Our 2023 H2 software engineers are graduating!
Techtonica’s 2023 H2 full-time software engineering cohort has learned a great deal over the last six months, and we’re excited to share their final projects here. They are going to have wonderful careers!
Please join us to cheer them on virtually at their graduation on December 20th.
Beyza (she/her)
Bio: Beyza, who was born and raised in Turkey, moved to the U.S. three years ago. Although she was a civil engineer, a course during her master’s program ignited her interest in coding. After learning the basics of programming, she began developing console (terminal) games. During this process, Beyza realized that as a civil engineer, enjoying the results of her work took a long time, while in coding, she loved the satisfaction she felt after each small step. She joined Techtonica to gain project experience.
Project name: BookBites
Project description/pitch: BookBites is a user-friendly website designed for book lovers. It allows you to discover great books, write reviews, and rate them. More importantly, it offers a unique feature where you can take personal notes about each book. You can record where you were while reading, who you were with, how you felt, or even how you relate to specific characters.
APIs used: Google Books APIs Auth0
Hardest part of building your project: Integrating features like favoriting/unfavoriting books and managing review edits across different sections of the project was the most challenging part. It was crucial to ensure that data was updated accurately and consistently in real-time, without disrupting the functionality of other features. The complexity arose from maintaining this seamless interaction and data integrity throughout various parts of the application.
Favorite part of building your project: I really enjoyed creating the feature where the app’s interface changes depending on whether a user is logged in or not. Logged-in users get access to additional functionalities like editing and deleting options. The app customizes the user experience by remembering and displaying their favorite books and personal notes.
Cathy (she/her)
Bio: Cathy is a Southern California native with a commitment to learning and personal growth. While working in the non-profit sector, she recognized the unique potential of technology to improve operational efficiency, extend community services, and drive social impact. This realization sparked her interest in technology and encouraged her to learn how to code. Cathy began learning how to code through platforms such as Udemy and FreeCodeCamp, before joining Techtonica to further enhance her skills and gain hands-on experience in full-stack development. Cathy is eager to continue learning and is excited to create applications that can make a meaningful impact on society.
Project name: Recipe Ready
Project description/pitch: Recipe Ready offers a solution for creating delicious meals, optimizing budgets, and minimizing food waste by providing recipes tailored to the ingredients you already have.
APIs used: Spoonacular
Hardest part of building your project: The hardest part of building my project was finding a suitable API that could provide me the extensive recipe data I needed. Many of the APIs I found had limitations and imposed daily caps that were too restrictive. This constraint nudged me to create my own recipe database. However, this sets the stage for future enhancements, such as integrating a web scraper to automate and expand the selection of recipes.
Favorite part of building your project: My favorite part of building my project was the implementation of ingredient-based search functionality. I created an autocomplete ingredient suggestion feature like the ones that are often found in search engines. The process was exciting and challenging, and it was rewarding to see a functionality that I often admired come alive in my own project.
Destinee (she/her)
Bio: Destinee has a blend of leadership, psychology and tech industry expertise. To her, code is more than a tool; it’s a powerful way to design and communicate. She’s on a mission to make digital experiences accessible to everyone. Her passion for understanding people’s needs and motivations fuels a commitment to human-centered-design. Destinee loves the boundless ability to express and create that software engineering provides, making the digital world an exciting space.
Project name: EmoHelper
Project description/pitch: EmoHelper is a unique guide to emotional awareness with music, the app curates tracks from the users personal Spotify library that match their emotional tone and encourages a cathartic experience with validating ‘emo-entries’ — personalized statements acknowledging their emotional state, song choice, and the decision to embrace or let go, facilitating emotional processing.
APIs used: Spotify Web API
Hardest part of building your project: The most intricate challenge in developing EmoHelper extended beyond technical complexities, it mostly revolved around the nuanced challenge of scoping. Embracing the delicate balance between my envisioned features and the practical time constraints required thoughtful trade-offs. For instance, redirecting users to Spotify for playback was a strategic decision that facilitated a swift path to Minimum Viable Product(MVP), without compromising the core user experience and left room for future features like a comprehensive dashboard.
