Hi, I'm Allen!

I love solving problems of all forms and designing solutions to improve our quality of life.

Let's get in touch!

About Me

I’m a dedicated and detail-orientated student currently in my 2A term of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo.

Although I’m just starting to get into the tech space, I love to explore new technologies! At heart, I’m a generalist - I enjoy learning about anything and everything! Some of the areas I’m interested in are optimization, transportation, logistics, and management.

Outside of work, you can find me catching up with the latest news, binge-watching videos, or as an occasional backyard astronomer. I also love to sing and cook!

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Experience

Software Engineer

Manulife/John Hancock Financial, Sep 2021-Dec 2021

  • Standardized technical documentation (runbooks) and coordinated deployments to streamline implementation, corporate change management, and communication with vendors
  • Debugged issues on Adobe Experience Manager sites, Fortify, and Teamcity and directed appropriate remediation
  • Crafted documentation on AEM sites and facilitated training sessions to improve development efficiency

Product Analyst

ShipperBee, Jan 2021-Apr 2021

  • Designed lo-fi wireframes in Adobe XD for a cross-platform mobile app to be used by 300+ daily users
  • Created user stories and acceptance criteria in Jira and Azure DevOps for a team of 8 developers to facilitate the development of a mobile app, with a user-centred focus
  • Researched the features of competitors and reviewed user feedback (e.g. support calls, emails) to develop a strong understanding of the market and user pain-points

Club President

Don Mills Model United Nations, 2016-2020

  • Directed an inter-school debate conference for 200 students and managed a $6000 budget
  • Led a team of 20 students organizers to research and develop conference materials over 6 months
  • Advocated for conference approval through continued communications with school administration

Chapter President

Don Mills DECA, 2016-2020

  • Pitched a business proposal to potential investors for a new Freshii restaurant location during the 2019 DECA International competition (ICDC) in Orlando, FL
  • Developed a 20-page proposal which includeded analysis of market opportunities, creating financial estimates, and planned marketing strategies
  • Mentored teams for the provincial competition with 2 out of 4 teams qualifying for ICDC
  • Spearheaded monthly school fundraisers, raising over $500 to provide students with conference subsidies

Skills

Java

Python

C++

JavaScript

HTML

CSS

Bootstrap

AEM

Figma

Adobe XD

SolidWorks

Projects

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tasq

HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Figma, Python

tasq is a social habit tracking web app that will keep users motivated and committed to their goals. Designed and built in less than 48 hours, this mobile-friendly web app keeps users engaged by encouraging accountability between friends and rewarding for good habits. The initial prototype was done in Figma, with the project being built using an HTML/CSS-Bootstrap frontend and a Python backend.

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BarnVille

Java

BarnVille is a farming simulator game built with Java and JavaFX that involves raising animals on a farm. Players make decisions on how to raise their animals and when to buy and sell products based on the fluctuating market prices. The game uses OOP principles (ie. inheritance and abstraction) to make use of modularity and reusability. It also uses a queue data structure to represent an in-game factory.

Image of Hamlet Walkthrough game screen

Hamlet: A Walkthrough

Java, Github

This simulator allows users to see death through the eyes of Hamlet as he walks around the royal palace following the play’s ending, talking to the souls of his friends and foes. This collaborative project with Rubaina Farin, Edmund Lin, and Gordon Ruan made use of Github for collaboration and versioning. My personal contributions included coding the character movement and dialogue.

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Personal Website

HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Figma

This website is where you can learn more about me - with all of my latest projects, skills and experiences. It’s built using HTML, CSS, and Bootstrap and is designed to be responsive for different screens. Preliminary mock-ups and graphics were designed using Figma.

Image of Battleship game screen

Battleship

Java

In this themed recreation of traditional Battleship, the user plays against a computer opponent in an effort to destroy each other’s pieces. They take turns guessing tiles until one player loses all of their ships. The program makes use of classes, file input/output and JavaFX for graphics.