Steven Tomlinson

AI Projects & Research

Overview

My AI-focused work emphasizes architectural understanding over tool fluency — exploring how generative AI, agent-based systems, and intelligent automation alter system design, governance, and long-term sustainability.

Rather than building consumer-facing demos, I focus on:

  • Reference implementations that demonstrate architectural patterns
  • Security and trust boundaries in AI-enabled systems
  • Integration of AI components into enterprise architectures
  • Practical application of formal AI education to real-world systems

Active Projects

AI Portfolio — Certification Labs & Research

Repository: steven-tomlinson/ai-portfolio

Status: Active Development

A structured portfolio containing:

  • Certification Lab Projects — Hands-on implementations from Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure AI certifications
  • Courseware & Artifacts — Study materials, course notes, and lab exercises
  • Personal Experiments — Testing AI concepts, libraries, and integration patterns
  • Learning Notes — Observations on architectural implications of AI systems

Technologies:

  • Azure AI Services and Azure OpenAI Service
  • Azure Bot Service and Azure Functions
  • HTML/CSS/JavaScript for portfolio presentation
  • VS Code with GitHub Copilot

Focus Areas:

  • AI agent architecture and orchestration
  • Azure AI Foundry certification path
  • Safe, secure implementation patterns
  • Creating novel abstractions for complex system design

Lockb0x Codex Forge — Digital Provenance System

Repository: steven-tomlinson/lockbox-codex-forge

Status: Production-Ready (Awaiting Marketplace Publication)

A Chrome Extension (Manifest V3) implementing the lockb0x protocol for creating secure, verifiable Codex Entries from web content or user-uploaded files.

Key Features:

  • Complete lockb0x protocol implementation (UUID generation, SHA-256 hashing, ni-URI encoding, JSON canonicalization, ES256 signing)
  • Zip archive workflow with dual-signature verification
  • Google Drive integration for secure anchor storage
  • Support for any file type (text, PDF, JSON, binary)
  • Schema validation against lockb0x schema v0.0.2
  • Encrypted zip archiving with verifiable provenance

Technologies:

  • JavaScript (Manifest V3 Chrome Extension)
  • Google Drive API and OAuth2 authentication
  • Cryptographic primitives (SHA-256, ES256)
  • JSON Web Keys (JWK) and JSON canonicalization (RFC 8785)

Architectural Focus:

  • Trust boundaries and verifiable digital provenance
  • Protocol-driven system design
  • Secure credential handling and token management
  • User-controlled data sovereignty

Note: AI-powered metadata generation features are referenced but deprioritized, as Chrome Built-In AI APIs are still experimental. Current implementation uses fallback text extraction.

Roadmap:

  • Final release to Google Chrome Marketplace
  • Fork for Microsoft Edge and OneDrive integration
  • Enhanced testing infrastructure and integration tests

Liquidity Dashboard — DeFi Analytics (Early Stage)

Repository: steven-tomlinson/liquidity-dashboard-

Status: Template/Early Development

A Python-based Streamlit application for decentralized finance analytics and liquidity monitoring.

Technologies:

  • Python and Streamlit
  • Data visualization and analytics

Context: This project applies learnings from the Duke University DeFi specialization to practical financial data analysis and monitoring.

Educational Foundation

All project work is grounded in formal education:

Google Cloud — Generative AI Leader Specialization (2025)

Completed specialization covering:

  • Organizational adoption of generative AI
  • Agent-based system architecture
  • Enterprise integration patterns
  • Governance, risk, and value creation
  • AI application development and transformation

Credential: View Certificate

Duke University — Decentralized Finance Specialization (2022)

Completed multi-course specialization covering:

  • DeFi primitives and infrastructure
  • Protocol behavior and systemic risk
  • Architectural trade-offs in decentralized systems
  • Real-world financial and regulatory considerations

Credential: View Certificate

Additional Coursework

  • AI Agent Fundamentals with Azure AI Foundry (Microsoft)
  • Gen AI: Beyond the Chatbot (Google Cloud)
  • Gen AI Agents: Transform Your Organization (Google Cloud)
  • Multiple courses on DeFi infrastructure, risk, and opportunities (Duke)

For complete certification details, see my Continuing Education page.

Architectural Principles

My AI and protocol work follows consistent principles:

  • Security First — Never commit secrets, design with trust boundaries explicit
  • Verifiable Systems — Cryptographic proofs over implicit trust
  • User Sovereignty — Users control their data and credentials
  • Enterprise Integration — Systems must integrate cleanly with existing enterprise architectures
  • Long-term Sustainability — Solutions designed to evolve without rewrites

Tools & Methodologies

Development Environment

  • VS Code with GitHub Copilot
  • Azure services and Google Cloud Platform
  • Chrome DevTools for extension development
  • Git and GitHub for version control

Architectural Approach

  • Reference architectures over one-off solutions
  • Explicit decision boundaries and failure modes
  • Protocol-driven design where appropriate
  • Test-driven development for critical paths

Future Directions

Ongoing exploration includes:

  • Multi-agent orchestration — How autonomous agents coordinate and maintain trust
  • Hybrid architecture patterns — Integrating decentralized components into enterprise systems
  • AI governance frameworks — Policy-driven systems for intelligent automation
  • Protocol evolution — How protocol-backed systems maintain backward compatibility

Code Quality & Best Practices

All projects emphasize:

  • Clean, well-documented code
  • Comprehensive testing where infrastructure exists
  • Security-first design (no credentials in source control)
  • Regular commits with meaningful messages
  • Consistent use of templates and organizational patterns