Favorite part of building your project: The most rewarding aspect of this project was the integration of two of my passions: music and the human experience. Creating an application that intertwines the emotional power of music with a way to communicate it, resonated with my appreciation for both art and technology.
Janet (she/her)
Bio: Janet is a former special education teacher with a passion for life-long learning. She developed an interest in technology due to witnessing the transformative power of learning-assistant technology, igniting her desire to contribute to the development of educational technology as a software engineer. Janet will excel as a software engineer due to her curiosity and willingness to learn, allowing her to adapt quickly to new challenges and technologies. Her goal is to bridge the gap between industry demands and the skills of aspiring professionals in the tech industry.
Project name: CineNova
Project description/pitch: CineNova is a user-centric movie companion web application that streamlines entertainment decisions by providing personalized recommendations, ensuring an effortless and tailored experience for every user’s unique purpose of watching movies.
APIs used: TMDB, openAI, Auth0
Hardest part of building your project: The most challenging aspect of developing CineNova was efficiently harnessing multiple third-party APIs and orchestrating the seamless flow of data from one API to another, ensuring a harmonious integration of diverse movie-related information for an enriched user experience.
Favorite part of building your project: My standout experience in developing CineNova was integrating OpenAI as a dynamic tool, elevating the project by providing personalized movie recommendations and search functionalities for users. Witnessing the AI-driven features come to life added an extra layer of excitement and accomplishment to the project.
Natalia (she/her)
Bio: Natalia, a former freelance photographer and videographer, seamlessly transitioned her creative prowess into the tech world with a vision beyond just code. Fueled by a passion for inclusivity, she has embarked on a mission to design meaningful applications catering to the needs of marginalized communities — specifically, people of color, queer individuals, and women. Recognizing the power of storytelling in the digital age, Natalia extends her influence to social media, aspiring to craft engaging tech content that resonates with POC women and queer people. Her journey stands at the intersection of art and technology, as she pioneers a narrative that not only breaks barriers in the tech industry but also amplifies the voices of those often underrepresented in the digital landscape.
Project name: SafeMap
Project description/pitch: An application made to find and review businesses/areas of a city based on safety for women, queer people and POC.
APIs used: Google Maps, Clerk Auth
Hardest part of building your project: The most difficult part of this project was using the Google Maps API and switching over to Next.js. It was difficult due to finding helpful tutorials and documentation for the Google Maps API. It was also quite difficult to learn Next.js because of it being a full-stack framework with server components — I was previously working on completely separate server and client code using Vite and Express.
Favorite part of building your project: My favorite part of making my project was learning and working with new technology. I only had about a week to fully grasp Next.js, Prisma, Clerk Auth, and Vercel, which made it a fun challenge to create something I am proud of using tech I had never used before. It was also very fun to work with Prisma for database manipulation.
Rachel (she/her)
Bio: Rachel is from California but grew up in Scotland, a country whose rich musical culture inspired her to work as a choir director at a church and an international school before transitioning into tech. She started learning on freeCodeCamp as a hobby that turned into a serious career pursuit after finishing her associate’s degree. Her favorite thing about the tech field is the variety of paths, languages, and possible projects. There’s always more to learn and new things to try, and that’s right up Rachel’s alley. She hopes to be able to use her tech skills to educate others in the field to break stereotypes and build software that inspires others and enriches lives.
Project name: Melody Minded
Project description/pitch: Melody Minded is a music theory education web application for students ages 5–15 to learn music theory, no matter their skill level, economic status, or location.
Hardest part of building your project: Whittling down the project and having to set aside some features to be done in the future. The prioritization made building the most crucial parts much easier, but it was hard to say “not right now” to some things I really wanted to add.
