AmandaHaynes
Software Developer and Creative Director thriving at the intersection of art and technology
Favorite Tech Stack
- React / NextJS
- SCSS Modules
- Typescript
- NodeJS
- Mongo DB
Current Projects
I'm always up to something! Some of my current side projects through my side company Mixed Manifest include:
- Designing and developing an online presence for Big Kitty Mag - an underground arts and culture magazine showcasing Calgary's street life.
- Creating a marketing website for Prom Night Skate all girls boardsports club
- Organizing another block-long graffiti and street art jam for summer 2021
- Facilitating another indoor graffiti jam with 30+ artists and over 8500sqft of murals in fall 2021
- Building an interactive augmented art installation with data visualization, live aerosol mural painting, and visual projection mapping
- Working as Live Art Director and Web Master for Impact Music Festival & Intersect Art and Music Festival
- Collaboarting with United Universal Collective to revamp their online presence for collective members
Highlights
Fun Fact
Before transitioning into technology, I was partner in a landscape construction company. In just 5 years we transformed a handyman repair sole-proprietorship into an incorporated contracting company specializing in custom landscaping design with net yearly revenue of $100,000 in our last three years of operation.
Profile Photo
Summary
I am driven by creating order out of chaos and am constantly searching for opportunities to leverage technology in new and interesting ways. My core competencies lie in web technologies and I am passionate about projects that exist at the intersection of art and technology. I'm on a mission to create collaborative, accessible, interactive, and immersive experiences leveraging various mediums both tangible and intangible.
Education
Bachelor of Computer Information Systems
Mount Royal University
2011 - 2016
The CIS program teaches the fundamentals of object oriented and functional programming, server and database administration, QA, and project management. During my time at Mount Royal I developed applications using various languages including Java, C#, .Net, Javascript, and Python. In addition to my studies, I participated in numerous extra curricular activities including serving as an executive on my program's student society where I helped coordinate and host events for the students and faculty including hackathons, AR playground fundraisers, and student showcase events.
Experience
I'm currently working as a Senior Consultant staffed on a project for a global oil & gas company helping the team iterate on new features of their mobile app in the role of Product Owner. I'm also volunteering on a side-of-desk project for Ignite Calgary building out their website and blog using NextJS and Prismic.
My role as an Senior Product Engineer at Versett has me switching between strategic consulting and UX development as I help design and build solutions for clients in enterprise, startup, and venture domains. I leverage the most modern Javascript web technologies to build accessible, secure, and performant, web and mobile applications. Together with my team, we have delivered scalable customized solutions including cryptocurrency exchange platforms, business travel tools, custom ecommerce platforms, rich data visualizations, mobile career coach applications and many more. The wide range of projects I have been exposed to at Versett has broadened my toolbealt and honed my ability to learn new skills and deep dive into new problem domains with ease.
It started as a volunteer position as Art Director at a small charity music festival and turned into a mission to bring together a community of artists and creatives to collaborate on massive live art installations live streamed online for the world to participate. I work as a consultant teaming up with various event production companies to create live aerosol art installations set to live music paired with custom event websites that include Twitch channel embeds, discord chat functionality, and digital art galleries. For this summer, I'm planning two community driven public art projects, one independently, and one in collaboration with the Bowness BIA with help from the Ripples Grant and ActivateYYC Grant. I'm also working though logistics for two graffiti jam exhibits taking place at music festivals this summer.
I'm creating a digital presence and contributing as a writer for Calgary's newest arts, music, and culture magazine. I've built the website leveraging NextJS and Prismic CMS for an easy to update and SEO friendly online experience. Big Kitty Magazine strives to be a safe, inclusive, and accessible publication for all marginalized voices including LGBTQ2S+ and BIMPOC communities.
My mentorship role was a part time evening position where I assisted students as they progressed through a 10 week intensive web development bootcamp. The curriculum was iterative and new technologies were frequently introduced requiring me to quickly familiarize myself in order to best assist the students. Calgary is a satellite office from the Toronto based operations so there was ample opportunity for me to help coordinate and facilitate events such as demo days, showcase events, and employer meet-and-greet sessions.
I was brought on as a contractor to help a local student crowdfunding startup pivot to a freelancer marketplace aiming to connect local startups and small businesses with student freelancers. I made extensive customizations to the automation and workflow features of an existing marketplace framework build on Wordpress. I was given the opportunity to pitch RCKTSHP to the A100 and land us a finalist position in Startup Calgary's Launchpad Accelerator pitch competition with just two days notice to prepare.
To fulfill a requirement of my degree, I completed a four month internship as a technical support analyst for a the password and identity management branch of Hitachi. During my time there, I set up a large virtual network to mimic a complex client setup and went through the process of intentionally breaking, debugging, and repairing for the most in-depth understanding possible.