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borck.dev

About

I’m Michael Borck. I build things, teach people, and try to figure out how AI can be genuinely useful in education without requiring a data centre or giving up your privacy.

What I do

Section titled “What I do”

I’m based at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, where I teach and lead LocoLabo — an applied AI research lab that runs entirely on secondhand consumer hardware. The lab’s premise is simple: most people don’t have access to frontier compute, so we study what’s actually possible on the hardware they do have.

I also build privacy-first educational tools — desktop apps, CLI tools, and teaching kits that run locally. No cloud dependency, no data leaving the device. Tools like AI tutors, conversation practice, curriculum generators, and grading assistants.

The other stuff

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Outside of work, I run RetroVerse Studios, a small indie game studio making retro-styled games with modern mechanics.

I’m an amateur astronomer at The Little Perth Observatory — five homemade observing stations, a philosophy of “skills beat gear”, and a lot of time under dark skies.

I write occasionally at The 80-20 Workshop about building, making, and the 80/20 principle applied to learning.

How to reach me

Section titled “How to reach me”
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