My role is to lead 6 technical associates to host
hackathon, workshops, and guest-speaking events. So far we have created a treasure hunt orientation event for new students. I also took part in outreach efforts by contacting potential sponsors for our upcoming hackathon. Currently, I am involved on a rebranding campaign, a redesign of the website, and creating an end-to-end web development course for students.
Going back to Vietnam for summer, I searched for internships. Then I came across TRG and applied in
the Standard Operation Procedure Intern position.
Despite being in the HR department, I joined with goal to learn soft-skills and understand how a
company works. Spoiler alert! I earned the title "Star Intern" π. I tried my best to look for further opportunities within my work, which pushes me to
represent TRG in 2 career fairs, onboard new
interns, and interview incoming interns. Notably, I used my
programming skills to create a Python app to simulate git-diff
functionality for Word document. This allows me to work more efficient since offline Word document
drived me crazy with their version control. Moreover, I built a virtual agent that sends event notifications for up to 150+ employees. I helped a colleague by automating address geocoding and compiling geospatial datasets for map visualizations. And one funny thing is that I hosted Q/A sharing session between the CEO and 20+ interns. Why did this happen? I was the only intern to message the CEO asking for a coffee chat!
I participated in WallyHacks 2025, a one-day hackathon focused on
sustainability in urban environments. Our team, the Red Hats Hackers, won second
place!
Our project, the Street Roamer S3000, is a sensor-driven prototype that
detects flickering streetlights and uneven sidewalks to support real-time urban maintenance, reduce
energy waste, and improve safety. We used a photoresistor for flicker
detection, a gyroscope to measure tilt and road bumps, and an ultrasonic sensor for obstacle avoidance, all integrated using C++. I contributed by developing and fine-tuning the sensor code,
organizing the circuitry, and creating both the presentation slides and final
project video.
After getting used to life in Canada, I volunteered to be a note-taker for 2
courses. I also came to weekly office hours to help other students,
and made 507 online contributions in one Computer Science course alone.
Each week, I would spend time to mentor my friends in Python for their
other coding courses.
I flied to Canada on my 19th birthday. Life in university was full of excitement and unexpected turns.
From making new friends to being taken to the hospital
after one month here. And from being suspected cheating to forgeting to answer 2 full pages in my
final exam. I still ended up with a 3.9 CPGA, which is in the Dean's List Scholar.
I am currently creating an app that allows me to quickly customize my resume quickly so I can send out resumes rapidly to job posts! I learnt how to use WebSockets to make smooth UI/UX interactions.
I was wondering how many study spots are there at UTM, and whether there is a list of these places out there. But there is none! Thus, I wanted to created an app that allows students to view all of the study spots. I also thought it would be cool to make the map 3D!
I added in real-time dynamic lighting/weather effects that will change according to the live data of Mississauga. I also manually modeled 80+ campus locations by hand using Mapbox GL and custom GeoJSON data. I learnt how to secure user access with JWT-based auth and Django session. Moreover, I included a routing system where user can see the path to get from one location to the other. Lastly, for now, the user can input there own custom spots too! I am still working on the project so there will be more to come!
I was curious cloud infrastructure. So I build a simple but powerful image gallery web app using
FastAPI. The app allows users to join galleries, upload images, and view or delete existing images in
real-time.
I store all images in Amazon S3, serve them globally through CloudFront CDN for faster load times,
and deploy it using an EC2 instance configured with nginx. There is also a client-side image
compression using the Canvas API. Additionally, I set up a daily image cleanup process using AWS Lambda and DynamoDB, which automatically removes expired images to keep the storage efficient and organized. This project helps me understand RESTful API design, cloud deployment workflows, and performance optimization with caching and compression.
SOP-ify
Python-Flask, python-docx, watchdog
Version control on Word offline sucks. So I make a Flask application to help me with determining what
changes have been made, to assist me with my tasks as a SOP Intern at TRG International.
I learn about polling techniques which allows me to display changes in real-time, and I use watchdog
library to let the app integrate with my OS system, which lets it run in the background as I edit
the documents.
I was struggling with time management. So I build a full-stack scheduling web app using Django
back-end and vanilla HTML/CSS/JS for front-end.
This app allows users to create multiple customizable timetables, mark their availability, and share
public guest links for others to book meetings. I build RESTful API endpoints to handle CRUD
operations. More specifically, this project helps me strengthen my skills in database design, more
standardized API practices, and smooth communications between the server and clients.
