Personal Projects

In my free time, I like building apps to solve problems people encounter in their daily life.

Bike Dash

An app to help my dad organize his hobby bike business.

My dad has a hobby side business where he buys bikes from pawn shops and fixes them up and then resells them. I asked him how he managed this side business, and his response was "I start with some cash in an envelope at the beginning of the year, and I hope I end up with more cash than I started with at the end of the year". That's when I decided to build him this app to help him track his inventory, bike statuses, and sales.

Inventory management: bikes and individual parts
To do list and labor: add and complete to dos on bikes in process, and record time spent to calculate total labor invested on each bike
Bike status: move bikes from in process listed (shows total $ investment in bike; purchase price + parts added + labor) to sold
Dashboard: easy access to overall data, such as total bikes sold, total labor, inventory overview

Django web app using models for migrations, views for business logic, and templates for HTML rendering
Learned how to use decorators to add @property decorator logic to models that are used throughout the app
Discovered that I don't need to manually set a unique identifier for each image that is uploaded (like I needed to do for C#) - Django adds a unique string of characters in case an image is uploaded with a duplicate file name

View Code

Grow

An app to help keep plants alive by tracking optimal watering and lighting settings.

My husband got me a plant subscription where I got 6 new plants over a 6 month period. In an attempt to avoid killing the plants, I created this app to help track the health of my plants, and updating watering and/or lighting requirements to keep my plants alive.

Plant history: view history of plant's past watering and lighting
Update plant requirements: when user notices a plant isn't thriving, user can update plant water and/or lighting requirements
Plant watering schedule: view plants based on watering requirement to keep on schedule

Used ASP.NET MVC framework with Models for migrations, ViewModels to display data from multiple tables, controllers for business logic, and razor templates for HTML rendering
SQLServer and Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
Virtual Machine to run Windows on my Mac
Used Cloudinary for image upload for cloud storage

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Art Archive

An app for art collectors.

My great-grandfather was an artist and graphic designer in Chicago in the 50s and 60s.
I have several of his pieces, as well as art I've collected from my travels abroad.
This app is to help users remember the details about each special piece they own in their collection.

Add Artwork: using Cloudinary for image storage, users can upload a photo and enter details about each piece
Edit Artwork: as more details about the piece become known, users can update accordingly
View Gallery: using CSS hover, users can hover over each piece for quick info about the artwork
View Filtered Gallery: users can view their artwork by artist, type of piece, and condition
View Details: from the gallery, users can select a specific piece to see more details
Delete Artwork

React for frontend framework, json-server for persistent storage, and Materialize for styling
Learned how to use state and props to pass data to different level components
Used Cloudinary for image upload for cloud storage
Demo version of app deployed to Heroku

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Take a Break

An app to increase productivity through gamifying taking breaks throughout the day.

Like most people, I am trying to find the best balance to be productive without causing burnout. I read an interesting book that talked about the power of taking strategic breaks throughout the day to help with productivity. I decided to make an app to gamify taking breaks. Users will select their daily goal for breaks, and they'll enter their breaks throughout the day. Each break point value is calculated by the "type" of break (5 points for a break where you walk around and a 15 points for a tech-free break, for example). At the end of the day, users enter their productivity rating, and can view their dashboard to see how it compares to the points they earned through breaks.

Goals: Set a daily "break point goal"
Record breaks: breaks are recorded by time and type of break (point value changes, based on if it's tech-free, walking around, etc.)
Productivity: at the end of the day, users can rate their overall productivity
Reflect: users can view their dashboard to see how breaks are impacting their productivity, and potentially change their break goal and/or how many breaks they take and/or the type of break

Used ASP.NET MVC framework with Models for migrations, ViewModels to display data from multiple tables, controllers for business logic, and razor templates for HTML rendering
SQLServer and Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
Virtual Machine to run Windows on my Mac
ChartsJS for rendering charts on dashboard

View Code

Backpacker Tracker

An app for world travelers.

My husband and I can never remember the many places we've visited abroad,
so this app helps track those details in a Google map and timeline view.

