BrumAI is a dynamic community located in Birmingham that is dedicated to fostering innovation, collaboration, and learning in the field of Artificial Intelligence and was the client for whom this project was developed. BrumAI's problem was that their website at the time did not demonstrate who their group was and what they had to offer. As such, they requested that a new website be made that better displayed everything that BrumAI is; which is where myself and my team of 5 other School of Code bootcampers come in. With a timeline of 4-weeks, myself and my team developed a new website for BrumAI using Next.js 14 alongside Tailwind.CSS for the styling to the satisfaction of the client. The website supports a Postgres database hosted with SupaBase that stores all event information for BrumAI which is called by the website before being dynamically displayed. The website is designed to be responsive allowing it to be viewed easily on any device. This project was a great experience of building a modern website and posed a number of challenges that were fun to tackle!
A problem that Bootcampers in the School of Code face is that the intense pace of the course makes it difficult to revise and remember all of the informaion taught. Multiple topics are taught each day and it is inevitable that something will fall through the cracks and be forgotten. To address this problem, myself and my team developed Memory Echo: The Spaced Repetition App! Memory Echo allows users to input a topic/method name and description which will be stored in a PostgreSQL database. Memory Echo will then used the space repetition method to remind users of topics they need to study over an increasing gap in time, much like how an echo spaces out over time. The Frontend of the app was made using JavaScript, HTML and CSS while the backend uses Node.js, REST APIs and PostgreSQL. NOTE: The database takes a moment to spin up on the website, please refresh after a minute or two.
TechStack: JavaScript, HTML, CSS, PostgreSQL, Node.js, REST API
Memory Echo
About Me
As mentioned, my name is David Mason and I am a grand strategy gamer, board game lover, avid reader and now a fledgling Full-Stack Software Engineer.
I have always enjoyed working out how to solve a problem or puzzle which fueled my interest in science. Trying to understand how something works by putting the pieces of knowledge together has always satisfyingly scratched an itch in my mind, especially when the pieces were initially difficult to put together. I have used this enjoyment of problem solving throughout my life from getting my university degree in Biochemistry, living and teaching in Japan whilst learning the language, as well as during my career as a scientist.
I was first properly introduced to software development in late 2021 and I say properly as I have been aware of software devlopment for a long time but always imagine it as some mystical computer language of symbols, ones and zeros. I was taught the error of my ignorance by my wife who was learning to code during the COVID-19 pandemic and insisted I should look into it as she guaranteed I would enjoy it. Turns out she was right once again.
I started off learning HTML and CSS through FreeCodeCamp in Sepember 2021 which was pretty fun but what really caught me was when I started learning JavaScript. After trying to learn JavaScript when I had time after work for about a year I realised that software development is what I really wanted to do for my career and I would therefore need to fully throw myself into coding if I want to make the move. As such, I applied to the School of Code bootcamp in early 2023 and out of the thousands of applicants I was accepted for the intense 16-week course.
The School of Code bootcamp does not require any prior coding knowledge so I thought that I would be at an advantage having spent some time learning JavaScript previously which was true for about 3 weeks. The course was certainly fast-paced and from week 3 onward everything was new which is when it got really fun. Everyday we learnt a new topic before putting it into practice during workshops and then creating something using what we had learnt that week during the weekly Hackathon. I learnt so much during the course and have thoroughly enjoyed the 1 week and 4 week projects but am now excited to start applying what I have learnt so far in the workplace as well as continuing to develop my abilities and knowledge.
As mentioned, my name is David Mason and I am a grand strategy gamer, board game lover, avid reader and now a fledgling Full-Stack Software Engineer.
I have always enjoyed working out how to solve a problem or puzzle which fueled my interest in science. Trying to understand how something works by putting the pieces of knowledge together has always satisfyingly scratched an itch in my mind...
Contact
If you would like to contact me about my work or are looking for an enthusiastic new developer then feel free to reach out!
