema validator which filtered out unexpected requests and responses improving security and consistency. We used JWT's to authenticate users on different microservices by passing them around with associated jobs in RabbitMQ. On top of this we managed to also support GraphQL and namely our own Apollo client frontend. He is excellent at Javascript/Typescript, writes readable, terse, documented and modular code.

— Thomas Davis