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Student
Developer
Leader
SEAN HEFFERNAN
Project Manager and Full-Stack Developer
Sean Heffernan
Project Manager and Full-Stack Developer -
Profile
Looking for internships and co-ops 2021
I am a student studying Computer Science and Information Technology/Web Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy NY. As a programmer, I have experience as a full-stack developer focusing primarily on back-end work, working with both the MEAN and AMP stack. As a leader, I have worked as both a Project Manager as well as a mentor for inexperienced students entering the field. This upcoming Spring and Summer, I will be a Software Engineering Intern at Apple, working on the Facetime UI Team. -
Education
Notable Completed Coursework
Data StructuresPrimary Language: C++
Developed strong problem solving skills by constructing complete C++ programs based around real-world problems.
Analyzed the performance of algorithms and data structures, allowing for the designing of efficient customized data structures.
Computer OrganizationPrimary Languages: C & Assembly
Learned the Assembly Language, including instruction formats, instruction types, flow of control, and the assembly process.
Applied concepts of multi-cycle and pipelined data path and control to design more efficient programs
Heavy emphasis on systems and low-level programming, including digital logic such as Boolean algebra, logic circuits, and gates.Foundations of Computer ScienceCourse about discrete mathematics and computation theory.
Formulated mathematical proofs by using logic and the application of mathematical tools such as induction and recursion.
Calculated combinational arguments and developed formal methods of computation.Introduction to AlgorithmsAnalyzed the runtime and efficiency of different algorithms.
Utilized different algorithm-design techniques, including, but not limited to, greedy, divide-and-conquer, and dynamic programming techniques, in order to solve particular problems.
Modeled real problems abstractly using the language of graphs and flows.
Solved problems by reducing to other problems whose solutions are known, as well as show that problems are hard by reducing from other problems.Introduction to Information Technology and Web SciencePrimary Languages: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, AMP Stack
Analyzed business cases and gained the ability to describe important technologies important to the Information Technology Profession along with major applications in the field of Computer and Web Science.
Learned and applied the basic concepts of front-end and back-end development, allowing for the creation of simple web pages and databases.Web Systems DevelopmentPrimary Languages: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, AMP Stack
Refined my knowledge of front-end and back-end development, allowing for the creation of more sophisticated advanced web applications.
Learned about the World Wide Web and HTTP requests, allowing for web applications to communicate and retrieve data from servers.
Worked over the course of a semester in a team of five in order to develop a detailed web application in the AMP stack.Web Science Systems DevelopmentPrimary Languages: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, MEAN Stack
A continuation from Web Systems Development, this course introduced the MEAN stack, frameworks, and other components of a web appplication, such as APIs.
Explored methodology such as application design, software versioning, and team development.
Worked in a team of six in order to develop a web application in the MEAN stack which could theoretically be advanced enough to be sold as a product.Information DesignExamined graphical representation data in order to analyze and discuss how and why graphics were created the way they were.
Observed visual presentations of historical data to determine the most efficient ways to represent the complex information being displayed without distorting the data within.
Viewed ways in which information designers can push certain messages across that would otherwise be unclear with different design choices.
Designed four personal designs from data both personal and external, presenting them using methods and graphs discussed in class.Operating SystemsPrimary Language: C
Discussed various aspects of computer operating systems design and implementation including I/O programming, concurrent processes and synchronization problems, process management and process scheduling, and more.
Analyzed operating systems by designing and implementing both analytical and simulation models.
Created a functioning Bash shell in C.
Simulated multiple process scheduling algorithms including First Come First Serve, Shortest-Job-First, Shortest Remaining Time, and Round Robin Scheduling.
Principles of SoftwarePrimary Language: Java
Studied important concepts in software design, implementation, and testing.
Learned how to write correct and maintainable software in high-level languages.
Applied fundamental principles such as reasoning about code, specification, abstraction, design patterns, testing, and refactoring, towards building software systems.
Created a Map MVC using abstract data types to succesfully navigate around RPI's campus using Dijkstra's Algorithm.
Coursework in Progress
Programming LanguagesPrimary Language: Prolog, Scheme, Haskell
Taught to analyze programming languages, allowing me to learn new programming languages with more ease.
Learned the cocepts of scoping, data abstraction, types, control abstraction, and parameter passing.
Developed programs in Prolog, Scheme, and Haskell, learning the logical and functional paradigms.
