Final Interview

About Me

I’m a high school junior with a strong passion for cybersecurity and computer science. I’m especially fascinated by how technology—particularly computer science—can enhance our lives, even in areas that might not seem directly related. My main interests lie in software development and algorithms. I enjoy full-stack development and have worked on projects that strengthened my skills in Java and Python APIs, database management, object-oriented programming, and frontend design. I’m driven by the opportunity to build tools that serve and support the community.

My Projects

Bathroom

At Open Coding Society, I led the end-to-end design and development of a next-generation bathroom pass system—an agile, secure, and data-driven solution using a Java/Spring Boot backend and a dynamic JavaScript frontend.

Skills Developed:

  • Core Java and Spring Boot for building robust RESTful APIs
  • JavaScript integration with a Java backend for real-time sync
  • Relational data modeling and queue algorithm design

Objectives & Implementation:

  1. Intelligent Queueing: We built a virtual queue where students request passes and are slotted in behind any active user, ensuring only one student uses a restroom at a time—improving visibility and accountability.
  2. Location Tracking: Users select specific restrooms, enabling real-time occupancy tracking and bottleneck detection.
  3. Issue Reporting & Analytics: An in-app interface lets students report maintenance issues instantly. Aggregated analytics help facilities prioritize repairs.
  4. Scalability: Though we initially focused on restroom passes, we designed modular services and schemas to support future use cases like nurse/library passes and classroom-specific queues.
  5. Security: We implemented lightweight authentication and secured all endpoints, with persistent queue states stored in a SQL database.

Results:

  • Delivered a polished MVP supporting queueing, tracking, reporting, analytics, and authentication
  • Built a modular, extensible codebase that supports rapid future development (e.g., QR check-ins)
  • Provided a scalable, practical tool that modernizes how schools manage student movement and resources

This project honed my full-stack development skills and showed how thoughtful software design can bring smart, real-world impact to educational workflows.

UI/UX

  • Built an interface for users to checkout of their classroom and leave the class (ex: hall pass)
  • Developed methods to track users and who has left
  • Worked on integrating hardware to scan student identification cards to streamline checkout/check-in process
  • Lead the UI/UX development process to visually and functionally overall all core aspects of the site including but not limited to: login and dashboard features, overall site, toolkit and student made tools

Unique Qualities

  • Adaptable Full‑Stack Engineer: Seamlessly transitioned between front‑end, back‑end, and database work—whether building the dynamic JavaScript UI for the bathroom pass or architecting the “groups” feature in your person database—quickly mastering new domains as project needs evolved. \

  • Versatile Role Player: Thrived in a spectrum of responsibilities—as a core contributor on the person/groups module, Scrum Master steering daily stand‑ups and sprint planning for ScreenQueue, and project lead orchestrating end‑to‑end delivery for P1 Tri 2. \

  • Integration & Debugging Specialist: Developed deep expertise in tracing defects across highly interdependent features (especially ScreenQueue), pinpointing root causes in teammates’ commits, and restoring system integrity with surgical precision. \

  • Technical Storyteller: Translated complex queue‑management algorithms and RESTful API workflows into clear, actionable guides—tailoring explanations to fellow developers’ mental models and to non‑technical end users’ needs. \

  • Strategic Architect: Designed modular, scalable data schemas and service boundaries (e.g., supporting future nurse/library passes and QR check‑ins) that enable rapid feature expansion without rewriting core logic. \

  • Data‑Driven Innovator: Implemented in‑app issue reporting and analytics dashboards that surface maintenance trends—empowering facilities teams to prioritize repairs and demonstrating how thoughtful instrumentation drives real‑world impact. \

  • Security‑Minded Collaborator: Integrated lightweight authentication and secured every API endpoint, ensuring that sensitive student location and queue data remained protected while maintaining a smooth user experience.

Data Structures & HW

Project Showcase

Attending Night at the Museum was an incredible chance to showcase the months of work I’d poured into my project, gather real-time feedback, and explore how others approached similar challenges. Presenting my system sparked ideas for new environments where it could be deployed—possibilities I hadn’t even imagined—and highlighted several UX gaps that felt obvious to me as the developer but might confuse first‑time users. That insight has been invaluable for refining both the interface and onboarding guides.

Meanwhile, ScreenQueue has become one of the most widely adopted features in our CSA classroom, despite its deep integration with Assignments, Submissions, Person, Login, and Groups. We’ve tested it both individually and in teams, and although we battled countless null‑reference errors at the start, iterative debugging and collaboration smoothed out the kinks. Now, ScreenQueue not only supports our peer‑review process—like the very review you’re reading—but also serves as a testament to the resilience of a well‑architected, interdependent system.

Stats

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