Projects
Here is a list of my favourite projects that I have done and what I learnt from doing them!
UniExplore
In second year we were challenged to create a gamified web app in Django to help promote the exploration of the university’s campus. In a group of six and a deadline of 6 weeks, we created UniExplore a social challenge app which encouraged students to go onto campus and complete challenges while see what others have done and allowing interaction through likes and comments. From this project I learnt an immense number of skills, from organisation using Kanban boards, Version control using GitHub, creating and designing code as a group, as well as learning how to develop web apps using the Django framework.
Some features that I was able to implement were single sign on using the Microsoft API, Map interaction and image analysis.
The technologies that I used for this project were HTML, CSS, GitHub, JavaScript, and Django.
Hand Written Digit Recognition
For my A-Level coursework, I challenged myself to make an artificial neural network to recognise hand written digits from scratch without using any external libraries. The neural net was trained using the MNIST data set and was able to recognise handwritten digits from 0 to 9 with an accuracy of 96%. From doing this project I learnt how to approach and solve problems that were completely new to me, I broadened my understanding of Java and gained in-depth knowledge of how machine learning works.
The technologies that I used for this project were Java, Maven and GitHub.
Spotify Playlist Cleaner
I listen to a lot of music using
Spotify, I noticed that I was constantly sorting new
music into different playlists manually, which was very tedious, so I decided to make a python program
that was able to take advantage of the Spotify API
and automate the process. Once I learnt how to use Django, I decided to convert the simple python script
to a web app so that I can use it from anywhere.
From this project I learnt how to use APIs and to make sure that any personal data (API
keys) were stored safely as well as
improving my python programming skills.
Photography Portfolio Website
I wanted to make it easier for my clients to view my photography work and to also have access to my socials. Therefore I decided to make a website which displays my portfolio while also allowing my clients to access my social media. From this project I learnt how to deploy a website using Digitalocean and link a domain name with it, I also learnt how to use bootstrap to design the UI. You can view it here: conorbr.co.uk
The technologies that I used for this project were HTML, Bootstrap and I used Digitalocean to host it.
Cat Rescue Records
My mother volunteers for a cat rescue centre and she was offered to digitise their paper records. They don't have a large budget to store data as they are a very small business, their original plan was to store the data in an excel spreadsheet. However, due to security concerns I decided to make them a web app that links with a database to allow them to store their data securely while being able to interact with a UI to view and search all the data. From this project I learnt how to deploy a web app using Heroku, I further developed my understanding of how Django works and improved my knowledge of bootstrap.
The technologies that I used for this project were HTML, Bootstrap, Django and I used Heroku to host it.
Genetic Algorithm Sudoku
For my AI module in second year of university my coursework was to create a genetic algorithm that could solve a sudoku puzzle. We weren't given a very detailed specification so we had to do a lot of our own research to help solve the problem. This project taught me how to research an algorithm that I have not come across of before and implement it to solve a problem.
The technologies that I used for this project were Python and GitHub.
Huffman Compression
For my data structures & algorithms module in first year of university, my coursework was to implement Huffman compression to compress text files. I learnt a lot about compression for this project and how to focus on the speed of a program when trying to optimise it.
The technologies that I used for this project were Java, Maven and GitHub.