Database SystemsPrimary Technology: PostgreSQL
Learned the fundamentals of database management systems, discussing the how these fundamentals affect the best application design principles for databases.
Applied principles of normalization to design a data model that lead to the development of high performance data intensive applications.
Applied understanding of the internals of database management systems to proper tuning the data model, code, and storage methods.
Network ProgrammingPrimary Technology: C++, Python
Received an overview of the OSI reference model and various popular network protocol suites.
Implemented specific network programming constructs on Unix platforms to create robust real-world socket-based applications
Concentrated on Unix interprocess communication (IPC), network programming using TCP and UDP, along with client-side and mobile programming.
Applied the concepts of the C programming language to the construction of moderately complex software implementation problems.
Managing IT ResourcesIntroduced to the fundamental concepts of management and their application to IT.
Examined the use of IT in business processes or "management information systems" (MIS) and the management issues of integrating IT into organizational processes to gain competitive advantage.
Examined management approaches for development and using information systems in support of business processes.
Analyzed business cases that explore applications of Information Systems and Information Technology in a variety of organizations.
Worked with a real client organization on a Term Project in need of an IT solution.Extracurriculars
Web Technologies Group
I am a member of RPI's Web Technologies Group, a Student Senate Committee creating and maintaining tech applications which aim to serve the students of RPI. Some of the projects we work on include the campus Shuttle Tracker, Senate Survey, and Petitions site. One notable accomplishment this past Spring was setting up a TV display in RPI's Student Union for the Shuttle Tracker to be displayed 24/7. This past summer, I was nominated to become the next chair of WTG, and will work on maintaining and updating all projects under WTG. I will begin development of a revamped Student Government Site this Fall, with notable features including a meeting scheduler, database containing StuGov history, and more.
webtech.union.rpi.eduRensselaer Center for Open Source (RCOS)
I have worked as both a developer and mentor for RCOS, RPI's open source community. As a mentor, I provide guidance for both new and old RCOS students as well as grade their contributions to the team they are a part of. I am currently one of two Project Managers for RCOS's Shuttle Tracker team and will continue managing the team in the Fall.
rcos.io
Accomplishments
- Rensselaer Leadership Award
- Given in recognition of an outstanding record of academic and personal achievements, a strong commitment to excellence, and illustration of intellectual curiosity.
Awarded throughout 2018 and 2019. - Dean's Honor List
- Recognizes students who attain a grade point average of 3.50 or better and have no grade below C.
Awarded throughout 2019.
Other Activities
Aside from my academic activities, I am also on RPI's water polo team. A New York Division III Club team, we attend 3-4 tournaments in the Fall semester and compete with teams such as West Point, Columbia, and Cornell. Furthermore, I am a member of the Japanese Culture Association, a club dedicated to exploring Japanese culture including holidays, desserts, and education.
I am a member of both Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE) and Gamma Nu Eta (GNH), RPI's academic honor societies for Computer Science and Information Technology respectively. As a member of Gamma Nu Eta, I help tutor ITWS students in need of help and work to schedule events including the Gamma Nu Eta Company Expose and more. This semester, I am working on creating a newsletter for GNH for RPI alumni and faculty.
Education
Notable Coursework
Developed strong problem solving skills by constructing complete C++ programs based around real-world problems.
Analyzed the performance of algorithms and data structures, allowing for the designing of efficient customized data structures.
Learned the Assembly Language, including instruction formats, instruction types, flow of control, and the assembly process.
Applied concepts of multi-cycle and pipelined data path and control to design more efficient programs
Heavy emphasis on systems and low-level programming, including digital logic such as Boolean algebra, logic circuits, and gates.Course about discrete mathematics and computation theory.
Formulated mathematical proofs by using logic and the application of mathematical tools such as induction and recursion.
Calculated combinational arguments and developed formal methods of computation.Analyzed the runtime and efficiency of different algorithms.
Utilized different algorithm-design techniques, including, but not limited to, greedy, divide-and-conquer, and dynamic programming techniques, in order to solve particular problems.
Modeled real problems abstractly using the language of graphs and flows.
Solved problems by reducing to other problems whose solutions are known, as well as show that problems are hard by reducing from other problems.Analyzed business cases and gained the ability to describe important technologies important to the Information Technology Profession along with major applications in the field of Computer and Web Science.
Learned and applied the basic concepts of front-end and back-end development, allowing for the creation of simple web pages and databases.Refined my knowledge of front-end and back-end development, allowing for the creation of more sophisticated advanced web applications.
