About me
Software Engineer and Avid Weightlifter
Kai (James) Chen
Software Engineer & Web Developer from Los Angeles, CA
I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in May of 2017 with a BS in Economics, Concetration in Marketing, and a minor in Music. I stumbled upon software development while I was practicing for an interview and never stopped coding since. I joined App Academy on January 15, 2018 to further my knowledge in web development building key skills in Ruby, Ruby on Rails, SQL, React, Redux, and Javascript. By July 2018, I have found a wonderful opportunity at SYRDEC (Surany Research And Development, LLC.) and have been improving my skills in SQL, Node, React, Redux, and Javascript. Additionally, I have learned python, some basic machine learning using scikit-learn, Angular, Typescript, and PHP. Recently, I have been working happily at Capital One, working with a little bit of everything from DevOps in AwS to fullstack to data management. I got an the AWS Solutions Architect Certification during my time here.
Apart from code, I enjoy playing golf and have been playing since freshmen year high school. At the peak of my golf career, I was ranked top 25 in the nation and played varsity golf on the UPenn golf team. Currently, I am happily married with one dog and am digging into technical analysis for the stock market. I love challenging myself in all aspects of my life and I am always down to embrace a new adventure.
Skills & Expertise
My skills:
I started my programming career learning Ruby, making the step forward to Ruby on Rails and SQL. With Ruby on Rails, I took another step forward and learned about its full stack applications. In this process, I picked up React.js and Redux as well as CSS/HTML. I loved React.js because of how it saves a lot of resources such as time and memory by making my web applications single pages with different components re-rendering. My full skill list is: JavaScript (ES6), jQuery, React, Redux, Python, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, SQL, HTML5, CSS3, AWS, XLStat, Git, RSpec, Cypress, Angular, PHP, TypeScript, AWS Cloud Architecture, Database Design.
Work Experience
My previous and current associations
Oct, 2021
Capital One
Senior Associate - Software Engineer
Manage deployment and production pipelines for the team application
Create scalable systems that utilize AWS architecture
Create product features using Angular and Vue
Create Lambdas in Python
Create Backend APIs and data processing in Java
Aug, 2018
SYRDEC (Surany Research and Development, LLC.)
Software Engineer
Designed and Implemented the user interface of one of SYRDEC's larger company projects, SAFIRE. Implemented UI two different stacks: MongoDB, Express, React/Redux, Node (MERN) & Angular, PHP, Express (APE)
Working on machine learning engine to improve AGILE development via requirement quality assessment and ontology mapping. Currently using NLP and scikit-learn to create classifiers for project types.
Also implemented basic natural language processing using NLTK and created a specified Chatbot for the company's user interface using Naive Bayes and a 4 layer sequential model for intent classification
May, 2018
App Academy
Hacker In Residence
Conducting both technical and non-technical interviews as well as mock interviews for prospective students
Instructor of JumpStart Program teaching beginning programmers Ruby in person as well as help online through the Alpha Curriculum for admitted App Academy students
June, 2017
TransAmerica
Associate
Showed clients the benefits of life insurance
Obtained California Life-Insurance License
October, 2016
University of Pennsylvania
Assistant Manager
Managed dorm key inventory, provided lock-out keys / sign-ins for students and guests, conducted fire safety drills, put in work-orders on behalf of students for broken utilities
Evacuated all students from their dorms during a fire crisis, coordinated the fire department as well as the upper staff via phone calls and made for an effective, no-casualties evacuation of all the students
June, 2015
University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School)
Intern
Wharton School - Worked under Dr. Gwendolyn Gordon to research indigenous wine companies in New Zealand for a paper to be published in the Penn Law School Journal
June, 2014
Morgan Stanley Huaxin
Intern
Researched equity incentives for small businesses and presented business expansion proposals drawn from my research to the top managers
Organized and coordinated fellow interns to work on different aspects of their projects in relation to their strengths, making our group the most efficient of the other groups
Education & Diplomas
Graduated from the University of Pennsylvania
January, 2018
Web Development
App Academy
Experience With: Ruby, Ruby on Rails, SQL, Javascript, React, Redux, Amazon Web Services, Paperclip, Fullstack development
August, 2013
Bachelor of Science: Economics
University of Pennsylvania, Wharton Business School
Concentration in Marketing, Minor in Music
Part of Wharton China Association 2014 - 2015
Key Courses: Digital Marketing, Negotiations, Consumer Behavior, Market Researh
Experience With: XLStat, Amazon MTurk