S T E P H A N I E    L A M P O T A N G

This summer I interned as a mobile developer at Facebook through their University program. Within my cohort, I found amazing new friends, and built several projects I was extremely passionate about.

During our initial 3-week iOS training course, we built five apps including a remake of Instagram, a Twitter client, and a movie information app, just to name a few. After nailing the basics, we were ready to build our own ideas out! For the rest of the internship, we were tasked with developing a full-fledged app from start to finish. We chose everything from the big idea to each small feature, and that was one of the coolest parts for me.

Our final product was Fetch - a map-based, item-sharing app. It's practical and straightforward. Fetch targets the pain-points of renting, but most importantly, it's something we had worked towards and devoted significant time to for 5 weeks. During that time, I was learning more than just technical iOS skills, like table views and completion blocks. I was also learning about how to organize a long term project. We created sprints, planned out user stories, and employed git issues and branches to keep our project organized. They helped us work well as a team and stay focused on our goals. After 5 weeks of cranking out code, searching stackoverflow, and dabbling in design, we demoed Fetch. First, to Denise Hernandez, our program's director, and later that day, we literally jumped for joy when learned that we were chosen to demo Fetch once more, but this time to Mark Zuckerberg!

As a team, we all wanted a full understanding of the code, even though we knew it was most practical to divide the work, so we held weekly meetings where each of us explained what we had learned/coded that week. My main roles/areas of expertise in the project were setting up the database, creating functionality for posting an item, and anything that dealt with the scrollable view used to search for specific items. (See videos above for a walkthrough!)

In my junior year of high school, I became coach of the math team. It was when I discovered my passion for teaching. In the last couple years, combining technology and education was one of the dreams that pushed me towards coding.

Since then, I continued to coach math, tutored in physics and French, and started a computer science club to introduce kids to programming earlier. I couldn’t get enough.

Even as a teacher though, I was still a student - I learned about what makes a good teacher, and how to convey difficult concepts in a simple manner. My biggest realization was what I call the whiteboard effect. I began to notice that my kids had better ideas, more confidence, and more fun when I called them up to the whiteboard to solve problems. And I called them all up at the same time, not one by one. This way, everyone could see each other working. My kids were seeing other kids get stuck in the same places they were, and unafraid to ask questions. They worked together and complemented each other, because one person might forget the distance formula in the beginning, but be the one who remembers the shoelace theorem needed at the end.

Most importantly, they felt more confident in themselves when they could work together to find the answer without asking for my help. I loved seeing the spark in their eyes when they were able to help their peers and solve the most difficult question I threw their way.

The whiteboard effect worked perfectly for my class of 6 student. But it wasn’t as effective with 20 students - and practically useless for 200 students in a college lecture hall. I’ve wanted to use technology to create “the world’s largest whiteboard” for a while now, and at Treehacks I finally started the journey.

I chose Swift for iOS development as my vehicle for change. Most students bring their iPhones to class anyway, so why not use them to learn! Although I had never dealt with mobile development before, I managed to get the app off the ground within the 36 hours, I created an app that allowed a user to enroll into a classroom and then draw on their own board and swipe into other student’s boards to see how they were going about finding a solution.

There’s still a lot to do in backend with the app, but I feel great to have finally started!! I know that this will be a continuing project and can’t wait to delve further into the world of iOS development to solve an issue that has directly impacted my life.

2/21/18 Update! Drawing with colors is now a thing :)

As a dance minor, I am passionate about the power dance has to bring people together. It is a universal language, and at Santa Barbara Hacks, I wanted to use this feature to explore multicultural dance interpretations of international hits.

Our web app allows a user to search up an international hit and then uses the Google Maps and Youtube API's to return a page that shows the most popular dance videos to that song from each of the largest cities in the world. We saw some Bhangra to Despacito and loved the blending of cultures we discovered.

It was a lot of fun working with API's and so inspiring to work on a project that is so close to my heart! <3

Ding! I look over at my phone. "IT'S UP IT'S UP!!! One spot in Ballroom class just opened!"

Although this may sound like it came from an overexcited friend, it actually came from my web scraper through the Twilio API.

I use my webscraper for everything from snagging spots in popular classes to being able to watch Riverdale within 10 seconds of it becoming available online. I don't have check my favorite websites incessantly anymore, because my phone texts me when changes are made to them. It saves me little pockets of time in my day, which can add up in the long run!

