Work Experience
"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."
- Douglas Adams
Electronic Arts: Software Engineering Intern
Maxis Studio
Networked Simulation Game
Summer 2020, Austin TX (remote)
I performed gameplay engineering work on a networked simulation game using Unreal Engine 4 and C++. I used Blueprints and State Machines to create complex AI behaviors and improve simulated actions. Designed Flatbuffer (a serialization library) schemas to create actors, systems, and variables to be used in game. Collaborated with artists to integrate animations into the game development build. Learned the basics of Perforce and used Swarm to review teammates changes to the game.
Workiva: Software Engineering Intern
Release Management
R&D | Productivity Engineering
Summer 2018 - Fall 2018; Summer 2019 -Fall 2019
I had an amazing experience at Workiva doing software development work. I had the opportunity to work on the release management (RM) team to create tools for other developers.
Our team worked on a Google App Engine hosted website using Django, BootStrap, ReactJS, and Ajax for front-end development. The back-end uses Python and RestAPI. As a team, we practiced clean code and 100% code coverage using nosetests. I participated in team-retros, stand-ups, backlog grooming, and company, platform, and department meetings.
All the tools I used were new to me. It took me a couple of weeks to learn the basics before jumping in and picking up tickets (we used JIRA) and interacting with Github. My progression throughout the summer started with front-end projects, and overtime I explored the back-end.
One projects I headed was to take our pre-existing task page for release engineers - support actions to assist other developers with interacting with our tool - and convert those tasks into JIRA tickets. The transition stemmed from wanting to collect better analytics on types of support tasks, better tracking of team members current tasks, and taking advantage of all the pre-existing interactions that JIRA has for its ticket management. This project evolved to not only moving over the task page, but also moving other notifications concerning actions by other developers into ticket items for the release engineers.
Iowa State University - Women in Science and Engineering: Peer Mentor
LD ST 270: Campus Leadership Development
Fall 2018
Being a WiSE peer mentor for LD ST 270 gave me the opportunity to not only connect with freshman in engineering, but also let me learn more about the type of leader I am. My partner and I were the mentors for 18 students in the Electrical, Computer, Software Engineers in Leadership (ECSEL) program - women or minority students in those majors. We graded assignments, - essay reflections with prompts and reflections about leadership activities students participated in - met for 1-on-1s, taught an hour and half lecture, and helped our students to host community service activities for the Boys and Girls Club of Story county.
During my role as a peer mentor, I worked on my communication, organization, and time-management skills. I needed to grade things in a reasonable time, communicate with students in the classroom and on 1-on-1s to support them and help them grow, along with creating lesson plans.
Some challenges I faced was learning how to be flexible and being okay with not always knowing or being able to give students the answers. I wanted my students to be successful, but being one of those people who always wants to help people, I had to figure out other ways to help and support while also allowing them to grow personally. I also at times struggled to be the "bad cop" and had to learn when to be strict with them in comparison to my normal humorous laid back teaching style.
Iowa State University - Academic Success Center: Academic Tutor
S E 185: Problem Solving in Software Engineering
Programming in C | Spring 2018
After just completing this course the semester before (fall 17), I wanted to continue to use the knowledge I gained and make sure I really understood the concepts presented. One of the best ways to do this is through teaching others. I had another two groups this semester and worked to acquire a larger toolbox of activities and teaching methods. Unlike tutoring PSYCH 101, teaching someone how to code has a lot less vocabulary and a lot more practice examples. One of the most important things I learned while tutoring this course is that sometimes the best way to teach is to see what they can do, and change "mistakes" into learning opportunities.
"A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning."
- Brad Henry
PSYCH 101: Introduction to Psychology
Fall 2017
Psychology has always been an interest for me and concepts related to this field stick better than most. Thus, I decided to tutor other students in PSYCH 101 after taking the course over the summer (2017). I had two groups and worked to plan sessions and use feedback tools to better adapt my teaching styles to that which would help my tutees the most. This was my first job coming to college, and it taught me a lot about ISU's employment system, the organization and time management required to set up and run tutoring sessions, and helped me to gain confidence in both my leadership and communication skills.
