University of Washington Tacoma / June – Sept 2025
Ishippedproductionfeatureslikeajuniorengineer,thendeliveredmyownprojectsontop.
UW Tacoma's SET department needed a document management system to replace their messy Google Drive. I joined the team and contributed end-to-end on a Next.js + Spring Boot CRUD platform — designing tables, writing routes, optimizing queries, and talking directly to users. Then I delivered my own intern projects that moved the needle even further.
Software Engineer Intern
Time Saved Per Problem
From 20 minutes to 2 minutes per worksheet problem
Weekly Hours Reclaimed
From 6 hours/week on worksheets down to just 1
Faster Support Resolution
Intern project: ticketing system replaced email chains
DB Performance Gain
Intern project: AWS RDS read replica architecture
01 / The Problem
Worksheets were scattered, duplicated, and often lost
The SET department's facilitators create technical worksheets for students across multiple subjects and difficulty levels. But without any structured system, everything lived in a messy shared Google Drive. Facilitators spent ~20 minutes per problem and ~6 hours every week just managing worksheets — finding old ones, rebuilding lost ones, and manually formatting them for print. The department needed a real document management system.
Fragmented storage
Worksheets lived in a cluttered shared Google Drive with no consistent naming, tagging, or version control.
Rework & duplication
Facilitators rebuilt existing problems because they couldn't discover or verify prior work — wasting hours every week.
No structured workflows
Creating, reviewing, and printing worksheets was entirely manual — copy-pasting into Word docs by hand.
6 hours a week, gone
Facilitators spent ~6 hours weekly and ~20 minutes per problem just managing worksheets instead of teaching.
02 / The Solution
A full-stack CRUD platform that cut worksheet time from hours to minutes
End-to-End Feature Development
Worked across the full stack — designed database tables, wrote Spring Boot routes, and built Next.js views for worksheet CRUD operations.
Problem Lookup & Generation
Built search and filtering so facilitators can find existing problems in seconds and generate print-ready worksheets instantly.
Database Design & Optimization
Designed PostgreSQL tables and optimized queries to support fast lookups across the growing problem library.
Client Communication
Met frequently with faculty users to gather feedback, demo features, and iterate on the product — earning consistent praise from the department.
03 / Engineering
Beyond the base work — my intern projects
On top of shipping features as part of the team, I was given my own intern projects that had direct impact on the platform — a support ticketing system, AWS infrastructure optimization, and a security layer. I saw the platform through to deployment.
Support Ticketing System
Intern project: designed and built an internal ticketing system that cut faculty support resolution time by 45%.
AWS RDS Optimization
Intern project: independently architected read replicas to offload high-volume queries, improving database performance by 25%.
IAM Security Layer
Implemented AWS Cognito + JWT authentication with role-based access for professors, TAs, and administrators.
100% Test Coverage
Maintained complete JUnit coverage across all REST endpoints — every feature shipped with tests and passed CI.
Built With
04 / Outcome
20 minutes became 2. Six hours became one.
The platform replaced a broken Google Drive workflow with structured problem lookup, creation, and worksheet generation. Facilitators got their time back, the department got a searchable knowledge base, and I helped ship it to production.
“I worked as part of the team like a junior engineer, shipped end-to-end features, delivered my own intern projects, and helped take the platform to production.