About Me

Hi, I’m Andrew Vasilyev, though I’m also known by the nickname “retran.”

My journey into the world of programming began at the age of five, when I typed in my very first program from a textbook called “Logibul au pays de l’informatique”, written by Sh. Dvorchik and L. Vasilenki. That simple exercise sparked a lifelong passion for technology and coding.

Throughout my school years, I immersed myself in competitive programming, but by the time I reached university, I decided to set this obsession aside. For a time, I considered a career in game development, but eventually, I’m relieved that path didn’t take shape. Instead, I found myself diving into a wide range of technical fields.

Over the years, I’ve gained significant expertise in areas such as operations research, service-oriented architecture (SOA), enterprise software development, and more recently, artificial intelligence (AI) and development tools. Between 2011 and 2014, I taught courses at the Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University), where I shared my knowledge of “High-Level Language Programming” and “Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning.”

Professionally, I’ve had the opportunity to contribute to some fascinating projects. At Ozon.ru, I led a team that built and managed what was, at the time, the largest e-commerce loyalty program in the CIS, reaching 2.5 million users on the first day. At Acumatica, I developed API scaffolding frameworks and tools for enterprise applications, helping build platforms that simplified the development of mobile clients for enterprise systems.

Since 2013, I’ve been particularly fascinated by development tools—frameworks, domain-specific languages (DSLs), metaprogramming, and compilers. My work at 1C Company allowed me to contribute to the architecture of a new enterprise application platform, and I helped integrate development environments like Visual Studio Code and Eclipse. This involved developing virtual machines, debuggers, and cloud-based tools, enabling seamless remote development and debugging.

In 2018, I joined JetBrains, where I currently lead the ReSharper AI team, working on integrating AI-driven solutions into .NET and C++ development tools. My team has successfully incorporated generative AI, large language models (LLMs), and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) into ReSharper and Rider, transforming the developer experience by automating code suggestions, debugging, and more. Some of the AI-related concepts I’ve introduced have been adopted by other teams at JetBrains, earning us recognition for innovation. You can even check out a demo of our work.

Mentoring and teaching have been recurring themes throughout my career. I’ve guided dozens of interns at JetBrains, earning the informal title of “head of interns” in the .NET Department, and delivered workshops on mentorship across the company. I’ve also taught courses on “IDE Development” at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in 2021 and at Constructor University in Bremen in 2023, sharing my expertise with students eager to learn about modern development environments. Between 2021 and 2022, I mentored students at Practicum by Yandex, helping them master algorithms and data structures.

When I’m not working or teaching, I love to tinker with things—whether it’s hardware, gadgets, or side projects. You can explore some of my personal and professional projects on GitHub. It’s my way of staying curious and continually learning through hands-on experimentation.

Courses I’ve Taught

  1. “IDE Development” 2023, Bremen, Constructor University

  2. “IDE Development”
    2021, Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Faculty of Computer Science

    Awards:

    • “Best Course for Career Development”
    • “Best Course for Broadening Horizons and Diversity of Knowledge and Skills”
    • “Best Course for New Knowledge and Skills”

    Recordings: YouTube Playlist

  3. “High-Level Programming Languages”
    2011-2014, Moscow, Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University), Faculty of Control Systems, Informatics and Electrical Engineering

  4. “Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning”
    2011-2014, Moscow, Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University), Faculty of Control Systems, Informatics and Electrical Engineering

Media Mentions

  1. https://habr.com/ru/companies/yandex_praktikum/articles/593039/
  2. https://habr.com/ru/companies/JetBrains/articles/477026/
  3. https://www.infoworld.com/article/2334745/how-to-get-started-with-prompt-engineering.html

Connect with Me