Barbara Calderon

This is my first portfolio page.

Hello, my name is Barbara Calderon and I am a software engineer in Brazil and I am passionate about coding.

My goal is to work within the web developing area of Information Technology.

I'm a technology enthusiast with a special interest in time management. I crave creating something out of nothing. I also enjoy a hot cup of coffee, amateur photography, books on International Politics, Cybersecurity and Biographies, teamwork, programming, going to the movies, spending time with family & friends, travelling to different places and creating beautiful memories. I believe in the power of action, the richness within diversity, engaging with the community, equal pay for men and women, open-mindedness, and commitment to functional and well-crafted products.

Here is a part of my story.

I think it all started around the end 2019 - just a little before the Covid-19 pandemic spread worlwide. At the end of that year, I started college again: a bachelor's degree in Information Systems at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil. As I type this, I'm currently on semester number 5 - out of 9 semesters total.

Right off the bat, and as soon I was oficially enrolled in the graduation course, I went to work for Pixel Soluções Digitais - or, as we call it, just Pixel. This is the Junior Company from the two tech courses in the University: Information Systems and Computer Science. I still work there and have gathered some valuable lessons from working in the tech industry: dealing with clients, managing projects, structuring the company in order to escalate it, developing relevant tools upon which our customers could rely on, engaging in scrum and agile methodologies, working with different softwares, being responsible for entire departments, acquiring soft skills, team building, selling products and services... and making lasting friendships.

In 2020, mid-pandemic, me and 3 other Pixel members were responsible for making the remote event Pixel Init, 2nd edition, happen.

We expanded the format to encompass three main fields: Academic, Technical and Corporations. We also created the Pixelthon, a Pixel Hackathon sponsored by tech companies. It was hosted in three different days, three different weeks. All of us, Pixel members, were very proud of all the hard work we did as a team. We also had a sense of accomplishment with the results the Junior Company had achieved: views from all over Brazil; speakers who were professionals in solid tech companies or relevant scientific fields; being able to help the community connect in the fields' intersections. Group work can achieve great lengths.

Besides college and Pixel, I also took upon several projects I proposed to myself in order to acquire proficiency in some programming languages and frameworks. Initially, I started off with Python, to explore... but, also to dig a little deeper - as this was the first programming language introduced in the bachelor's curriculum. These projects helped me understand not only Python but its relation to different frameworks and their objectives. It also taught me the relevance of logic... and how fun coding actually is.

Following that, I jumped to web developing tools and frameworks. I studied some Javascript and was able to understand the language a lot more... because of Python and the Data Structures discipline I had in school. Going back to Pixel, most of our work is done using Wordpress. However, as of november 2021, we started some projects with HTML5, CSS3, Javascript and React. This is where I'm focused right now. My immediate objective now is to be able to create quality side-projects within the React framework.

I consider myself to be a fast learner.

Overall, several side projects were built - and some of them I posted here, in the projects section of this page. I uploaded most of them on Github. That's where I also store some codes required for college disciplines. By the way, I also acquired some course certificates in the proccess of studying and practicing. Some of these certificates you can check out at my Linkedin profile page in the Contact section of this website.

If you found anything here that is of value to you, drop me a message. I'll be thrilled to hear from you.

Best regards,

Barbara Calderon.