Add Trip: using Google Geocode to locate the specific location, users can enter trip location, details, and can upload an image (to Firebase) about their trip
Rate Trip: rate each trip by a star rating
Map View: using Google maps pins, users can see all of their recorded trips on a map
Timeline View: this view helps users remember the order of their trips by date
Trip Details: from the map or timeline, users can select a specific trip to see more details
Delete Trip

AngularJS for frontend framework, Firebase for persistent storage, and vanilla CSS for styling
Used Google maps for both Geocoding and displaying trip data on map pins
Demo version of app deployed to Firebase

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Education and Experience

Aspire Health

Software Developer

May 2019 - September 2020

Using Elixir, React/Redux and PostgreSQL, built and maintained the Aspire EMR (Electronic Medical Records) application.
Assisted the Health Plan Reporting Team to update or create new SQL queries that generated reports and sent patient data to health insurance companies.
Along with a few developers, transferred all forms from react-jsonschema-form (a React component that builds HTML forms out of a JSON schema) to an in-house Elixir macro.
- Forms are an important part of the Aspire EMR, as this is where nurses and doctors record all interactions with patients; before this transfer to Elixir, it was time intensive for us to create or modify forms.
- This transfer also gave us more robust ability to dynamically inject form data into other parts of the application.
- As the first junior developer to build a form using the new macro, met with the developer who built it to provide insight which led to adding functionality and improving documentation.
- Taught new hires the forms macro and how to build a new form section or make changes to existing form sections.

Nashville Software School

Junior Instructor

April 2018 - Present

While my main role was focused on current students and their software development skills, I noticed that alumni struggled maintaining their software development skills after graduation, so I created a graduate study guide that covers topics such as: language specific concepts (Python & C#), software development concepts (such as Object Oriented Programming principles), and suggested ways to "keep on coding".

I support the lead instructor by teaching and reviewing concepts, such as:

Data Relationships. Throughout the course, students build several ERDs for group and individual projects. Students often struggle with foreign key relationships, in particular, many-to-many relationships, so it's common for me to sit with students and refactor their ERD tables to make sure the data structure is sound. I also coach students on how to navigate through those data relationships, whether through SQL queries, straight C#/Python, or through an ORM.
Framework Signal Flow. Whether working with ASP.NET or Django, students are overwhelmed when we first teach the flow of a framework to get an API or web app up functional. When students struggle understanding how the URLs, Models, Controllers/Views, and Views/Templates are connected, I review the MVC/MTV structure individually or to the whole class, through whiteboarding the flow and by walking through the code step by step.
Agile Methodology. During backend sprints, I acted as a product owner/scrum master by running sprint planning ceremonies, daily standups, answering questions about tickets, clarifying product requirements, and code reviews/retros at the end of each sprint.
Self Sufficiency. One of the important things we teach at NSS is finding solutions independently, but also knowing when it's time to come for help; this is a delicate balance. With students, I focus on Googling tips/reading through Stackoverflow articles, time-boxing yourself to make sure you're not waiting too long to ask for help, and clearly explaining the problem you're trying to solve once you do come ask for help.

Fullstack Student

October 2017 - March 2018

I learned how to think like a developer in this 6 month, full-time course. We covered best practices in software development, data structures, source/version control with Git/Github, and how to work on a team in an agile environment. I learned JavaScript, AngularJS, C#, ASP.NET, and SQL.

Bridge Education Group

Product Owner | TEFL Division Manager

April 2015 - September 2017

Led daily operations of the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) division which provides certification to qualify to teach English as a foreign language.
Worked closely with the CEO, CFO, graphic designers and web developers, marketing, and sales to build new online products that improved our customer experience and helped our admissions team with customer service.
Key projects as the Project Manager:
- E-learning platform (LMS) that was optimized for mobile devices as well as a completely revamped and updated curriculum
- Teach abroad job board that provided a new path to increase leads and sales
- E-commerce solution which allowed customers to create their own custom TEFL course certification

Program Advisor

July 2014 - April 2015

I consulted with customers to ensure they selected the certification course that fit with their teach abroad goals, based on the region they desired to move to. I helped currently enrolled students with any customer service inquiries.

Utah Valley University

Bachelor's Degree | English Literature

Graduated 2010

Along with a traditional degree in English literature, during my college studies I taught English abroad as a volunteer. I taught children in Russia (fall 2004), Ukraine (summer/fall 2006), and China (fall 2007).

Hi, I'm Kimmy.

About Me

Personal Projects

Bike Dash

An app to help my dad organize his hobby bike business.

Grow

An app to help keep plants alive by tracking optimal watering and lighting settings.