Careers in Code Capstone Projects: Design & Development Phase PART 3
As part of our Careers in Code program, participants are required to work towards their capstone project, which is a full-stack (front-end, back-end, database) application that they build throughout the 24 weeks of the coding bootcamp. See previous posts on the Ideation Phase, and Development Part 1 and Part 2. Read below for the latest on how the projects are going.
KARIN
Project: Archery score-keeper app.
As Karin continued working on her HTML, she decided to build out her project using the SERN stack, and eventually broke her code. It happens to the best of them! You can learn more about her process in her latest blog. From here, she will work on connecting her database, fixing her original code to work in React, and getting an endpoint set up and working properly. Before capstone presentations on the 22nd, she’s also planning to get the user account page up and running when newbies open her app, and finishing up the images that will appear within it as well.
Side note: As a result of all her hard work over the last few months, Karin was hired to create a website for her cousin’s business!
ANNA
Project: An app that helps college students map out required courses for their majors.
Anna is working on her database model and got her server up and running, now with plans to move on to the front-end design. Using YouTube tutorials, she built the page for users to create their accounts, and connected it to the database. Next up on her to-do list: creating a login page, figuring out React Router, and designing the look of her app. She’s currently checking out different websites that she likes the designs of to hopefully recreate some of her favorite elements for her own.
KELLY
Project: A resource for people who have sensory-processing issues and would like information about potential sights, smells, sounds, etc. in the community.
As graduation nears, Kelly decided she didn’t have the timeframe for her original idea of being a review aggregator, so Sensory-Friendly Syracuse will now be more of a social network. According to her latest blog post, it will be “a lightweight social media web app (inspired by Twitter) using React, Redux, Express, Firebase, and MaterialUI. Users will be able to sign up, log in, add profile information and a profile pic, view all posts (called “thoughts” on the site), like thoughts, and leave comments on thoughts. Users will also be able to unlike and delete thoughts.”
With this new focus, she’s planning to build out the back end in Firebase first, which is a different approach than she’s used to, as other projects always started with the front end. You can follow version 3 of SFS on GitHub here.
DAKIR
Project: A visually pleasing online gallery with interactive elements.
Dakir decided to supplement what he’s learning in class with more online tutorials, using Programming With Mosh (a tutorial on React, ES6, and JavaScript all in one) to redo his whole front end based off of what he learned. He now has a home page, gallery page, artist bio page, and art request form, all connected using React Router. From here, he will work on a categorization system for the artist’s images, hook up his database through Amazon Web Services, decide on colors and layout with the artist, and have some one-on-one time with an instructor to work on CSS. His big takeaway from the project so fat?
“The process is what it is; you can’t rush it and you can’t skip it, so you might as well enjoy it and learn all you can.”
ELIZABETH
Project: Migraine data tracker
Recently, we had Raj Suchak, CEO of Grit Seed, visit the Careers in Code classroom and talk to the students about the importance of taking risks, how to succeed when starting a company, and the importance of failure. Elizabeth’s main takeaway was his discussion of top performers, the folks who truly care about the wellbeing of others. For her, the top performers in class are Kelly and Karin, who she turned to for assistance on her project recently, and they helped her get through her development roadblocks. She told the class, “we’re all in this together.”
KATE
Project: An app (similar to a dating app) for potential adopters to find adoptable dogs in their area.
Last time we caught up with Kate, she had a welcome page with a working quiz. As she built out the back end, and connected the front end with React Router, she experimented with randomizing the quiz questions, which ultimately broke her code. Not a problem, she went back a few steps and fixed it! Now, Kate is working on developing the user side (which will include account login and creation as well as quiz results) and the shelter side (where pet shelters can add dogs to the website and populate her database for the quiz). Major next step? Front end design!
EVA
Project: A resource that provides immediate household help for chores that can’t wait.
Eva spent some time with Max recently working together on pages for account creation and login, as well as creating a React app with Sequelize. Karin provided some assistance on importing her work into her web app, and Eva continued working on wireframing different pages and building out containers. Coming up, she’s going to work with Max to import some of her components based on the wireframes.
DANA
Project: A Better Bus App
For Dana’s Centro-tracking bus app, she’s now working on accessibility features like allowing users to navigate the app with voice prompts via Alexa (Amazon’s virtual assistant). She also would like to make the app accessible with screen readers like JAWS and NVDA (Microsoft), and VoiceOver (Apple) so that those who are blind can use the app easily. Upon login, the app will automatically prompt the user to plan their trip using their current location, and they can type or use voice commands to input their destination. With that, the app will recommend the nearest bus stop, round trip information, and offer a push notification for when the bus is five minutes away. Currently, she’s working on getting a correct API endpoint for the map.
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If you’d like to hear from the students themselves about their projects, check out our livestream of the session on YouTube below, starting at 0:23:20. All of our classes are livestreamed Monday through Thursday here.
