experience

A freelance project building a full-stack website and internal admin dashboard for a business client. I handled everything end-to-end — core site architecture with PostgreSQL, authentication, transactional emails via Resend, and a custom dashboard for the client to manage their product catalogue. Managed domain setup, security updates, and ongoing comms throughout. Shipped with a 40% improvement in load times, bringing in consistent 100+ monthly page views.

This one was a challenge — I'd never built a mobile app before, and I had 3.5 hours to do it. QueueQuest is a social discovery tool built in React Native/Expo with auth, image feeds, map integration, and popularity-ranked trending. I learned the framework from scratch under competition pressure, used GitHub Copilot to move fast and debug mobile quirks I'd never encountered before, and ended up taking Gold in the AI-assisted category. The organiser called it the most production-ready MVP of the day, which was a good feeling given I went in with zero mobile experience.

Competed as part of a four-person team to build an AI-driven web application that generates personalised study materials for university students based on their coursework and academic struggles — using Azure and the OpenAI API. I owned the CLI and web interface end-to-end, making sure the AI responses were actually usable and the experience felt smooth. We presented on stage in front of judges and competing teams; the demo hit a live failure mid-presentation and I troubleshot it in real time, kept it together, and we still got considered for the final round. A solid first taste of building fast, presenting under pressure, and delivering something technically credible in a competitive environment.

I've been running live audio and lyrics for weekly services of 50+ people for a few years now. It's not a technical role on paper, but troubleshooting live setups under pressure with no room for error has its own kind of discipline. I'm one of the younger members of the team and have been involved in both the technical and organisational side of things.