Hi, I'm Chris, but please, call me ...

CJ

I build  |

School of Code & IBT Learning Graduate — crafting clean, modern web experiences that people actually enjoy using. Now on my AI journey with Netcom and from there onto Teaching those the skills I've learned.

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About Me

Turning ideas into reality

I'm a full-stack developer and proud School of Code graduate. Across 28 weeks of intensive training — 13 at School of Code and 15 with IBT Learning — I went from HTML basics to building full-stack applications and designing polished UX/UI experiences. I'm currently deepening my expertise further with Netcom Training's Intel AI for the Current Workforce programme.

I love the intersection of clean code and great design. Whether it's a pixel-perfect UI or a robust backend API, I care deeply about building things that work beautifully.

28+ Weeks Training
30+ Projects Built
20+ Technologies
1 Live Product
CJ
School of Code SoC Graduate
IBT Learning IBT Graduate
Netcom Training Netcom In Progress

What I Know

My Toolkit

Technologies and practices I've worked with across the stack.

Frontend

Responsive Design

Component Architecture

State Management

Web Accessibility

Performance Optimisation

✦

Backend

REST APIs

JWT Authentication

OAuth

Database Design

Server-Side Rendering

✦

UX / UI Design

Wireframing

Prototyping

User Research

Accessibility (WCAG)

Design Systems

✦

Data & AI

Tableau

No-Code Tools

AI Workflows

Prompt Engineering

Data Visualisation

✦

Dev Practices

Test-Driven Development

Agile / Scrum

CI/CD

Pair Programming

Code Review

Languages & Tools I've Worked With

What I've Built

Featured Projects

A curated selection of the work I enjoyed creating / CoCreating

Companion Cove background Companion Cove
In Development

Companion Cove

A local-first AI companion app that runs entirely on your own machine — no subscriptions, no cloud. Chat with customisable AI characters powered by Ollama, with optional voice via Kokoro TTS, voice input via faster-whisper, and AI-generated character images through InvokeAI.

SvelteKit Bun Hono Ollama TypeScript
🚀

NASA Explorer

An interactive space exploration app pulling live data from NASA's public APIs — Astronomy Picture of the Day, Mars Rover imagery, and near-Earth object tracking.

JavaScript NASA API Fetch API Async/Await
GitHub →
⚔️

SnippetSamurai

A full-stack collaborative platform for saving, tagging and sharing code snippets. Built with a team — from user research and wireframes all the way to a deployed product.

React Node.js Express PostgreSQL
GitHub →
1Source

1Source

A unified resource hub designed to consolidate learning materials, tools, and references into a single accessible platform for developers and students.

UX/UI Design Figma Prototyping
GitHub →

My Learning Path

My Journey

Three programmes. Every step documented.

Phase 1: Foundations Phase 2: Broadening Phase 3: Full-Stack Capstone
Week 1 Foundations

HTML, CSS & JavaScript 101

Dived into the building blocks of the web — variables, loops, functions, DOM manipulation, and version control with Git.

HTML CSS JavaScript Git
🌱
🌐
Week 2 Foundations

DOM & Fetch API

Mastered async JavaScript — Promises, async/await, and the Fetch API. Built dynamic pages that react to real-time data.

DOM API Async JS Promises Fetch
Week 3 Broadening

UI/UX Design Thinking

Learnt user-centred design, wireframing and prototyping in Figma. Discovered that great software starts with great empathy.

Figma Wireframing UX Research
🎨
⚙️
Week 4 Broadening

Node.js & Express

Flipped to the server side — built REST APIs with Express, handled routing, middleware, and environment config.

Node.js Express REST Middleware
Week 5 Broadening

Databases & PostgreSQL

Designed relational schemas, wrote SQL queries, and connected a live database to an Express backend end-to-end.

PostgreSQL SQL Schema Design
🗄️
🧪
Week 6 Broadening

Testing & TDD

Embraced Test-Driven Development — writing unit and integration tests with Jest before touching implementation code.

Jest TDD Unit Tests Integration
Week 7 Full-Stack

React Fundamentals

Learnt the React mental model — components, JSX, props, state, and the virtual DOM. Built interactive UIs declaratively.

React JSX State Props
⚛️
🪝
Week 8 Full-Stack

Advanced React

Deep-dived into hooks — useState, useEffect, useContext — custom hooks and managing side effects elegantly.

Hooks useEffect Context API
Week 9 Full-Stack

Group Project — SnippetSamurai

First team project — built a code snippet platform from scratch. Agile sprints, code review, and real collaborative Git workflows.

React Express PostgreSQL Agile
🗡️
🔐
Week 10 Full-Stack

Authentication & Security

Implemented JWT auth, OAuth2 flows, and bcrypt password hashing. Learnt about common web vulnerabilities and how to defend against them.

