Hello, I am Neil Woodhouse. I am a recent Computer Science MSci graduate, Freelance developer, and amateur photographer.
Work Experience
Teaching Assistant
Swansea University
I am curently working part-time as a teaching assistant for Swansea University, helping teach basic Object-Oriented Programming, Software Testing techniques, and Functional Programming to first and second year students.
Computing Tutor
Freelance
In August 2020, I did weekly digital tutoring sessions for a GCSE Computing student. This work mainly centred around teaching them Python 3, along with core principles of how to break down problems into implementable steps.
Web Developer
Allendale Holidays
Over the summer of 2020, I worked part-time on a rebuild of the website 'www.allendale-holidays.co.uk', for Allendale Caravan Park.
For this job I designed and deployed a website for the consumer's specification, featuring
a product catalogue, image gallery, blog, and online store. This site was built using Joomla CMS and deployed to a Linux hosting solution.
During development, I used a local server running on a virtual Ubuntu environment,
using VMWare Player.
More Info
Fibre Optic Networking
B4RN
In February 2018, I did a week's work experience with B4RN, a community fibre optic builder and ISP based in Lancashire that builds gigabit+ networks in rural areas.
I worked with full-time employees on deploying new areas
of network,blowing and splicing fibre optic cabling, and walking new customers through the service contract. I also worked on configuring new switches to be deployed to distribution cabinets, and learnt about the organisation
structure, working in a team at a small company.
I continued working with B4RN in early 2019 and summer 2020, through volunteering with the B4AV partner project in my local area in Northumberland. This led to the network
beginning to go live in August 2020 before my return to University.
Education
Computer Science MSci - 1st
Swansea University
I am currently in my 4th Year of a Computer Science integrated masters at Swansea University.
My average grade over the last 3 years is 76%.
A-Levels
Queen Elizabeth High School, Hexham
Physics - B
Economics - C
Mathematics - D
GCSEs
Queen Elizabeth High School, Hexham
Computing - A*
Physics - A*
Chemistry - A
Maths - 8
English Language - 5
English Literature - 6
History - A
Electronics - A
German - A
Extracurricular Experience
BAE Systems CTF
In 2022, I entered a one-day CyberSecurity Capture the Flag event organised by BAE Systems Applied Intelligence.
I competed with a team to extract flag tokens from vulnerable target systems using a variety of tools and techniques, ranging from SQL injections to binary exploits. More Info
Google HashCode
For the past three years, I've taken part in Google HashCode, competing to solve optimisation problems in a 4-hour international competition with a team of friends. It has provided valuable experience in group development on a tight timescale and incremental problem-solving. More Info
Festival of Code
I took part in the Festival of Code, organised by Young Rewired State, in 2014 and 2015. This involved a week of working in a team to create a web application, making use of open data sets, in local event centres, At the end of
the week, the teams would gather at a national centre to present our finished application to a panel of judges and hundreds of other participants.
For these competitions I did front end development in HTML and
CSS, along with Javascript to interface with OpenStreetMaps. For the back-end development, we wrote a web server in Python 2.7, making use of the Flask library, and used an SQL database to store our datasets.
These
events also gave me experience in working to an immovable deadline, and helped improve my presentation skills and confidence, through presenting technical details to hundreds of other developers.
More Info
Recent Languages
Java
Python
C#
C++
Dart
Recent Technologies
Docker
Django
Git
Laravel
Nginx
Hobbies
I like reading, mainly Sci-fi and fantasy novels, along with an eclectic mix of tabletop TTRPG rulebooks, technical documents, and news.
I've spent an embarrassing amount of time in a variety of games, mainly grand
strategy and RPGS, often spending more time getting mods to play nice with each other than actually playing the game.
When I have some time to spare, I like to do a bit of amateur photography and occasional digital drawing.