Hey, I'm
Erfan Gholami
Android Engineer · Turin, Italy
I've been building Android apps for over seven years — the kind that work in the middle of nowhere, show you where you are on a map, and don't drain your battery doing it.
Most of that time I've been the sole Android engineer on small teams, which means I've had to care about everything: architecture, performance, testing, shipping. I like it that way.
Lately I've been deep in open-source work — building tools that give people real ownership of their data, funded by NLnet and published for anyone to use.
What I work on
Building apps that works where theres is no signal
- —Offline-first architecture with Room and DataStore
- —Background sync via WorkManager that respects battery
- —Graceful degradation so users never hit a dead end
Maps and location as a first-class feature
- —MapLibre, OpenStreetMap, and Google Maps integration
- —Battery-efficient location monitoring and geofencing
- —Offline tile downloading for field and low-connectivity use
Codebases that stay maintainable as they grow
- —Clean Architecture with clear, enforced layer boundaries
- —Kotlin-first with Jetpack Compose UI
- —Modularization and refactoring without breaking what works
Android libraries other developers want to use
- —SDK design and Maven Central publishing
- —Cross-app communication with AIDL and Binder IPC
- —Clear APIs with good developer experience from day one
Shipping fast without breaking things
- —CI/CD pipelines that catch issues before users do
- —Unit, integration, and UI tests with JUnit and Espresso
- —Firebase Crashlytics for real-world quality signals
Software that respects who owns the data
- —Open-source work funded by NLnet Foundation
- —Solid Protocol and decentralized personal data storage
- —Privacy-first architecture — no dark patterns
Projects
All projects →Android Solid Services
An Android ecosystem for the Solid Protocol, funded by NLnet.
Fotoshi
Geospatial photo-tagging and crowdsourced mapping app.
Solid Share
Open-source personal data wallet for Solid pods, funded by NLnet.
MobileGIS
Full-featured GIS Android app with OSM-based interactive maps.
Blog
All posts →Loosing sense of time
I have sensed the goal is not visible with technology.
Clean Architecture on Android: A Practical Guide
A hands-on guide to structuring Android projects with Clean Architecture — covering layers, dependency rules, testing, and real trade-offs from production apps.
Education
M.S. in Computer Engineering
SoftwarePolitecnico di Torino — Turin, Italy
Thesis: “Integrating Solid Project into Native Android Development” — in collaboration with PonderSource, funded by NLnet.
Ranked #92 in the world · QS 2024
B.S. in Computer Engineering
Shahid Beheshti University — Tehran, Iran
Thesis: “Implementation of Efficient Subgraph Matching on Apache Spark” — supervised by Dr. Hasan Haghighi.
Ranked top 6 universities in Iran · World University Rankings 2020
Diploma in Mathematics and Physics
NODET — Sanandaj, Iran
National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talent — gifted students program.
Get in touch
I'm open to freelance projects, senior roles, and open-source collaborations — especially around location, mapping, or anything that gives users more control over their own data.