Introduction
My name is Chris Bridges and I’m completing my Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at Southern New Hampshire University. When I started this program, I had an interest in technology, but I didn’t fully understand how to design, structure, and evaluate software at a professional level. Through coursework and projects, I developed technical skills and a better understanding of how systems are built, secured, and maintained. I’ve grown from creating simple C# console apps to creating full stack web applications using enterprise level cloud services. Building this ePortfolio has helped me step back and see how much I’ve grown. It highlights not only what I built, but how my knowledge and experience have improved. How I went from simply writing functional code to designing and deploying secure and scalable systems. I plan to continue my academic journey with a master’s degree with an end goal of a Doctor of Engineering degree.
Collaborating in a Team Environment
During this course, I created a code review for an assignment from a previous class. I used OBS Studio to capture the audio and video and uploaded the video to YouTube for review. Code reviews are important for analyzing code for functionality, efficiency, and identifying potential areas of improvement in both functionality and security. Using Visual Studio with Git and GitHub promotes collaboration in many ways. Collaborators can view your commits and commit messages at a high level, while effective documentation and inline comments show your codes intent and functionality. I’ve made many software design choices during this assignment and maintain UI/UX best practices whenever possible.
Communicating with Stakeholders
As previously mentioned, I used OBS Studio to create a code review for a past assignment and uploaded it to YouTube. I made note of all the improvements and vulnerabilities I wished to address when recreating this assignment as a full stack web application. While the code review was informal, I used appropriate language specific to my audience without too much jargon.
Data Structures and Algorithms
This program has improved my foundation in algorithmic thinking and problem solving. I learned to break complex problems into smaller components using pseudocode before creating the full implementation. These skills help me create cleaner and more effective code. Understanding time complexity, data structure selection, and tradeoffs changed how I view development. Rather than choosing something because it works, I now consider efficiency, scalability, maintainability, and security. Over time, I became more confident with different approaches and explaining why one solution would be better for a particular scenario.
Software Engineering and Database Design
My capstone project represents the best example of my development as a software engineer. I transformed an earlier project into a more complete, full-stack web application, improving structure, expanding functionality, and strengthening database integration. Through this process, I applied software development lifecycle principles, including planning, testing, refactoring, and documentation. I made architectural decisions that separated frontend and backend responsibilities, improved data handling, and supported scalability. In database design, I learned how to structure collections effectively and manage CRUD operations. I also gained experience working with cloud hosted database services, which introduced real world deployment considerations beyond local development. Enhancing an existing system rather than starting from scratch challenged me to evaluate legacy design decisions and improve.
Security
Throughout my academic career at SNHU, security has always been a priority. Learning the proper way to implement input validation, password hashing, and encryption has been my favorite part of coding. Using requirements to find the best methods for security while keeping accessibility, cost, and efficiency is important for any developer. Proper testing to find, document, and remove potential vulnerabilities ensures that risk is mitigated and a functional and secure product is delivered. Creating modular functions for validation and security could increase productivity and improve maintainability.
Summary
The artifact I chose to demonstrate cohesively blends all 3 enhancements: Software design and engineering, algorithms and data structure, and databases into a full stack web application. I reviewed legacy code from a previous Python assignment and created a modern solution using similar functionality but with cloud services and API calls. The capstone project allowed me to demonstrate my growth in system design, security awareness, documentation and communication, and how my technical skills have improved.