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Welcome

Who am I?

This is my personal corner of the internet1, so you'll be able to find various blog posts, tutorials, messy notes and an archive of my University notes. I hope you find something that interests you too, and if you spot any mistakes, then please feel free to email me with any corrections.

I'm always available with any questions at charlie@chza.me.

Blog

I try to post here at least once a week on something technical, but sometimes I write about holidays or experiences instead. As you might be able to tell, I find writing somewhat cathartic, and whilst my notes can generally be a bit disorganised, it's good to commit to finishing something once a week and hold myself accountable.

I find writing for public consumption is a good way to learn, as I have to explain something in enough detail that it can be understood by a third party, and I'm more inclined to verify facts and polish my notes. Hopefully one of my latest blog posts below is something you might find interesting:

University

I graduated from the University of Southampton in June 2024, with an MEng Computer Science with Cyber Security with First Class Honours.

My most recent notes can be found here, for courses studied in Semester 2, 2024. An overall list of notes for all previous modules (where applicable) is published here. During the last semester, I was casually employed as a demonstrator for the COMP1206: Programming 2 module, and as a supervisor for the COMP2211: Software Engineering Group Project module.

My thesis was titled Fuzzing With Neural Networks Trained on Instrumented Code in LibAFL and explored the use of neural networks for fuzz testing. My fourth year group project for the master's part of the degree was titled Investigation of Drone Communications and Jamming, and focused on ways that we could disrupt the communications link of a DJI Mini 2 drone. My contribution was mainly on the reverse engineering of the software, whilst the others in the group developed solutions to disrupt the OcuSync radio protocol, which is loosely based on the LTE specifications. I don't want to publish that here though, as it likely contravenes the ITAR.

Note

The notes linked above will likely not be updated further, and serve purely as an archive. Coursework code and reports are also not published on this site, but can be made available to prospective employers as part of my portfolio for a selection of technical writing and code.

Personal Life

Outside work I enjoy cooking, playing the guitar and going out and about in my campervan. I started Ballroom and Latin Dancing earlier last year with SUBLDS, and I've been to several competitions. I also crew for a Super Pro ET team at Santa Pod Raceway several times a year which is good fun and combines camping with drag racing. We currently race a Pontiac Firebird, nicknamed the 'Limpy Slug', and a Dodge Dart, called 'Teenage Dream'.

Books-wise, I'm currently reading 'A Brave New World' by Alodus Huxley. You can find my thoughts on books here, see what I'm holding myself accountable to do here, and see a list of my recommended music, TV, and film here.

I'm currently working my way along the South West Coast Path with my dad and brother, which is proving to be quite challenging but a fun and active way to holiday. We're documenting our progress over on the C&O Vlogs YouTube channel, with all the SWCP bits in a playlist here. My brother, Olly Britton has made a visual tracker of the distance we've covered here (note this may be a bit out of date).

As my website collects analytics, I am obliged to tell you about my Privacy Policy. My company information can also be found here.

  1. All views expressed here are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer. ↩