M.A. Linguistics (Cambridge): Double first-class honours

Richard is an independent IT professional with two specialisations: natural language processing and security architecture. He has 25 years of project experience across a number of industry verticals and is an established author and conference speaker. Based in Munich, Richard holds German and British citizenship and is equally at home working in both languages.
+49 151 6243 5227
info@richardpaulhudson.com

Selected open-source contributions

LibraryRoleDescription
HolmesSole authorInformation extraction from English and German texts based on predicate logic; supports intelligent search.
CorefereeSole authorCoreference resolution for English, French, German and Polish, optimised for limited training data and easily extensible for further languages.
spaCyFormer core
maintainer
Industrial-strength Natural Language Processing in Python.
thincFormer core
maintainer
A refreshing functional take on deep learning.

Skills

NLP-relatedDeep learning; GPU processing; Haystack; Hugging Face; Large Language Models (LLM); Machine learning; Natural language processing (NLP); Neural networks; OpenSearch; Prompt engineering; PyTorch; Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG); Spacy
Programming languages (ordered by experience)Python; Java; SQL; JEE; Bash; Cython; Javascript; C
Cloud providersAzure; AWS; GCP
General technologies and frameworksAnsible; Cassandra; Docker; Hadoop; Kafka; Kubernetes; MongoDB; MySQL; PostgreSQL; RabbitMQ
Operating systemsUnix; Linux; Ubuntu; macOS
ConceptsApplication architecture; Big Data; Data lake; DevOps; Distributed systems; EAI; ETL; Integration; Messaging; Stakeholder management
Security-relatedBSI Grundschutz; Business continuity; Certificates; Compliance; Cryptography; Data protection; DevSecOps; Disaster recovery; Encryption; GDPR/DSGVO; IAM; ISO standards; ISMS; Key management; Legal requirements; Network security; NIST; PKI; Risk management; Security engineering; Security policies; Threat analysis

Selected publications and talks

Introducing Holmes 4.0, Explosion AI, 2022
Quanten-Computing: Zukunftstechnologie mit stark eingeschränktem Einsatzfeld, iX Developer, 2020
Wortgewandt: Natürliche Sprache zielgenau verarbeiten mit semantischer Textanalyse, iX Developer, 2020
KI-gestützte Textanalyse beim Releasemanagement, Softwareforen Leipzig, 2019
Censor Robots: Using AI to Redact Confidential Information, (ISC)2 Secure Summit, London, 2019
Cybertwists: Hacking and Cyberattacks Explained, CreateSpace, 2018
Machine Learning Catalogue, msg, 2017

Selected project experience

Freelance (from 03/2023)Designed and built a RAG pipeline, integrating with a number of different LLMs, for question-answering against a corpus of legal documentsInsurance
Designed and built a solution to extract text from PDFs and Microsoft Office documentsAI
Explosion AI, Berlin (11/2021 — 02/2023)Core developer maintaining the spaCy and thinc libraries (Python / Cython)AI
Investigated and implemented strategies to improve the accuracy of lemmatisation
models across 17 languages while maintaining acceptable speed
AI
Managed the development and deployment of a distributed application on AWSAI
msg systems ag, Munich (02/2014 — 01/2021)Designed and developed algorithms and systems to analyse the structures of legal texts and to detect anomalous wording in contract proposalsInsurance
Designed a cloud service to recognise incoming E-mails containing orders and to extract structured information from themLogistics
Designed and developed an application with a Microsoft Word/PowerPoint plugin to recognise confidential text passages in internal documents and to remove them prior to external publicationAutomotive
Wrote training materials on machine learningConsulting
Served on a committee that classified new technology trends and put together presentations to advise the rest of the 8000-person business on themConsulting
1&1, Karlsruhe (08/2009 — 01/2014)Wrote and managed a roadmap for a new user management service landscape for the brands GMX, web.de and 1&1 ensuring high availability across multiple continentsTelco
BayernLB, Munich (12/2005 — 07/2009)Wrote middleware software to ensure the integrity of financial transactionsBanking
Definiens AG, Munich (06/2001 — 11/2005)Designed and developed information extraction softwareAI
Worked together with lawyers to write a patent that was awarded in the USAI
John Lewis Partnership, London (09/1998 — 02/2001)IT trainee programmeRetail