Learned about the World Wide Web and HTTP requests, allowing for web applications to communicate and retrieve data from servers.
Worked over the course of a semester in a team of five in order to develop a detailed web application in the AMP stack.A continuation from Web Systems Development, this course introduced the MEAN stack, frameworks, and other components of a web appplication, such as APIs.
Explored methodology such as application design, software versioning, and team development.
Worked in a team of six in order to develop a web application in the MEAN stack which could theoretically be advanced enough to be sold as a product.Examined graphical representation data in order to analyze and discuss how and why graphics were created the way they were.
Observed visual presentations of historical data to determine the most efficient ways to represent the complex information being displayed without distorting the data within.
Viewed ways in which information designers can push certain messages across that would otherwise be unclear with different design choices.
Designed four personal designs from data both personal and external, presenting them using methods and graphs discussed in class.Discussed various aspects of computer operating systems design and implementation including I/O programming, concurrent processes and synchronization problems, process management and process scheduling, and more.
Analyzed operating systems by designing and implementing both analytical and simulation models.
Created a functioning Bash shell in C.
Simulated multiple process scheduling algorithms including First Come First Serve, Shortest-Job-First, Shortest Remaining Time, and Round Robin Scheduling.
Studied important concepts in software design, implementation, and testing.
Learned how to write correct and maintainable software in high-level languages.
Applied fundamental principles such as reasoning about code, specification, abstraction, design patterns, testing, and refactoring, towards building software systems.
Created a Map MVC using abstract data types to succesfully navigate around RPI's campus using Dijkstra's Algorithm.
Coursework in Progress
Taught to analyze programming languages, allowing me to learn new programming languages with more ease.
Learned the cocepts of scoping, data abstraction, types, control abstraction, and parameter passing.
Developed programs in Prolog, Scheme, and Haskell, learning the logical and functional paradigms.
Learned the fundamentals of database management systems, discussing the how these fundamentals affect the best application design principles for databases.
Applied principles of normalization to design a data model that lead to the development of high performance data intensive applications.
Applied understanding of the internals of database management systems to proper tuning the data model, code, and storage methods.
Received an overview of the OSI reference model and various popular network protocol suites.
Implemented specific network programming constructs on Unix platforms to create robust real-world socket-based applications
Concentrated on Unix interprocess communication (IPC), network programming using TCP and UDP, along with client-side and mobile programming.
Applied the concepts of the C programming language to the construction of moderately complex software implementation problems.
Introduced to the fundamental concepts of management and their application to IT.
Examined the use of IT in business processes or "management information systems" (MIS) and the management issues of integrating IT into organizational processes to gain competitive advantage.
Examined management approaches for development and using information systems in support of business processes.
Analyzed business cases that explore applications of Information Systems and Information Technology in a variety of organizations.
Worked with a real client organization on a Term Project in need of an IT solution.Extracurriculars
I am a member of RPI's Web Technologies Group, a Student Senate Committee creating and maintaining tech applications which aim to serve the students of RPI. Some of the projects we work on include the campus Shuttle Tracker, Senate Survey, and Petitions site. One notable accomplishment this past Spring was setting up a TV display in RPI's Student Union for the Shuttle Tracker to be displayed 24/7.
webtech.union.rpi.edu
I have worked as both a developer and mentor for RCOS, RPI's open source community. As a mentor, I provide guidance for both new and old RCOS students as well as grade their contributions to the team they are a part of. I am currently one of two Project Managers for RCOS's Shuttle Tracker team and will continue managing the team in the Fall.
rcos.ioAccomplishments
- Rensselaer Leadership Award
- Given in recognition of an outstanding record of academic and personal achievements, a strong commitment to excellence, and illustration of intellectual curiosity.
Awarded throughout 2018 and 2019. - Dean's Honor List
- Recognizes students who attain a grade point average of 3.50 or better and have no grade below C.
Awarded throughout 2019.
Other Activities
Aside from my academic activities, I am also on RPI's water polo team. A New York Division III Club team, we attend 3-4 tournaments in the Fall semester and compete with teams such as West Point, Columbia, and Cornell. Furthermore, I am a member of the Japanese Culture Association, a club dedicated to exploring Japanese culture including holidays, desserts, and education.
I am a member of both Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE) and Gamma Nu Eta (GNH), RPI's academic honor societies for Computer Science and Information Technology respectively. As a member of Gamma Nu Eta, I help tutor ITWS students in need of help and work to schedule events including the Gamma Nu Eta Company Expose and more. This semester, I am working on creating a newsletter for GNH for RPI alumni and faculty.
