Currently building cool projects… Milano · IT

Shanel Bastian

Computer Science Engineering @ Politecnico di Milano. CTO @ Evolv AI — AI Transformational Partner. Helping businesses automate processes and put AI where it actually matters.

02 · About

A student who ships, not a junior dev with a portfolio template.

— Profile

Italian-Sri Lankan.
Third-year at Politecnico di Milano.
Graduating February 2027.
Currently shipping production AI for SMBs.

I'm a third-year Computer Science Engineering student at Politecnico di Milano, born to Sri Lankan parents and raised on the idea that you understand a system by taking it apart and rebuilding it yourself.

By day I'm in lectures on operating systems, distributed algorithms, and information theory. By night I'm CTO of Evolv AI, an AI Transformational Partner for SMBs across Italy and the US. We help business owners take back their time — automating the processes that eat their week, and embedding AI in the places it actually changes the outcome. Less dashboards, more leverage.

On the side I'm studying offensive security — picking apart wireless protocols, soldering attack hardware, reading more CVE write-ups than I probably should. I like building things at the seam between the model and the metal, where prompts meet packets.

03 · Now

What I'm actually up to.

Currently / week of

Updated · 18 May 2026

001 Building AI-first transformations for SMBs in Italy and the US — automating the processes that eat the week, embedding AI where it actually moves the business. Currently restructuring an Italian agency around AI ops.
002 Studying Offensive security — currently deep in 802.11 and SDR. Aiming for OSCP in summer 2026.
003 Reading Designing Data-Intensive Applications, the gnarly chapters on consensus. Kleppmann is a saint.
004 Exploring Edge-deployed small models for private agents. Curious where the floor is on a Raspberry Pi 5.

04 · Selected Work

Where the building actually happens.

e evolv.

AI Transformational Partner for SMBs across Italy and the United States. We automate business processes and embed AI where it actually changes the outcome — not where it looks impressive.

Role: CTO & Co-founder
Years: 2024 — present
Stack: Node · Postgres · Supabase · OpenAI · Twilio · Railway
Markets: 🇮🇹 Italy · 🇺🇸 United States

evolv.one ↗

— Case study

We turn the work that's eating your week into AI that runs itself — and put intelligence where it actually moves the business.

Evolv AI is an AI Transformational Partner for SMBs across Italy and the US. We don't sell tools — we sit next to the founder and figure out what's actually eating their week, then automate it. The boring stuff handled. The high-leverage stuff augmented with AI. The right things in human hands, sharper than before.

005 / shipped

pdf.tools/ —

11 file tools, all client-side, no server in the middle.

tools · open · 2026

006 / forthcoming

Local-first agent kit —

small models, embedded, opinionated, mine.

ai · open-source · 2026

007 / forthcoming

A thesis worth reading —

probably about distributed agents.

research · 2027