JWT OAuth bcrypt Security
Week 11 Full-Stack

Deployment & DevOps

Shipped to the cloud. Set up CI/CD pipelines, environment configs, and learnt the joy (and occasional pain) of production deploys.

CI/CD Cloud Deploy Monitoring
🚀
✨
Week 12 Full-Stack

SnippetSamurai — Refined

Polish sprint — performance improvements, features from user feedback, hardened security model, presented to an industry panel.

Performance UX Polish Code Review
Week 13 Capstone

Capstone & Graduation

Final showcase. Presented work to employers and industry professionals. Graduated as a full-stack developer ready to build real things in the real world.

Full-Stack Showcase Graduate 🎓
🎓
Module 1–2: Foundations Module 3: Research Module 4–5: Design Module 6: Graduation
Module 1 Foundations

The Basics of UX & UI

Explored the what and why of UX/UI — the roles, the people, the process, and the tools. Built a familiarity with the design world before touching a single pixel.

UX Principles Design Roles Process
🧭
🤝
Module 2 Foundations

Approaching Projects

Learnt how to read a brief, define project scope, and collaborate effectively in teams. First hands-on time with Miro for ideation and Figma for design.

Briefs & Scope Miro Figma Teamwork
Module 3 Research

Research Methods

Conducted desk research, comparative analyses, and design audits. Applied heuristic evaluation and platform guidelines (HIG / Material Design). Built personas from user interviews and surveys, then synthesised findings into actionable insights.

User Interviews Personas Heuristics Surveys
🔍
🗺️
Module 4 UX Design

UX Design

Learnt to design with empathy and applied the Laws of UX. Mapped out information architecture, journey maps, user flows, and feature lists — then progressed from rough sketches to lo-fi and hi-fi wireframes.

Wireframes User Flows IA Laws of UX
Module 5 UI Design

Visual & UI Design

Dived into the craft of visual design — colour theory and psychology, typography, iconography, and illustration. Turned UX wireframes into polished, UI-ready screens.

Colour Theory Typography Iconography Figma
🎨
Module 6 Graduation

Graduation Project

Applied everything across all six modules to a self-directed final project — full research, UX flows, and a polished UI prototype showcased as a portfolio piece.

Figma User Research Prototyping Graduate 🎓
🎓
Level 100: Foundations Level 200: Technical Level 300: Venture
L100 · 1–2 Foundations

AI in Business & Project Initialisation

Explored how AI is reshaping industries and learned how to frame, scope, and kick off an AI project from a business perspective.

AI Strategy Project Scoping
🤖
📊
L100 · 3–5 Foundations

Data Analysis, ML & Deep Learning

Introduction to data analysis pipelines, the fundamentals of machine learning models, and how deep neural networks learn from data.

Data Analysis Machine Learning Deep Learning
L100 · 6–7 Foundations

Generative AI & Prompt Engineering

Learned how generative models work and how to craft effective prompts to get reliable, high-quality outputs from AI systems.

Generative AI Prompt Engineering LLMs
✨
📈
L100 · 8–10 Foundations

AI Project Building, Data Visualisation & Business Proposal

Built an end-to-end AI project, visualised results for business stakeholders, and produced a formal AI Business Project Proposal.

AI Projects Data Viz Business Case
L200 · PF 1–4 Technical

Programming Fundamentals 1–4

Covered core programming concepts applied to AI workflows — variables, data structures, control flow, and functions in Python.

Python Programming Data Structures
🐍
📍
← Currently Here
L200 · PF 5 Technical

Programming Fundamentals 5

Advanced programming patterns and techniques — working towards completing the full programming fundamentals series.

Python In Progress
L200 · CV 1–6 Technical

Computer Vision 1–6

Six-part series covering image recognition, object detection, and building CV models for real-world applications.

Computer Vision Image Recognition Pending
👁️
💬
L200 · NLP 1–7 Technical

Natural Language Processing 1–7

Seven-part series exploring text analysis, sentiment analysis, language models, and building NLP-powered applications.

NLP Text Analysis Pending
L200 · IoT 1–2 Technical

Internet of Things 1–2

Connecting AI to the physical world — sensors, devices, and integrating IoT data into AI-driven systems.

IoT Sensors Pending
📡
💡
L300 · 1–2 Venture

Generating AI Business Ideas & Customer Discovery

Ideate viable AI ventures and validate them by listening to prospective customers to understand real problems worth solving.

Ideation Customer Discovery Pending
L300 · 3–4 Venture

MVP Testing & Business Model

Test a Minimal Viable Product with real users and build out a sustainable business model around the AI venture.

MVP Business Model Pending
🧪
🚀
L300 · 5–6 Venture

Venture Funding & Pitching

Explore funding options and financing strategies, then deliver a compelling pitch for the AI venture to investors and stakeholders.

Fundraising Pitching Pending

Get In Touch

Let's build something together

I'm open to new opportunities — full-time roles, freelance projects, or just a good conversation. Drop me a message.