Favorite part of building your project: Either getting the text-to-speech API to work (it was difficult to set up, but a lot of fun to play around with once it was working!) or making something that I knew people would actually use. My former students are excited to be the beta testers!
Samelia (she/her)
Bio: Samelia is a creative and passionate woman who has harbored a deep love for software development since the age of 17 when she crafted her and her friends’ bio page websites. Hailing from Monrovia, Liberia, she carries a profound aspiration to inspire other black women to pursue fulfilling careers in the tech industry. Her journey led her to Techtonica, where she discovered an affordable and supportive bootcamp, aligning with her commitment to community service and volunteering. It was this very dedication that breathed life into her app, VerifyID, a testament to her unwavering desire to make a positive impact through technology.
Project name: Verify-ID
Project description/pitch: Verify-ID, The time/date verification app to track your commitment to community service!
Hardest part of building your project: The hardest part about building my project was figuring out how to get the authorizations to get admin teams to approve the time commitments. In the future, I will find a way to get automatic approvals from community service organizations so that there is a fast way to get time confirmations for users.
Favorite part of building your project: My favorite part was learning about UI and UX techniques. For example, I found that adding micro-copy to my error messages will help to guide the user during signing up with the app. I got to test out colors and styles to give my user a happy, yet organized experience while giving them trust in my app’s functionality!
Whitney-Renē (she/her)
Bio: Whitney-Renē, a resident of North Carolina, is a former high school Spanish teacher and elementary education instructor with a genuine passion for languages and problem-solving. Whitney-Rene’s love for learning led her to embark on a new chapter in the technology industry by enrolling at Techtonica. Throughout this transition, Whitney-Rene demonstrated her commitment to growth by successfully crafting full stack web applications, demonstrating her adaptability and determination in the ever-evolving landscape of technology.
Project name: rose: a therapy companion
Project description/pitch: rose: a therapy companion is an on-the-go tool for effortlessly journaling successes, challenges, and breakthroughs between therapy sessions.
APIs used: Affirmations API
Hardest part of building your project: I was so excited to flesh out every idea I had for my application that at times it was difficult to stay focused on completing my MVP first! Creating tests for each component of my project presented the greatest learning curve for me, and also created an opportunity for me to learn so much!
Favorite part of building your project: I enjoyed the passion I was able to exercise through the development of my application. Journaling is one of my favorite self-care activities! I also enjoyed creating all of my endpoints in my server.js file and taking the time to write and understand each line of my code. I also enjoyed learning so much about testing, while it was challenging, it was one of the most rewarding parts of the project!
Yadira (she/her)
Bio: Yadira, born in Ensenada, Mexico, brings a unique blend of expertise in sales and social media marketing to the table. Her passion for making a positive impact in the community is evident through her dedicated volunteer work, where she actively supports causes close to her heart, including childcare, women’s development, and advocacy for autism awareness. Yadira’s commitment extends to championing increased representation in the tech industry, reflecting her belief in diversity and inclusivity. With a keen eye for bridging gaps and fostering positive change, Yadira is a dynamic individual dedicated to both professional excellence and social responsibility.
Project name: Early Steps Latino
Project description/pitch: EarlyStepsLatino: Bridging resources for Latino families navigating the world of autism in both Spanish and English.
APIs used: Auth0, Google Translation
Hardest part of building your project: The most challenging aspect of building my project was recognizing and embracing my visual learning style. Initially, I attempted to follow conventional approaches, but realizing the importance of adapting to my preferred learning method allowed me to make significant progress by starting with the client side and simultaneously working on the backend.
Favorite part of building your project:
My favorite part of building this project was coding the assessment tool. Witnessing my idea of creating a resource for parents to assess their child’s need for early intervention or potential signs of autism come to life was incredibly rewarding. The ability to translate my vision into functional code and witness tangible results was a source of immense pride.
Techtonica relies on donations, volunteering, and hiring partnerships to provide our services to our participants. We welcome your individual donations, volunteering, as well as you involving your company as a sponsor. Thank you so much for your support!
