Kai Widdeson
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About Me
    • (Desired) Job: Software Developer 💻 / Front-End Engineer 👨‍💻
    • Qualifications: 1st Class MEng Computer Science @ Durham University 🏰
    • Field of Interest: Front-end development, Data analytics, Machine learning, Recommender systems, and Software development

    Here are a few of my interests away from the screens:
    • 100km Ultramarathon Runner 🏃‍♂️
    • Self-Published Fiction Author 📖📚 and Newsletter writer 🧾 (Pss... click here)
    • Collingwood Pool 'A' Team Captain & College Captain (6 Teams, 50+ Players) 🎱
    • (Barely) Surfing 🏄‍♂️
Education
Durham University (Collingwood College)
Grade: 1st Class (78%)
Subjects: MEng Computer Science - Software Engineering, Networks and Systems, Software Methodologies, Theory of Computation, Computational Complexity, Bioinformatics, Recommender Systems, Parallel Scientific Computing, Algorithmic Game Theory, Codes and Complexity, Deep Learning and Reinforcement Learning, Computational Modelling in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Multimedia and Game Development, Programming Paradigms, Mathematics for Computer Science, Algorithms and Data Structures, Computational Thinking, Computer Systems, Programming.
Notable achievements: Master's Project accepted to the AICCSA 2022 Conference, Abu Dhabi, 2nd and 4th Year Awards for Outstanding Achievement
Hartismere High School & Sixth Form
Grade: AAA(A) [A-Level] | 8A* 3A 2B [GCSE]
Subjects: Further Mathematics, Mathematics, Physics, (Computing)
Notable achievements: Head Boy, A* EPQ in Quantum Cryptography, Head of Yearbook and Prom Committees, Represented in 5 sports
Experience
Developer Graduate - Barclays
August 2022 - Present
  • Constructing a custom API to integrate Jira Xray and Specflow
  • Currently working on developing Hedge Accounting systems for the bank using C# and .NET.
  • Spearheading behaviour-driven development
Summer CTO Developer Intern - Barclays
Summer 2021
  • Developed report automation processes which improved data quality and team efficiency using JIRA Kanban rules and domain model documentation. Presentations to the CTO Leadership led to a formal recognition for Excellence. Received all maximum performance gradings in final review
  • Created an automated metrics dashboard to allow for easier and more accurate progress tracking and reporting
  • Developed architecture diagrams for management visualization
Summer Front-End Developer Intern - Barclays
Summer 2020
  • Successfully completed a front-end Barclays iPortal website using React and SCSS
  • Used a GitFlow methodology with extensive testing and best practices for components, enabling compatibility with existing systems
  • Received all maximum performance gradings in final review
Student Project - Dream Heritage
Winter 2019 - Spring 2020
  • This was a University group project where we were the only group whose client presentation was added to the department YouTube channel as a demonstration of excellence
  • Developed the front-end of the Beaurepaire Priory website
  • Wrote a complete user manual for the final deliverable to ensure value to the client and allow for future developments
Student Work Experience - Geckoboard
Summer 2015
  • Student work experience which involved developing the Geckoboard site to include tutorials for improved customer support
  • Assisted finance management with generating spending reports
  • Attended daily scrum meetings and was introduced to Agile methodologies
In addition to the relevant professional experience above, I have also been a: Website developer volunteer, manual labourer, cafe front-of-house, kitchen porter, college receptionist, entrance exam volunteer, and private tutor.
Skills
Python
HTML/CSS
React
Javascript
SQL
Java
C#
C
Portfolio
FFM-SVD: A Novel Approach for Personality-Aware Recommender Systems
Master's Project (89%), Accepted to AICCSA 2022 Conference, Abu Dhabi
GTA Movie-Human Style Trasfer
Utilised a Mask-RCNN, OpenPose, and CycleGANs
WebGL Living Room
An interactive living room created with WebGL
Gravitar Reinforcement Learning
A (Double) Duelling DWN with multistep learning, noisy layers, prioritised experience replay with a target network, and loss of life penalty
DCGAN Pegasus Generator
A custom DCGAN operating on CIFAR-10 and STL-10 datasets to generate images of Pegasi by combining horses, planes, and birds
Testimonials
Krishna Vinjamuri - Barclays CTO of Cards & Payments and Connected Platforms
'Excellent work in defining and implementing a number of improvements to the Jira model and generating F2B automated reports - releasing capacity for the teams. Thank you Kai for your outstanding contribution in delivering these improvements for the team'
Tung Nhon Du - Barclays Lead UI Developer
'Kai is refreshingly curious about technology and is always keen to learn new approaches. I am sure his positive attitude will be a great advantage in his next engagements. He can be extremely proud of his achievements at Barclays. I'd like to thank Kai for his great effort and wish him all the best for the future.'
Contact