Turn On Your Future @ UWTSD's School of Applied Computing & Electronics

Posts tagged ‘coding’

Project profile: Kelly Casey

Name: Kelly Casey

Course: BSc (Hons) Software Engineering

Project Title: Women in STEM Study Buddy – A Mobile Application for Academic Networking

Logo
Fig.: FemSTEMConnect

Project introduction:
The motivation behind this project was to address the under-representation and isolation that many women in STEM fields experience during their academic journey. I wanted to create a platform that would allow female students to connect, support one another, and collaborate through shared academic interests. The project reflects both my technical interests and my desire to contribute to inclusion and equity in higher education.

Overview of the Practical implementation:
The application was developed in Android Development Studio using the Kotlin programming language, with Firebase Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform providing services for authentication, data storage, and real-time messaging.

Kotlin, Android Studio and Firebase image
Fig.: Kotlin | Android Studio | Firebase

Key features include:

  • Email link login (no passwords required)
  • Personalised academic profiles
  • Study partner matching using course and location filters
  • A Messaging system for real-time communication.
Fig: Coding

The project was tested on both emulator and physical Android devices for performance and usability.

Here are some screenshots from the final app up and working

Fig.: Navigation screen
Messaging inbox
Fig.: Messaging inbox
Fig.: Home screen & News feed

Conclusion: The final product successfully met the core functional goals. Users can register, create a profile, search for study partners, and communicate within the app. Although some features like the community forum were postponed, the application is stable, secure, and ready for future expansion. It represents a strong foundation for a peer-support platform specifically tailored to women in STEM.

What Career and job role are you hoping to move Into after Graduation? I’m planning to progress onto a Master’s degree and then move into a software engineering role, ideally within a company focused on education technology or socially impactful work.

Top Tips for Students interested in completing a University Degree: Don’t procrastinate. Choose a project that is manageable not just exciting. It’s better to complete something simple and solid than to get stuck in something too complex to finish on your own. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

~

For further information on Computing courses at UWTSD, please click-here.

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Up-coming Events

Events-v3
We have some exciting events coming-up that you might be interested in. The events are fantastic opportunities to meet new people, learn new sills, increase your network and very often lead to great employment opportunities.

  • Swansea’s Tech Start-up Weekend will start on Friday 21st November at 6pm through to Sunday at 8pm. If you are looking to start a business or gain some business start-up experience this event is for you. Great Prizes available and Great experience to enhance your CV. + You will be provided with free breakfast lunch dinner drinks and snacks all weekend to keep you going + FREE PIZZA ;-). The event is taking place at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea (located behind Sainsbury’s), we are meeting at 6pm on the 21st Nov. Tickets normally cost £35, however if you are a student of the School of Applied Computing UWTSD you go for free. To reserve a place simply e-mail james.williams@sm.uwtsd.ac.uk. For more information please visit the Global Start-up Weekend website which includes information for first-timers.
  • Code Clubs are running up until Christmas. Code Club is an opportunity for all people regardless of coding experience to get together and learn about different aspects of coding. Each club begins with a guest speaker sharing their experience of being a developer, followed by an introduction to a topic and a few challenges on Coderbyte. The club is BYOD (bring your own device) so please bring along your laptop or Mac book and we’ll supply the pizza! We meet one Thursday per month, between 18:00-19:30, in the TechHub Swansea. For more information please click here.
  • Software Development Round Table, A monthly software development meet-up to discuss technology, practices or whatever else takes our fancy. The meet is on the last Monday of every month. Next meeting is on Monday, November 24, 2014, 7 to 9:00 pm. If you’re using some new technology you think others would be interested in, if you’ve got a design or some code you’d like to discuss, if you’d like to discuss a specific practice, a problem you are having or you’d simply like to see what others have got to say – come along and join in. This is an informal session, you don’t need any particular experience and you don’t need to have suggestions – just bring yourself. For more information please click-here.
  • Making Big Data work: Interested in working with Big Data? Need help getting Started? Check out this free event = in Cardiff Bay on the 25th November, 9:15 – 3:30pm, at the: Big Data Life Sciences Hub, Assembly Sq, Cardiff Bay. For more information please click here: http://www.hpcwales.co.uk/making-big-data-work.  To register: tinyurl.com/bigdataworkshop.

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