buildix.
FIELD NOTES BY DAVID VANDENBERG

Building
Intelligent
Experiences.

Applied AI. Thoughtful engineering.
Products that feel a little more human.

I build at the intersection of AI, software and product design. These are the decisions, details and discoveries along the way.

The field notes

01—02 / SEPTEMBER 2026
SEASON 01PET ANALYSIS STUDIO
Illustrative paper collage of a dog and cat
FROM MODEL TO PRODUCTPART 01
START HERE · COMPUTER VISION

Teaching a tiny model to find a pet’s face

A 3.5 MiB model. An almost-perfect validation score. And the important work that neither of those things can do for you.

5 Sept 2026 · 8 min read
02
PRODUCT ENGINEERING

A detection box is not an avatar

How geometry, fallbacks and a little user control turn a prediction into a useful experience.

5 Sept 2026
7 min read
THE PERSON BEHIND THE NOTES

Hi, I’m David.
I connect the dots.

I’m an Applied AI Engineer in Sydney. From the original Chemist Warehouse online platform to personalised AI workflows and computer vision, I’ve built products by staying close to the people who use them.

A little more about me