10 · Study
Study Log
A record of credentials, domains, and learning in motion. Anchored by an explicit manifesto on the difference between certifying and learning.
Credentials
ASTI Higher International Diploma
ASTIworking-in·earned 2024-06-10·last assessed 2026-04-25what stuckSolid foundational facility with circuit analysis, basic signal processing, and embedded systems thinking. The hands-on lab work was the part that carried.
what didn'tSome of the advanced power-systems content has decayed since I have not been working in that domain.
CAPM
Project Management Instituteworking-in·earned 2025-09-15·last assessed 2026-05-01what stuckThe framework for thinking about scope, schedule, and cost trade-offs has been useful in client conversations, and the explicit vocabulary for risk registers and stakeholder analysis is something I reach for repeatedly.
what didn'tThe PMI-specific terminology rarely matters outside formal PMI environments; I translate to plain English in practice. The detailed mathematical formulas for EVM I have not used since the exam.
CS50AI
Harvard (online)working-in·earned 2024-08-12·last assessed 2026-05-01what stuckConcrete fluency with search, constraint satisfaction, classical ML, and Markov decision processes. The mental scaffolding that lets me read modern LLM agent papers without losing my place.
what didn'tThe minimax / alpha-beta material has not come up in practice; it is preserved as knowledge but not as skill.
BSc Information Technology (in progress)
Curtin Universitylearning·pending·last assessed 2026-04-30what stuckIn progress — the assessment is deferred until the degree is well underway.
what didn'tIn progress — see above.
ICS — Introduction to Shipping
Institute of Chartered Shipbrokerslearning·earned 2026-05-08·last assessed 2026-05-10what stuckThe structural picture of how chartering markets, owners, brokers, charterers, and ports interact as a system. That model is now operational for me when I read industry news.
what didn'tSpecific dry-bulk charter party clauses without the rest of a working context — they are exam-shaped knowledge that will decay unless I encounter them in real work.
ICS — Marine Insurance
Institute of Chartered Shipbrokerslearning·pending·last assessed 2026-05-10what stuckProvisional, ahead of the exam — the Institute clauses (ITC Hulls, ICC A/B/C), the structure of cover, the role of warranties, and the practical workings of subrogation are now part of the working set for Slipwise.
what didn'tTo be re-assessed honestly two weeks after the exam, when the shape of what carried into practice will be clearer.
Qiskit Advocate
IBM Quantumdabbled·earned 2024-11-20·last assessed 2026-04-15what stuckA working mental model for gate-based quantum computation and an ability to read the relevant literature without translation. The vocabulary is internalised.
what didn'tWithout a current research or build context I am not actively using Qiskit week-to-week. The hands-on facility has decayed to about half of what it was at the exam window.
The eight domains
Cybersecurity
working-inApplication security, authentication, authorization, threat modeling. Working-in depth from Slipwise's regulatory requirements and prior project work. The honest gaps: red-team / offensive practice, which I have not done at any scale; and formal cryptography, which I treat with deliberate humility.
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
working-inCircuit design, embedded systems, signal processing. Foundational from the ASTI diploma. Current depth is working-in for the basics, dabbled for advanced topics like power systems and RF design where I have not had recent work to maintain capability.
Low-Level Programming
learningSystems programming, memory management, compilers. Currently a learning domain rather than a working-in one. I am working through deliberate exercises — small C projects, a Rust ownership refresher, some toy compiler work — to lift this from dabbled to working-in over the next eighteen months.
Mathematics
learningLinear algebra (most current), calculus (decayed), probability and statistics (planned), proof-based mathematics (planned). The honest assessment is that I am at late-high-school to early-undergraduate level in pure math and rebuilding deliberately. This domain has the largest gap between where I want to be and where I am, and the gap is closing only as fast as deliberate study time allows.
Philosophy
working-inEpistemology, philosophy of science, ethics at the level of method. Held deliberately as a separate domain rather than folded into others because my relationship to philosophy is methodological rather than discipline-specific. The reading list rotates between contemporary epistemology, classical Islamic philosophy, and methodological writing from working scientists.
Physics and Quantum Computing
working-inFoundational physics through undergraduate level, plus active study of quantum computing through the Qiskit ecosystem. My 2024 publication on quantum graph neural networks for financial fraud detection lives in this domain; I am not currently in active research on it but the vocabulary is operational.
Software Development and Product Engineering
teaching-fromMy primary professional domain. Web development, system design, product architecture, and engineering process. Most of my Slipwise work lives in this domain — full-stack TypeScript, Postgres, event-driven architecture, regulated-tech disciplines. I am most current here on the system-design and product-engineering boundary; less current on pure-frontend craft, which I deliberately let lag because it is the part of the field that changes fastest.
AI Engineering
working-inLarge language model integration, agentic systems, prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation, evaluations. The fastest-moving of the eight domains; my depth indicators here are updated more frequently than anywhere else. Most of the work that earns the working-in label has been on Slipwise (AI-assisted underwriting workflows under regulated constraints) plus prior consulting work.
Publications
Quantum Graph Neural Networks for Financial Fraud Detection
Springer Nature — Quantum Machine Intelligence·2024·H. Gokal et al.
Conferences
IBM Quantum Summit, 2024
Attendee