Skills
Programming Languages
- C
- C++
- HTML5
- CSS3
- JavaScript
- TypeScript
- PHP
- Java
Technologies
- jQuery
- Bootstrap
- Apache
- MySQL
- SQL
- PhpMyAdmin
- MongoDB
- Mongoose
- Express.js
- AngularJS
- Node.js
- Vue.js
- npm
Documentation & Design
- Microsoft Office
- Google Drive
- Tableau Desktop
- Git
- GitHub
- Sourcetree
- Sublime Text
- Visual Studio Code
- LaTeX
Projects
Over the course of my time at RPI, I have worked on a multitude of projects honing my skills as both a developer and leader. These range from weekly assignments to semester long applications, to purely personal projects.
Collude.it
A web chat service written using the AMP Stack, Collude.it was my term project for Web Systems Development in the Fall of 2019. Built with small team communication in mind, Collude.it allows for scheduling of in person meetings, group preference management, and quick communication via chat rooms. I worked as a back-end and middle-end developer on this project, helping to build the database via MySQL as well as integrate all the backend functionality into the frontend.
RepositoryDegreezy
Degreezy was my term project for Web Science Systems Development in the Spring of 2020. Utilizing the MEAN Stack, Degreezy is a degree progress viewer as well as scheduler aimed at helping RPI students plan their four years in college. While it is certainly uncommon for students to come into a school with a set plan, Degreezy aims to make it easier for students to make changes later in their college career. Degreezy's features include a fully functional API, semester scheduler, and progress viewer which notifies you if you are on track to graduate. For this project, I worked as a back-end developer creating the database schema and API endpoints.
Repository
Shuttle Tracker
Throughout my two semesters in RCOS so far, I have worked on WTG's Shuttle Tracker, a web application designed for tracking the shuttles which go around RPI's campus. During my first semester in RCOS in Fall 2019, I worked as a back-end developer, creating an endpoint for ETAs as well as a front-end display for ETAs which will eventually replace the current shuttle schedules. In Spring 2020, I became the Project Manager for Shuttle Tracker as well as a mentor for RCOS, and prioritized helping other members of the team, providing guidance and assistance where necessary. Some features we implemented this semester include a new dark mode feature and better admin tools to more easily update the application with up to date data. Shuttle Tracker is primarily written in Go and TypeScript, utilizing PostgreSql as it's database management system.
RepositoryProjects
Over the course of my time at RPI, I have worked on a multitude of projects honing my skills as both a developer and leader. These range from weekly assignments to semester long applications, to purely personal projects.
A web chat service written using the AMP Stack, Collude.it was my term project for Web Systems Development in the Fall of 2019. Built with small team communication in mind, Collude.it allows for scheduling of in person meetings, group preference management, and quick communication via chat rooms. I worked as a back-end and middle-end developer on this project, helping to build the database via MySQL as well as integrate all the backend functionality into the frontend.
Repository
Degreezy was my term project for Web Science Systems Development in the Spring of 2020. Utilizing the MEAN Stack, Degreezy is a degree progress viewer as well as scheduler aimed at helping RPI students plan their four years in college. While it is certainly uncommon for students to come into a school with a set plan, Degreezy aims to make it easier for students to make changes later in their college career. Degreezy's features include a fully functional API, semester scheduler, and progress viewer which notifies you if you are on track to graduate. For this project, I worked as a back-end developer creating the database schema and API endpoints.
Repository
As a Project Manager for two semesters, I have worked on WTG's Shuttle Tracker, a web application designed for tracking the shuttles which go around RPI's campus. During my first semester in RCOS in Fall 2019, I worked as a back-end developer, creating an endpoint for ETAs as well as a front-end display for ETAs which will eventually replace the current shuttle schedules. In Spring 2020, I became the Project Manager for Shuttle Tracker as well as a mentor for RCOS, and prioritized helping other members of the team, providing guidance and assistance where necessary. Some features we implemented this semester include a new dark mode feature and better admin tools to more easily update the application with up to date data. Over the Summer, I continued to lead as Project Manager for Shuttle Tracker, completing the implementation of dark mode, and leading development of new features including an ETA display system and improved documentation for new members of Shuttle Tracker. Shuttle Tracker is primarily written in Go and TypeScript, utilizing PostgreSql as it's database management system.
Repository