Education Overview

2016-2020: Nesbitt Discovery Academy/AB-Tech Community College

My interest in technology started early, with my application and enrollment to Nesbitt Discovery Academy, the only STEM focused high school in Buncombe County, North Carolina. During my time here I was able to pursue various dual enrollment opportunities through AB-Tech, a local community college. This experience not only prepared me for full-time college enrollment, but greatly expedited the process of completing my undergraduate studies.

2020-2024: Rochester Institute of Technology

In 2020, I enrolled in the five-year computer science program at Rochester Institute of Technology, which includes four years of classes, two semester-long internships, and one summer internship. As a result of the transfer credits that I received from my dual enrollment classes in high school and a couple of summer classes, I was able to graduate a year early in 2024 with my Bachelor's of Science in Computer Science.

Relevant Classes

▪ MATH-190: Discrete Math for Computing

▪ SWEN-261: Intro to Software Engineering

▪ CSCI-141: Computer Science 1

▪ CSCI-142: Computer Science 2

▪ CSCI-230: Principles of Data Management

▪ CSCI-243: The Mechanics of Programming

▪ CSCI-250: Concepts of Computer Systems

▪ CSCI-251: Concepts of Parallel and Distributed Systems

▪ CSCI-261: Analysis of Algorithms

▪ CSCI-262: Intro to Computer Science Theory

▪ CSCI-331: Intro to Artificial Intelligence

▪ CSCI-344: Programming Language Concepts

▪ CSCI-420: Principles of Data Mining

▪ CSCI-462: Intro to Cryptography

Work Experience

RIT Saunders

Web Operations Software Dev from January 2023 to May 2024
Rochester, New York

I completed two semester-long full-time internships and one semester of part-time work as a Software Developer at RIT Saunders College of Business. My responsibilities in this position included updating and developing touch screen display interfaces for the building, creating tools for faculty on our website, resolving web-related tickets for staff, and managing equipment reservations.

This role provided me with exposure to a diverse set of languages, tools, and frameworks, such as PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX calls, SQL, DataTables, and CodeIgniter 4, among others.

This position also presented me with the opportunity to collaborate with faculty members in a professional environment, ensuring that the products I developed were user-friendly and aligned with user requirements. This experience not only honed my technical skills but also enhanced my interpersonal abilities.

Visual Alpha

Web Developer Intern from June 2023 to August 2023
Tokyo, Japan

During the summer of 2023, I had the opportunity to work as an intern at Visual Alpha, a SaaS Fintech startup based in Tokyo, Japan specializing in investment management services. During my time with Visual Alpha, my primary focus was on restructuring the back-end code of their document parsing software. This software was one of their many tools, and was responsible for reading imported files, computing crucial investment metrics, and caching information as needed. It operated within a Node.js environment, utilizing JavaScript and Typescript, while relying on AWS S3 for caching functionalities.

This internship not only provided valuable exposure to real-world professional development but also offered the unique experience of working abroad. It enabled me to collaborate with individuals from diverse backgrounds, fostering my ability to adapt to and succeed in unfamiliar environments.

Projects

Databases Class Automation Tool

This is a tool residing on the Saunders College of Business faculty website which I developed for professors teaching database classes at RIT. The page allows users to create a Databases Class entry, which automatically generates a master database and phpmyadmin login on either our MySQL or MariaDB server. The professor can then add students manually one at a time or in bulk by importing an Excel. The master account has access to all databases in the class while student accounts can only view their own.

Vanden Brul Display Screen

The purpose of this project was to create a display interface for the Saunders College of Business at RIT that displayed all past winners of the Vanden Brul Entrepreneurial award. I worked as the sole developer on this project and built the display using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS within the CodeIgniter 4 framework.

Phil Saunders Timeline

This project revolved around making a timeline for Phil Saunders that could be shown on a touch screen display in the RIT college of business building. The CSS, HTML, and JavaScript was written entirely by hand without the use of any frontend frameworks.