Curriculum Vitae
My CV is designed to be printed.
Key Skills
- Technically minded
- Problem solving skills
- Public speaking skills
- Leadership skills
- Research, planning and coordination skills
Digital Skills
Awards
The highest award given to any undergraduate at Heriot-Watt University
An award given to the most deserving student in a 4th year Computer Science programme
An award given to the most deserving student in a 2nd year Computer Science programme
An award given students with a 70% or above average in a 1st year Computer Science programme
- Merit Award received in Computer Science course
- One of two awards given for the best project in the class of 20+
- Received for programming section and team leadership
Education
Research Project Focus: "Improving education through Digital Means"
Dissertation Focus: "ClickIt: A web-based application to aid the learning of web development in an educational environment"
Final Award: BSc with Honours of the First Class
Passes for both the Computer Science and the Physics and Engineering courses.
Achieved:
- 4× Highers (BBBC)
- 1× Advanced Higher (C)
Whilst at Ross High School I also did in-class support, I taught lessons to S1 Computing pupils, I was the Technical Manager in our Young Enterprise group and did paired reading
Mr Jamie Balfour
Curriculum Vitae
Summary
I am a dedicated and hardworking individual interested in computer science. I have had experience in many different fields, particularly related to the combination of technology and education. My other main interests in the field are the world wide web, design, UX and interaction design, networking and hardware, programming and the effects of technology.
Currently, I hold a BSc with a First Class Honours in Computer Science and I am studying an MSc in the same field. I run a digital agency, Jambour Digital ltd. which has allowed me to improve my skills in software development as well as my ability to manage others and some skills in server management.
Industrial Experience
- I have developed all websites hosted by Jambour Digital
- The idea of my own company was built on my talent for developing websites freelance
- Company focuses on web development, graphics, and consultancy and I do all areas of development
- Developed websites for car salvage companies
- Created XML phonebook system for Grandstream SIP phones using PHP and database
- Developed database-driven server monitoring application using PHP
- Re-developed websites hosted by DH Systems
- Left job to start my own company
- Worked at Maglabs in a fast-paced environment
- Generated reports on database data and fixed bugs
- Added small features to PHP-based web application service
- Honed skills in PHP, MySQL, and shell scripting
- Learned React.js and Symfony during employment
- Freelance web development involved creating websites on demand
- Utilised modern technologies such as PHP7, HTML5, and CSS3
- Transitioned from freelance work to laying the foundations for my limited company in February 2017
Teaching Experience
- Taught Computing
- Started and led the Digital Literacy for Staff course to improve staff digital skills
- Managed the Positive Behaviour Praise Card and the Hot Chocolate Friday systems
- Developed digital tools:
- Interactive slideshow engine
- Embedded online polling platform
- Online tracking and monitoring system
- Extended DragonDocs Engine for interactive worksheets
- Developed the school's internal reporting system, a data extractor and a positive praise system using C#
- Taught Computing and Digital Literacy
- School named Scotland's First Centre for Digital Excellence
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Developed digital tools:
- Slideshow engine with engaging features
- Interactive worksheets for pupils
- Lead the school's digital programme as the Digital Leader in the school
- Setup the Digital Champions programme to empower young people
- Taught Computing and Digital Literacy
- Became newly qualified teacher in August 2019 after PGDE
- Successfully completed 'Scotland's Mental Health First Aid' course (SMHFA)
- Developed a prototype online reporting system
Academic Experience
- Second-time lab assistant well-prepared for duties
- Took up two courses; the Praxis course that involved assisting with writing tips, IT help, and student professional development and the Web Programming course allowed application of web programming knowledge
- Spent two hours per week in this role
- Considered pursuing a PhD to extend academic achievements
- Accepted offer and recognized as 'outstanding candidate'
- Research focused on concerns of carers of children with autism regarding online safety
- Left PhD program in February 2017 due to financial constraints related to purchasing own house at the time
- Assisted first-year Computer Science students in the Web Design and Databases course
- Assessed students' work and provided feedback
- Contributions to course deemed valuable by lecturer and students
- Provided assistance to students and the lecturer with fresh knowledge
- Utilised HTML, CSS, PHP, and MySQL for course requirements
Voluntary Work
- I ran the Code Club at the local library offering kids under 16 an opportunity to learn to code
- Volunteered on Saturday mornings from 10 am to about 11:30 am
- I received lots of good feedback about how helpful I was and that the kids were loving the hour of code they got every Saturday
Projects
In October 2015 I began to work on my BSc Honours year project. As part of this, I developed an application to aid new web developers with web development called ClickIt. The main purpose of this was to help school children and new web developers learn HTML using a drag-and-drop system.
In October 2014 I began working on a completely new project, writing my own BlackRabbit Script in Java. I had to stop due to work and university consuming my time. In May 2015, I rewrote the whole engine. This time within one week, I had written a very powerful engine that can be built upon by others too. After two months of work, it featured a mathematical parser, a logic parser and a compiler for Java code. Some of my friends and colleagues were very interested and have written programs in my language. There is much more about it on my website.
As part of my own website development and moving away from using third party plugins, I decided to invent my own plugins that can easily be reused. I call this group of plugins my Web Independently Styled Project (WISP) and it consists of a slideshow, responsive navigation bar, PHP comment system, a content management system and much more.
This project is a personal project to build the best content management system out there! In July 2017, the project was renamed DASH and was rebuilt from the ground up. My CMS is designed from the ground up to integrate with any website and make it easy to use. DASH is used on my own website and it is constantly receiving updates to make it better and better.
My personal website is one of my biggest achievements. In April 2010 I had an idea that it would be good to share what I know with the world. Because of this, I decided to open a website dedicated to both professional work and my personal life. My website went through a major refurbishment in June 2013. My website is built with my skills in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP and MySQL.
My SED command generator page is the most popular in any search engine.
I took up a programming hobby due to my interest. I have developed products such as an imaging/graphics application, a web browser and an easy-to-use programming language. Nowadays, I develop several large personal projects, but I also help others by writing programs to automate things for them.
