Today marks my final day at RREES Labs. I’ve been at the Lab for 20 months, which is almost 2 years now. During my time there I was able to expand my technical skills to become a Full-Stack Engineer, working on Frontend, Backend, Ops, and Firmware. I am thankful for the opportunites to lead teams, mentor interns, and meet up with stakeholders that helped greatly improve my social skills. Throughout my time here at RREES I look back at my growth and would like to thank everyone that has been a part of my journey.
Giving Thanks
Thank you to all current and former team members whom I’ve had the pleasure of working with at RREES.
Current Members
Brian Zhao
Brian is the senior of the group, as he joined the Lab before me working alongside Joseph Csoti. He is the Quality Control of the team, seeking perfection and gives tough but effective criticism. He taught me a valuable lesson about security and deploy keys, as well as approving my own pull request. Brian is a wonderful person to work with and I know that he’ll succeed in his PhD.
Alex Bistagne
Alex has been on the project for as long as I have. We joined at the same time as part of our Software Development Capstone. To me he is considered the Data Scientist of the group, best known for his ability to architect algorithm designs and give insight on the bigger picture. Together we would discuss many perspectives and through this process ended up with important design decisions. I wish him best of luck in his endeavors to earn his Master’s Degree and his upcoming conference.
Dylan Harootian
Dylan joined the project as a Hardware Engineer right as Michael Choi left. He is bright, determined and is an excellent communicator. I would spend time with him to discuss hardware-software integration and perform tests. I’m grateful that he taught me how to use a multimeter and read waveforms. To me he is a valuable member of the lab and indispensible as a Scrum Master, who is always punctual and organized.
Allen Liang
Allen joined back in January 2021 as an intern. He is flexible and adaptable, able to tackle even the most tedious of tasks without complaint. I mentored him in the Backend focusing on writing API endpoints and SQL queries. I am excited to see what new features RREES is able to push out with Allen. He has the potential to be an excellent thinker and hope that he is able to balance his school-life with his work-life to continue work on this project as more than an intern.
Elena Roushall
Elena joined back in January 2021 as an intern. She is independent, curious, and has an eye for design. I mentored her focusing on the Frontend to develop webpage styles and new page features. Through her independence she’s had a stunning growth rate and is able to pump out minimum viable features before the deadline. I look forward to seeing the Multi-chart and About Page in the future! She has the qualities to make an excellent senior and mentor in the future for anyone looking to onboard or learn.
Former Members
Joseph Csoti
Joseph is another senior who joined the Lab before me. He was the first Scrum Master and excellent mediator. He kept track of time to make sure that no one gets burnt out during meetings and disengages long talks into seperate meetings without offending anyone. I don’t quite understand how he did it, but I aspire for my team management to be just like his.
Michael Choi
Michael is a graduate student that finished his Master’s Degree in ECE while working at RREES. His qualities of being a kind hearted, caring, and patient team player helped him succeed as the only harware expert at the time. I am thankful that he went out of his way to deliver devices during the pandemic by driving there in person as well as staying to perform setup.
Hilal Morrar
Hillal is the first intern I ever hired and onboarded. His qualities for motivation and self-improvement were why I chose him. But as time passed his motivation died down and he left before the end of Summer. I often think back if there were better ways to do onboarding and have since improved the process with plenty of documentation and guidance.
CSE 115A Team (Fall 2020)
I supervised the 2020 CSE 115A team, a group of five students taking the same Capstone Course I graduated from. I checked in with them weekly for a Scrum update and check-in to offer any ideas or resources. They helped in a website redesign and implemented new features such as third party image storage and style theming. Through it they gained experience with working in Scrum and were able to deliver their minimum viable product of improving the website’s UI/UX.
Last but not Least
Patrick Mantey
A big thank you to Patrick Mantey for hiring me and giving me the opportunities to work with RREES Labs and expand my skills. I’ll never forget the words you told me when you chose me for my strong sense of ownership in SEADS. I enjoyed reading through all the resources you’ve provided me from Thesis papers to news articles about other companies. I found it fascinating to hear about your story of the rural country and miltary engineer on a nuclear submarine. My favorite trait about Pat is how he is down to earth which makes him a friend that is a boss.
Next Steps
I’m continuing my job hunt on LinkedIn and am planning to start a daily blog, updated weekly, and spend my freetime to work on Tettangaku. It’s a project that uses Flutter to develop mobile and web applications for non-profit logistics working with a team of Indonesians impacted by the pandemic. My goal is to become a versatile Software Engineer that can cover all bases in order to have the skills to do whatever is neccessary to fufill my bucket list.