Software Engineer

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About

A Little Bit About Me

Hi, I'm Alex! Currently, I am a third-year Software Engineering student at Iowa State University with full-stack development experience. I've been fortunate to have the opportunity to develop customer-facing solutions that hundreds of enterprise customers use on a daily basis with my current internship at Workiva. It’s easy to say that I’m a creator at heart. Outside of developing personal and professional web & mobile applications, I find my passions reside in capturing life’s moments through filmmaking and photography. I take pride in learning and finding answers to new concepts. I constantly find myself diving into videos ranging from development techniques, to Lightroom photo editing and sometimes just to stay up to date with the latest Apple products! Keep scrolling to learn more about me!

Experience

Software Engineer Intern

PayPal

May 2023 - Present

  • Spearheaded the development of a Proof of Concept (POC) to transition a fraud detection service to the Edge Computing layer, leveraging the Fastly cloud platform.
  • Implemented a Compute@Edge service, utilizing JavaScript and Express JS, which analyzes over 1 million requests daily.
  • Developed a Rule Engine with Captcha challenging, analyzing payload data and blocking over 100,000 malicious requests from reaching downstream services daily, resulting in substantial cost savings & operational efficiency.

Software Engineer Intern

Workiva

May 2022 - May 2023

  • Streamlined development process by consolidating subpackages from two major clients into a single consumable repository, resulting in a 50% reduction in code duplication for new chart platform features.
  • Implemented a robust algorithm that ensures pie chart percentages consistently round to 100%, meeting the precise data reporting requirements of over 15 customers.
  • Leveraged Dart, React, Redux, and Golang on the Presentations & Charts product, optimizing the user experience and enabling efficient data visualization.

Consultation Agent

Best Buy Geek Squad

December 2018 - January 2022

  • Debugged and pinpointed root causes of client software and hardware complications.
  • Educated inexperienced clients on technical concepts with clear and concise communication, resulting in 94% client satisfaction.
  • Troubleshooted Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Android, television, printer, and networking devices.
  • Coordinated with 10+ team members on the check-in, repair, and quality assurance pipeline.

Junior IT Support Specialist

Iowa State University

September 2021 - May 2022

  • Supported the entire staff, faculty, and student body at the Town Engineering building with computing and networking issues.
  • Built, imaged and installed graduate machines and setup desks for faculty independently.
  • Assisted professors by setting up classrooms with the necessary technology and networking to provide clear lectures.

Skills

Hover over a skill for more info

Nodemailer

Stripe

Dart

Java

Python

JavaScript

Next.js

C / C++

React

Android Studio

Golang

MySQL

Sanity.io

Spring Boot

Tailwind CSS

TypeScript

Redux

Firebase

CSS

Node.js

HTML

Express.js

Mac OS

Windows

Projects

Crochetva

Developed a full-stack e-commerce website for my girlfriend's small business, integrating Stripe for secure payment handling. I automated 100% of post-order processes: email confirmation, internal notifications, order tracking updates, and real-time inventory updates by integrating Stripe Webhooks end to end. I leveraged Server Side Rendering and Incremental Static Regeneration to efficiently fetch and query data from Sanity.io. Overall, I helped increase Crochetva's social media traffic by over 500 new visitors (+2,500%) and revenue by over 50%.

CyRate

Developed a full-stack Android application catered towards Iowa State students to find Ames’ top businesses, view peer reviews, and leave their own ratings. Worked with three students and primarily focused on building the front-end client with Android Studio and Java. Created a Spring Boot back-end to fetch business information, store reviews, and save user profiles to a MySQL database.

alexong.io

I developed this responsive full-stack personal portfolio using Next.js and Sanity.io, with deployment hosted on Vercel. I leveraged the Sanity.io database to efficiently manage and organize content, enabling easy updates and customization. I implemented API endpoints within the Next.js server to seamlessly query and fetch data from Sanity.io, ensuring dynamic and real-time content rendering.

Uber Eats Clone

Created an Uber Eats mobile app with React Native using the Yelp API to fetch over 100,000 restaurants, reviews, menus, and locations with HTTP requests. Integrated the Yelp API with the Google Places API for auto complete location search across the country. Used Redux to track menu items added to the cart and the corresponding running total. Stored completed orders with the Firebase database.

Pokémon

Built a core implementation of Pok ́emon within the terminal with game data parsed from over 15+ versions of Pok ́emon titles equipped with gym battles, wild Pok ́emon encounters, and marketplaces. Designed custom trainers with different movement patterns that chase the player on a turn-base system optimized with a queue and utilizes Dijkstra’s Algorithm for shortest path to the player.

2048

Fabricated a full web implementation of the popular 2048 web game with a group of 4 students using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Designed initial UI/UX in Figma and practiced Agile development facilitated through Trello. Expanded the base game with custom themes, insightful tooltips, and challenge levels.

Photography

My Personal Gallery

Contact

Want to learn more about me? Let's Chat!

563-508-4709

[email protected]

Ames, IA