It works just like ISR's we learned about in electrical engineering. At the beginning of the year, we had our software constantly checking on the status of all the hardware parts from a while loop. This is called polling, and as I soon realized - extremely inefficient. Later in the year, we programmed ISR's or interrupt service routines, that made keeping tabs on hardware (or episodes of Riverdale) much easier - and time efficient.

The project also connected to my ventures in web development. The same identifiers that I used to format my HTML can be used to target specific information on a long cluttered website. This parsing turned out to be pretty helpful for me and my friends this semester when registering for classes, and I'm sure it'll continue to keep me up to date with whatever life throws my way.

One month - Three hackathons...

It started with a web app for sharing and organizing internship opportunities. Then I switched to something more tangible by learning CAD to 3D print Baymax's head. Most recently, my own idea was brought to life as a web app for detecting where the most activity is on campus.

What can I say? After the first hackathon I was hooked. Not just the by technology though! The hackers, the mentors, organizers, my team members - they all made the sleepless hours so incredibly worth it.

I learned and accomplished more than I could've dreamed at each hackathon. I was working on technology for more than a grade and more than just myself. I loved bringing the team's idea to life and meeting new people with different skills, strengths, and personalities. By the end of the event, everyone comes out of the weekend with so much more than we entered with! We learn from each other, grow on one another, and create an app together, what more could I ask for?

^^ pretty accurately describes a hackathon

I can’t believe it has been only a month since I first “pushed” this website into the world! They grow up so fast! Within the past few weeks, I’ve learned more than I could have imagined. In addition to learning HTML and CSS, because I chose to host my website on GitHub Pages, I am now familiar with GitHub and comfortable using the terminal to navigate my computer.

My most recent mini project on my website was implementing JavaScript, which I love because it incorporates logical progressions that I have been missing in HTML and also makes my website more dynamic (like this JavaScript slideshow). I hope to incorporate even more interactive features using JavaScript and jQuery in the next few months.

This Summer I wanted to figure out: what am I really getting into by pursuing the path of a programmer? Luckily, because I live in a college town, I didn’t have to search too far to find my answers. I secured a spot as a volunteer in a simulation lab, and got to see the code behind programs that were used to teach med students proper technique for medical procedures.

I learned Unity and C# to produce a new feature for a teaching simulation. The project was meaningful because I was no longer coding for myself, a class, or my personal website. I knew my code would have far-reaching effects and be used to help people.

...was my favorite programming project. To think that this website was created with just some files of code blows my mind, and I hope that never changes. There's so much left for me to uncover in the world of computer science - and it truly is a whole other world, with its own languages, laws, and class divisions. This is my third time creating a website and each time I do, I get a better grasp on the concepts of HTML and CSS and a better idea of what my ideal website looks like. This time around I went for a minimalist and functional design. I got to call the shots because this website was all for me. Being able to research and then implement all of my "what if's" was beyond satisfying. I finished most of the website within 5 hours, but it was the extra efforts like getting the menu bar to stay at the top of the page, learning responsive design and creating hover images, where I had the most fun.

And now I not only have more experience in web design, but I also have my own blog. For me, this website serves as an outlet, a place for reflection, a reason to take more pictures, and something I can call my own. Like all art, it started as an idea, but with a little inspiration and a lot of research, it became something interesting enough for you to be reading right now. This summer I hope to feed my inner artist my creating and sharing everything. I want to write my own songs, program an organizational app, cook new dishes, design unique outfits, and write pieces just like this one. Here's to a summer of creation.

2/21/18 Update! I really like design so there are now hidden links all over my website, but you can see them all here :)
Photography website ~~~ Minimalist website attempt ~~~ JS practice website

My Arduino board gives me the opportunity to blend my love for the tangible physics of hardware and the fluid computer code of software. Whether I'm creating a light display or pulsing the current through electromagnets, I love the new aspect of computer science that my board allows me to tap into.

I love the feeling I get when I see my code and Arduino replicate something I've seen in tech before. The real-life applications are what make each project so satisfying. With my Arduino by my side, I have come to understand more about the behind-the-scenes of everyday objects like MP3 players, LEDs, and video gaming consoles.

This summer I created a computer model of a six-star orbiting system.

Not going to lie, it was incredibly intimidating at first, but it proved to be just as fun as it was challenging. I had to use the Newton's Laws of Gravitation to dictate how stars reacted to the others stars nearby. On top of that, I had to use 3D trigonometry to ensure the stars all started in an orientation that would allow them to maintain orbit around each other. We wouldn't want all of them to be attracted to an abnormally massive star and collide!

The orbits turned out to be beautiful and I was even able to create a self-sustaining nine-star orbiting system (see above!)