Careers in Code Capstone Projects: Final Presentations
As part of our Careers in Code program, participants are required to work towards their capstone projects, 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, Part 2, and Part 3. Read below for the final update on their projects, as presented at their graduation ceremony on August 22, 2019.
KARIN
Project: Archery score-keeper app.
In her final demo, Karin explained the main issue that led her to create the archery score-keeper app was that at archery shoots, all you’re given is a piece of paper that lets you tally your final score. There is no additional information about the targets or anywhere you can take notes. With her app, you can keep score on your phone, and also enter any notes about each of the targets so you can go back and see where you may have had issues and what you might want to fix the next time around (such as equipment). She used Sequelize, Express, React, and Node in her tech stack, and spent days creating SVGs for her target graphics. Check out the video at the end of this roundup for a look at her final product.
DAKIR
Project: A visually pleasing online gallery with interactive elements.
Dakir’s project was to develop a website for a prolific artist he admired — Rashad Mustafa, who has hand-painted over 230 canvases in the last two years, among his many accomplishments. The website now has a gallery of the artist’s work, with images hosted in Amazon’s S3 cloud storage service, and has sections for artwork and apparel, an about page, and a request form. In the future, Dakir plans to add shopping cart functionality for fans of Mustafa’s work to purchase his art, a redesigned front page and gallery, and he will connect the request page to an email service so Mustafa can receive commissions.
ELIZABETH
Project: Migraine data tracker
On graduation day, Elizabeth shared her story about her career and how she got to Careers in Code. You can listen to the longer version in the video, but ultimately, her health was declining and she discovered she had late-stage, untreated lyme disease. With the diagnosis came the migraines, and to help those suffering from the same symptoms, Elizabeth decided to create a migraine data tracker. This app would help folks track and analyze their symptoms and triggers. We are looking forward to seeing the result as she uses her newfound skills as a full-stack developer to bring it to life!
EVA
Project: A resource that provides immediate household help for chores that can’t wait.
Having a strong distaste for housekeeping, Eva wanted to offer a resource for those with similar disinterest that would bring housekeeping-happy people right to them. In the beginning, she had it all planned out with pen and paper, but unfortunately her dog ate her homework. At the behest of both Karin and Will, she purchased a whiteboard her pet wouldn’t find so delicious, and mapped out Get Room Service Now, which she built with Sequelize, Express, React, Node, Bootstrap, and CSS for styling. The app has two types of users: those who need a second pair of hands, house cleaning, childcare, petcare, etc., and those who want to offer their services in these areas. Eva is hoping it will provide opportunity for parents whose work hours are limited by their children’s schedules.
KELLY
Project: A resource for people who have sensory-processing issues and would like information about potential sights, smells, sounds, etc. in the community.
Kelly aligned her Careers in Code experience with a mission to do #100DaysOfCode, finishing up her 100th day on graduation day! What started as a project to create a Yelp-like website for the sensory-friendly community ended up as a social media app for the same folks to share their thoughts on experiences at different businesses and locations around Syracuse. You can view the live site here, where you can create and edit your profile, and post to the feed. Kelly used React and Redux to manage state, MaterialUI, Express as middleware, and Firebase as a deployment method and backend. After Careers in Code, she is planning to start a podcast!
KAITLYN
Project: CUSECONNECT
Kaitlyn set out to create a new way to connect with the City of Syracuse because she found the current website to be difficult to navigate, old, and clunky. It is not mobile-friendly either. She also realized there is a ton of data out there that’s just not being utilized to its full potential, and brought her ideas to the city’s Chief Data Officer, Sam Edelstein. In her final product, she kept the colors and fonts easy to read, and used HTML, CSS/Sass, JavaScript, and JQuery for the front end, JavaScrip, Node, and Express for the backend, and Postgres, Sequelize, and Bcrypt for her database. The result is a better stream of communication between residents and the city. Eventually, she would like to add service requests, where residents can track progress for accountability.
ANNA
Project: An app that helps college students map out required courses for their majors.
Anna shared her experience going from nursing to coding at the graduation ceremony, including the time she spent working for a non-profit organization after taking some time off from school. This position inspired her to create an inventory system that would be helpful for managing donations, as well as tracking incoming and outgoing product. It would ultimately provide a visual representation of what items an organization has and needs. For her back end, she decided to use Node.js and Firebase, rebelling from what everyone else was doing… which did not end well! With the back end still in progress, she got the front end going, created her registration and login pages, as well as the shopping cart function. We’re looking forward to seeing the final product!
DANA
Project: The Better Bus App
With her background in working with folks who have visual disabilities, Dana wanted to create a more intuitive, user-friendly bus trip planner that has accessibility features and is compatible with assistive technology. Throughout the Careers in Code program, she learned about intuitive user interfaces and accessibility in code that she could apply to her capstone project, and got to explore the Google location-services API as she put it together. The app is currently web only, but she would like to bring it to mobile in the future. Dana also created a portfolio website for her creative consulting business, Technology Overlay, where she will be offering her new skills as a full-stack developer!
JACQUAY
Project: Inventory management tool
At graduation, Jacquay reflected on her previous work experiences and how they led her to create an inventory management tool focused on the user. She considered software she’s used for work before and what she liked and disliked about it in order to create a better experience in her app. Users can create an account and log in, and from there can input their tasks and see their progress visually in a progress bar. This eases difficulty in communication across teams, as everyone can see the completion percentage and status without having to contact each other directly.
TIM
Project: Closet Concierge — an e-commerce site that helps customers compare prices on men’s and women’s clothing and accessories.
Tim debuted his retail streetwear aggregator at graduation, showing how it gathers information on various products, tells you on which websites you can buy them, and for what price. Users can search by product category or browse by brand. To do this, he used Puppeteer and gave it parameters to crawl the web for and collect data to bring back to his database and display on the website. He also used HTML, CSS, Express, and Node in his tech stack. Closet Concierge’s goal is to provide options and help users save a little bit of money by comparing prices.
KATE
Project: An app (similar to a dating app) for potential adopters to find adoptable dogs in their area.
Kate’s goal with her pet-matching app is to get more dogs out of shelters and into loving homes. In her capstone demo, she shared some of the challenges she experienced and how she approached their solutions, including using a JSON Server to mock a database in the face of time constraints. For scaling the project, she found it difficult not to get tripped up on the little things (like most of her classmates!) and realized she had to prioritize the basics and plan to build more in the future. Once the site is live, you’ll be able to take a personality test to be matched with the perfect dog for you!
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We are so proud of all that our coding bootcamp students have accomplished in the last six months and can’t wait to see all that they create with their new skills in the future. Congratulations to all!
Watch the livestream of the capstone demos and graduation ceremony below.
