My first experience with a terminal was on Windows when I started exploring batch scripting. In school, I was introduced to programming through Robot Karol, where we were tasked with solving concrete problems by writing programs to manipulate the environment. I found it quite challenging at first. However, later, I had an exceptional teacher who taught us programming using Python 3 and VPython, which made the experience enjoyable as I could re-implement some video games I loved.
In university, all beginners are required to learn Java, and after completing the course, I became a teaching assistant for a few years. However, I noticed that the course's instructions were unclear to most students. While the students wanted to learn how to use programming as a tool, the course mainly focused on software engineering, such as writing readable code, using abstractions, thinking in OOP, etc. These are excellent goals, but the course lacked motivation on why to do this. All homework and final tasks were written and read only once, so it was challenging to convince the students to care about conventions and rules such as CheckStyle and maintainability when they had a fixed submission deadline. As a teaching assistant, I always encouraged my students to collaborate, which helped them understand the reasons for these conventions and rules.
For my bachelor's thesis, I used TensorFlow in Python 3 to do machine learning, where the intersection between math and programming became important. Implementing algorithms that I understand from a mathematical perspective brings me joy ✨. I also had the opportunity to learn Haskell and Prolog in advanced courses, and I loved how solving specific problems felt like proving a theorem in mathematics. I look forward to learning more cutting-edge tools like these.
Currently, I work as a web developer for an energy supplier, where we use TypeScript and React to build a multi-tenant white-label solution for managing construction contractors. I am part of a highly skilled team, and it is a pleasure to contribute to a tool that accelerates the rollout of renewable energies. Additionally, using and contributing to open-source software gives me the feeling of standing on the shoulders of giants.