2023-11-13
How did I navigate my early experiences in tech?
Some anecdotes on my first experiences in tech, and how I navigated them.
Hi,
I'm Dobson
An aspiring software engineer with the proven ability to deliver seamless solutions for organizations through collaboration and innovation.
I thrive in dynamic environments where technical problem-solving drives impactful results.
Experiences
Robotics & Machine Learning Co-Op
Sep 2023 - CurrentMercedes-Benz x College of Charleston
Ladson, SC
- Led team of 4 to develop an autonomous drone inventory system using Tesseract OCR and YOLOv8 for real-time, small-part tracking in industrial settings to enable inventory awareness and supply-chain analytics
- Implemented onboard edge computing on Raspberry Pi drones, enabling autonomous inventory management with WebSocket connections to AWS and SAP
- Authored SRS and feasibility reports, clearly defining functional and non-functional requirements
- Achieved 98% inventory accuracy and SAP integration, delivering a fully end-to-end solution, significantly surpassing the existing accuracy and efficiency benchmarks
Software Engineering Intern
May 2023 - Aug 2023Savvas Learning Company (EdTech)
Phoenix, AZ
- Developed full-stack solutions for Savvas Realize, an industry-leading K-12 ed-tech platform using Angular 16 MFEs, Apollo, GraphQL, RxJS, Spring, PostgreSQL, and Jest
- Resolved 11 high-priority Jira tickets, contributing to sprint goals as part of an Agile team
- Created a comprehensive, all-in-one Confluence knowledge hub, covering content from day 1 new-dev onboarding guides to custom micro-frontend build steps, improving knowledge access and autonomy for both new and seasoned developers
Data Engineering Intern
Sep 2022 - Jan 2023Fiscal Spreading & Tracking (FinTech)
Charleston, SC
- Transitioned from a monolithic desktop app to a serverless microservice web app using React, Django, PostgreSQL, and AWS services (Lambda, S3, RDS), enhancing system efficiency and scalability
- Reduced server load by 17% through optimizing and refactoring APIs, streamlining query logic, and data caching
- Containerized key data processing tasks with Docker, including ETL operations and credit scoring algorithms, to segregate responsibilities and mitigate single-point failures, thereby increasing system reliability
Sales Engineer & Scrum Master
March 2018 - March 2021Ceterus (FinTech startup)
Charleston, SC
- Engineered technical solutions for over 125 clients by translating complex technical features into tangible business benefits, leading to increased sales and enhanced customer engagement
- Achieved a domain-high 23% year-over-year increase in customer retention by conducting regular feedback sessions and personalized follow-ups, leading to stronger client relationships and improved service satisfaction
- Achieved a 21% reduction in time blocked within six months by addressing common blockers while facilitating knowledge-sharing between interdependent teams for more efficient sprint planning and execution
Robotics & Machine Learning Co-Op (Sep 2023 - Current)
Ladson, SC
- Led team of 4 to develop an autonomous drone inventory system using Tesseract OCR and YOLOv8 for real-time, small-part tracking in industrial settings to enable inventory awareness and supply-chain analytics
- Implemented onboard edge computing on Raspberry Pi drones, enabling autonomous inventory management with WebSocket connections to AWS and SAP
- Authored SRS and feasibility reports, clearly defining functional and non-functional requirements
- Achieved 98% inventory accuracy and SAP integration, delivering a fully end-to-end solution, significantly surpassing the existing accuracy and efficiency benchmarks
Software Engineering Intern (May 2023 - Aug 2023)
Phoenix, AZ
- Developed full-stack solutions for Savvas Realize, an industry-leading K-12 ed-tech platform using Angular 16 MFEs, Apollo, GraphQL, RxJS, Spring, PostgreSQL, and Jest
- Resolved 11 high-priority Jira tickets, contributing to sprint goals as part of an Agile team
- Created a comprehensive, all-in-one Confluence knowledge hub, covering content from day 1 new-dev onboarding guides to custom micro-frontend build steps, improving knowledge access and autonomy for both new and seasoned developers
Data Engineering Intern (Sep 2022 - Jan 2023)
Charleston, SC
- Transitioned from a monolithic desktop app to a serverless microservice web app using React, Django, PostgreSQL, and AWS services (Lambda, S3, RDS), enhancing system efficiency and scalability
- Reduced server load by 17% through optimizing and refactoring APIs, streamlining query logic, and data caching
- Containerized key data processing tasks with Docker, including ETL operations and credit scoring algorithms, to segregate responsibilities and mitigate single-point failures, thereby increasing system reliability
Sales Engineer & Scrum Master (March 2018 - March 2021)
Charleston, SC
- Engineered technical solutions for over 125 clients by translating complex technical features into tangible business benefits, leading to increased sales and enhanced customer engagement
- Achieved a domain-high 23% year-over-year increase in customer retention by conducting regular feedback sessions and personalized follow-ups, leading to stronger client relationships and improved service satisfaction
- Achieved a 21% reduction in time blocked within six months by addressing common blockers while facilitating knowledge-sharing between interdependent teams for more efficient sprint planning and execution
Blog
Coming soon
The Value of Sequence Diagrams for Early Software Engineers
How creating sequence diagrams helps me understand large, complex, enterprise systems.
Coming soon
Zoomed out, then Zoomed In - 'Hooks' in Web Development
A brief history of the evolution of 'Hooks' in programming, and how they fit into modern web development (React, Angular, Vue)
Coming soon
Understanding JS' Async/Await in the context of Concurrency and Parallelism
(Re)Introducing yourself to asynchronous web development through the lens of concurrency and parallelism.
Coming soon
A Dive into Webpack's Module Federation
Exploring Webpack's Module Federation and it's usage/importance in Micro Front-End (MFE) architectures.
Coming soon
AI/ML in EdTech, an equalizer or a divider of educational inequality?
In this article, I explore the role of AI/ML in EdTech, and how it can be leveraged to bridge the educational inequality gap.