About Me
Hi! I'm İdil Ünlü — a curious engineer who took a detour from electronics and neuroengineering into the world of software development. My background is in deep learning, computer vision, and medical technologies. Along the way, I've had the chance to work at Brainlab, ETH Zürich, and even co-found a startup. I completed my Master's thesis at Harvard Medical School and hold degrees from Boğaziçi University (B.Sc.) and TUM (M.Sc.).
My career hasn't been a straight line. Jumping into full-stack development without a traditional software engineering background felt like being thrown into a pool without knowing how to swim. But I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity — and for the trust of my mentors at Smart In Media, who believed I could learn and grow. This journey, from simply "making things work" to "making things work efficiently, securely, and at scale", has been both challenging and rewarding.
I started this blog as a way to learn in public. Writing forces me to slow down, structure my thoughts, and translate complex concepts into simpler language — which, for me, is the best way to truly learn.
Through this blog, I hope to:
- • Show others that it's okay to change careers and to feel lost at the beginning.
- • Introduce concepts in a way that's accessible to people without a software engineering background.
- • Connect with others who are learning, teaching, or building.
- • Create a personal record of my growth as an engineer.
This is my Junior Dev's Journal — not just a collection of notes, but a way to stay accountable, share openly, and celebrate progress along the way.
If you're a fellow developer, researcher, or just someone curious about technology, I hope you'll find something here that resonates.