i love
programming:
Bachelor's thesis
My bachelor’s thesis lasted 10 weeks and consisted of testing chromostereoscopy glasses. These aren’t ‘normal’ 3D glasses: these glasses bend blue light toward your nose and red light the other way, creating the illusion of depth. My task was to statistically optimize images for both depth contrast and true-to-life colors.
Bar tablet
At my association, drinks are tallied during drinks and paid for later by direct debit (SEPA). The previous bar tablet app was difficult to use and maintain. So, in 2024, I created a new app in Jetpack Compose that works better, with a future-proof vision, and integration with our new member administration, accounting, and direct debit workflows (which we also revised).
grooverjazz.nl
In 2024, my association launched a new website. The launch was rushed, resulting in subpar code quality and documentation. In 2024-2025, I aligned many pages more closely with the Figma design, overhauled the search function on one of the pages (‘/bands’), and facilitated integration with web forms of our new member administration software.
Master's thesis
From November 2024 to July 2025 (30 weeks), I conducted a self-devised research project for my master’s thesis. I implemented and compared various music generation algorithms (‘trading fours’) using a self-formulated research framework, which included self-assessment of participants, supplemented with third-party assessment, and assessment using statistical techniques.
Minor Interactive Environments
For my Interactive Environments minor in Industrial Design in 2021, we worked with the Royal Library in The Hague. Their assignment: capture the attention of people walking past the library on the street.
Our first concept, ‘Nenzo’, consists of a surface with peepholes through which a visitor could read news stories. The second and final concept, ‘Reflect’, is a video wall that displays information about the library’s collections in the silhouettes of passers-by. This was realized using a Kinect and the Godot game engine. The project received a restart budget in 2024, although little has happened in the meantime. The wall did, however, remain in the KB building for a while.
thomassjerps.nl
In the summer of 2025, I created this website to showcase my resume and portfolio. This is it!
Video games!
Ever since I was a child, I’ve been interested in creating games. I started my programming career in GameMaker, and I used it for many hobby projects and game jams until I was 19. Later, I tried many other frameworks (MonoGame, LWJGL) and then moved on to Godot. The screenshot is of ‘The Pironaut,’ which I won a game jam with! For a university course, I also created a game in Unity in a small group.
i love
my association:
Groover Real Book
When you play jazz together, you often do so with ‘standards’: songs everyone generally knows. ‘Real books’ are repertoire booklets with popular standards. My assosiation had created two of them ourselves. However, the original sources for those booklets had been lost, making correction and adaptation impossible. After hundreds of hours of importing MusicXML, manual retyping, and formatting alignment, I managed to create one beautiful booklet (with a self-made promotion video!).
Groover Top 2-Jazzend
A fun Christmas project during my board year! In the Netherlands, the ‘Top 2000’ is a national phenomenon where a publically-voted-for list of 2000 songs airs on the radio, starting on Christmas morning, and ending at New Year’s exactly. I wanted to do that for myself. With the ‘Top 2-Jazzend’, members could vote by submitting a (Spotify Wrapped) playlist, and a Python script I wrote, using the Spotify API, could merge them into a single list!
Photography
Over the past few years, I’ve become increasingly interested in photography, ever since I was able to borrow my father’s camera to take photos for my association. The camera is a Nikon, and I do the post-processing in Lightroom.
Stage manager
In 2023 and 2024, I was the stage manager for our association’s annual festival, ‘Just Jazz.’ As stage manager, I was responsible for my stage’s timeline, communication with the bands, and the well-being of the lighting and sound crew during and after set- and instrument changes. In 2023, there were 1000 visitors and I was responsible for the second stage; in 2024, there were 600 visitors and I was responsible for the main stage.
i love
music:
Band: Once More
I play keys in the five-piece band Once More, once described as a ‘warm blanket’: besides traditional jazz, we also play old Disney songs and some funkier stuff. In the photo, we just received the ‘Popdelft’s Got You Covered’ award for the best arrangement of Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’ (we turned it into a bossa nova)!
Band: Tiewrap
My fellow former board member Yiska and I are in the jazz duo Tiewrap. She sings, and I play piano. We mainly play jazz standards, and we’re available for any occasion!
Educool
In high school, you sometimes get assignments that you can creatively complete ‘in your own way.’ With that in mind, we started the rap duo Educool, where I’m responsible for recording and music production. We’ve been around for 10 years and have four albums that are on all streaming services, but I wouldn’t listen to them if I were you.
Substitute/occasional gigs
If a full band isn’t available for an activity or paid gig request, members of my association are sometimes asked individually if they can play an ‘occasional gig’. That’s often a lot of fun, so I’ve done that a few times. In the photo, it’s our Members’ Weekend, it’s already 2 AM, and I’m preparing for a cantus where everyone will be singing Stevie Wonder at the top of their lungs. I barely had time to rehearse. It went well enough.