About
Hello! My name is Mike and I am a software developer currently working in Manchester, England. My main area of focus is in back end development, specialising in Java, but I have skills and experience in front end development also. I am devoted to learning new technologies and producing clean code.
Perpetual refactor-er(?). Slightly obsessed with John Cooper Clarke. Probably a hipster.
like a sucked and spat-out smartie...
Work
Developer
Jisc Historical Texts and Journal Archives
June 2016 - Present
I am currently a developer at Jisc working on the Historical Texts and Journal Archives services. Historical Texts is a full text digital archive enabling users to cross-search, view and download over 350,000 texts published between the 15th and 19 th century. Journal Archives is a platform enabling users to cross-search, view and download over 3.75 million articles from various major publishers.
My role includes:
- Developing a framework/writing tools to process and index vast amounts of data into the Elasticsearch search engine that backs both services.
- Developing media processing tools to process media that is served up to users on the front end (e.g. thumbnails, zoomable images, EPUBs, plain text files).
- General service maintenance.
Skills I have developed:
- Working in an Agile environment
- Pair programming
- Using a wide range of Java technologies including JUnit, Mockito, Gradle, Maven, Guava, Apache Commons Libraries and Tomcat.
My proudest achievement to date is the contribution I made towards launching the UK Medical Heritage Library collection in Historical Texts. Check out the wall of images!
Graduate Developer
Jisc Historical Texts and Journal Archives
November 2014 - June 2016
Education
University of Liverpool
BSc (Hons). Computer Science 1st Class
2011-2014
Exposure to programming languages such as Java, C, PHP, JavaScript, Perl, Prolog, etc. fuelled my desire to pursue a career in software development.
Carmel College, St Helens
A levels in Computing [A], Maths [B] and Psychology [C]
2009-2011
Computing classes in college sparked my interest in programming (Visual Basic anyone?) and computers. This pushed me towards studying Computer Science at university.
St Cuthbert's High School, St Helens
GCSEs in 10 subjects, grades A-B, including English, Maths and IT
2004-2009
Skills
These are the technologies that I feel most confident in:
I also have experience in Elasticsearch, MongoDB, Bootstrap, jQuery and AngularJS.
Projects
Here are some projects that I've worked on in my spare time (mainly games):
Jumpy Block
libGDX Flappy Bird clone.
Blueprint Pong
libGDX Pong clone.
Snake
libGDX Snake clone.
Strimko
JavaFX puzzle.
Game of Life
JavaFX Game of Life.
Tribute Page
FreeCodeCamp project.
Check out my GitHub for more.