Welcome to my resume website! My name is Derek Roberts. I'm a Full-Stack Software Engineer working at John Hancock in Boston, MA. I'm also a Boston University alum, with a BA in Computer Science. I first became interested in coding when I took Computer Science my senior year of high school. In this class we programmed in scratch and learned the fundamentals of Python. We also coded in HTML where I learned some of the very skills I used to make this website in my sophomore year! Computer science was the first class that truly captivated me. I became obsessed with learning more, driven by my love for problem solving. I can finally say I found my passion and I hope to use my skills to improve the world around me.
My Skills
I am experienced in Full-Stack development with proficiency in these languages.
Front End: HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, ReactJS, Angular
Back End: Python, Java, C#, .NET, OCaml, PHP
Databases: SQL, SSMS
My Projects
Here are some of the various projects that I have completed. They are organized with the most recently completed projects at the top.
Objective: This was a project in my 'Software Engineering' class. We were tasked with creating a web application using a decoupled architecture, third-party authentication, at least two APIs, and a database.
Tech Stack: ReactJS, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, MongoDB (self-taught)
This project simulated a typical software development experience with a software team using an agile approach. I was the PM, and mainly focused on Google Maps/Places APIs and implementation into our project. I created a page that displayed a Map, where the user could click a button to find their current location with places displayed near them. They could click on a place to receive basic information about it, and add it to their calendar if they chose to do so.
Objective: I was attempting to familiarize myself with Wordpress. As a UFC fan, I thought it would be cool to have a website that contained current UFC news as well as a massive database with the fight history and records of all fighters.
Tech Stack: WordPress, PHP, SQL (self-taught)
When deciding how to locally host and develop my website I came across XAMPP which also allowed me to become introduced to PHP and phpMyAdmin. Instead of using the WordPress database options that they offer, I created my database on phpMyAdmin. I wanted a clean UI that displayed the most recent articles at the top and a footer that is a collection of images of all UFC fighters such that when you click on one, you are taken to their page containing their fight record. The biggest challenge connecting phpMyAdmin with WordPress. I ended up downloading a plugin called PHPCode Snippets which allowed me to write the required SQL queries in PHP.
Objective: This was a project in my 'Intro to Databases' class. We needed to create an ER diagram, a relational schema, and eventually, a fully-fledged working photosharing web application using SQL and Flask.
Tech Stack: Python, Flask, SQL (classroom)
We started with an ER diagram and relational schema using SQL Workbench that outlined how we wanted our database to function. We then used Python and Flask to build a web app which allows users to create account, post photos, add tags, captions, albums, and friends. It also allows users to interact with each other including liking and commenting on photos. Users can be recommended friends and photos they may like, and the website even displays the top Users and Hashtags of the day. We touched it up with some basic CSS before our presentation.
Objective: I wanted to work on a full-stack project involving the MERN stack. I followed a guide on how to clone Zoom, and taught myself how to use the required libraries.
Tech Stack: NodeJS (self-taught)
I wanted to use NodeJS to build a full-stack application. I build a Zoom clone with audio and visual connectives capabilities using Peer-to-Peer and Socket.io. I deployed the clone using Heroku so it could function without a localhost.
Objective: I wanted to create a solo project at HackHarvard 2022 in the Entertainment track. I wanted to familiarize myself with the pygame library, as well as a bit of AI, and combine those with my Python experience.
Tech Stack: Python (classroom), pygame library (self-taught)
I was working solo and had been interested in the pygame library, so I taught myself enough to make a game of Connect Four. I didn't want a game that was exclusively for two players, so I created an AI program that could look ahead a certain number of moves depending on the difficulty, as I was already familiar with python.
Objective: I wanted to create a website to adequately showcase my projects and experience with Computer Science.
Tech Stack: HTML5, CSS, JavaScript (all self-taught)
I chose these languages because I wanted to be familiar with the most popular Front-End languages. I started with a format from html5up.net and built upon it. GitHub Pages allows me to host a website for free, which I took advantage of here.
Objective: I wanted to become familiar with ReactJS because I have seen how popular and efficient it is. I followed the tutorial on react and added some extra features in the game, as well as asthetically.
Tech Stack: ReactJS, HTML, CSS (all self-taught)
I chose to use ReactJS because it's something I want to become comfortable with. I was already familiar with HTML and CSS.
Objective: The final project for my Concepts of Programming Languages class in Spring 2022.
Tech Stack: OCaml (classroom)
All of our problem sets during the semester used OCaml primarily. The most difficult part of this project was the parsers. I had never worked with parsers before and had trouble initially understanding how they could break apart high-level languages. Once I figured out how they are used I realized why they are so useful.
Objective: The final project for my Computer Systems Class
Tech Stack: C (classroom)
This was the culmination of my Computer Systems class. The most challenging aspect of this project was converting from infix to postfix, as well as anticipating the different possible errors that could come from an invalid input.
Resume
Click the button below to view my resume as a PDF in a separate tab.