I wanted to avoid being flooded with job posts. This app helps you find the latest jobs by scraping
Google, Linkedin, and Indeed based on input queries.
It collects and displays the most relevant, high demand technologies, along with other statistics,
with addition of natural language processing algorithms. I also use Django's authentication and
permission system for access control. There is an option for users to input their resume, and the
app will produce a cover letter that matches different jobs immediately. All of the job postings are
stored as a PostgreSQL database online via Supabase. The app is then deployed using EC2.
Youtube as a Service π
Python-Django, HTML/CSS/JS-Tailwind, PostgreSQL, Google Cloud Platform,
AWS-S3, OpenCV, Numpy
I wanted to explore more. I notice Youtube allows users to have unlimited video uploads, thus, I try
to find a loophole, which I find out
that I can convert any files into binary, then match those binary values into specific pixel colors
(e.g 00 is red, 01 is blue). These pixel colors are placed into a grid of 480x270 pixels in order.
When the grid gets full, it continues onto a new one. These grid images are then compiled into a
video with 24 fps. The video finally will be uploaded to Youtube. And users can upload as many video
files, thus it allows unlimited storage. I make a decompression algorithm such that we can
redownload the video, tune resolutions, and retrieve the bits values. These bits are then recompiled
back to the original file, with a 99.9% accuracy!
Resume Builder
Python, LaTeX, OpenAI, Jinja, Tkinter, PyQt5, OOP
I took what I've learnt in class about OOP to create my first personal project. This tool combines
both CLI and Tkinter+PyQt5 for the interface, which takes in a resume and a job description, then uses
textract to extract keywords.
These keywords are sent to OpenAI API to produce key bullet points. These sentences are combined
with Jinja and LaTeX to then output a newly formatted PDF resume. The new resume ensures keywords
are incuded to improve ATS scores. The user may also change the document after if needed. A simple
PostgreSQL database is used to store all the resumes and job descriptions locally.
I started finding summer jobs and ended up as a private tutor. I taught English to 1 student
and Math to 4 students, some were in person and others were online on Preply.
I started my own club with 2 friends. We instructed 20+ students on how to
use CAD software such
as Fusion360, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, etc.
Students asked for our help to produce 3D printed acrylic products. Some
others wanted to design with plywood (one student chose to make a real-size
knife!)
I collaborated with a team of five to develop a social enterprise start-up focused on creating special braille books, and won 3rd place!
Our product combined textured materials with a built-in digital voice-over, offering visually impaired users both a physical and auditory reading experience. I played a key role in shaping our business model, coming up with potential designs, and conducting market research to ensure the productβs relevance and impact.
My best friend dared me to perform on stage which him, which I did. In total I have performed 5 times on stage, with 2000+ audiences.
My first rap song is "Com Tam Rap" during Vietnamese Tet Holiday at school.
Following that is another rap song "Song Cho Het Doi Thanh Xuan" and dance performance during BISHCMC International Day. Lastly, I performed "Di Ve Nha" with my best friend in the 2024 Tet Holiday, and did 1 solo
performance "Lop 13" on my own in that same event.
I helped students with their weekly homework.
These sessions were hosted by the school and it can reach up to 30+ students.
At the end of the year, I remembered being the only student who received gifts from
students. I was given chocolate bars, a hand-written note, and coffee.
I hosted 3 welcoming events for students and parents from up to 50+ nationalities. I introduced 150+ guests to the
subject through live-actions, presentations, and
interactive 3D softwares.
We used Fusion360, Adobe Illustrator, and techniques such as aluminium die-casting, acrylic printing, wood-working, etc. After each
event, the head techer always gave me a bar of
chocolate to say thank you.
I joined a team of 8 to teach secondary students how to design clay products, totebags, bracelets, and many more hand-made ideas.
All students really enjoyed the club, some of them even asked me to add friend them on
Facebook! Following that, we took the hand-made products to sell them at 3
seasonal events and
generated $1,200+ in revenue.
I started with editing Minecraft videos on Filmora. In 2021, I took video
editing more seriously
and started learning Adobe Premiere and After Effects. Finally, it paid off
in summer of 2022
where one video blew up,
reaching 10,000 views in a few days. Then I had videos with 100,000 views, finally 500,000
views, then the video that I spent 30 hours editing, peaked at 600,000
views.
I attended class about pencil portrait drawing and adopted this hobby from
then on. I loved to draw movie actors, models, and even abstract drawings. My art can be found in my
Instagram: @notjackl3.
