Author Image

Hi, I am Simon

Simon McManis

Software Engineer at Displayr

I am a DevOps-minded back-end software engineer, focused on building robust infrastructure and applications. I studied the Bachelor of Engineering (Software) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and graduated with First-class Honors in June 2022

As a professional engineer, I am driven by my passion for designing creative solutions and solving challenging problems. Computer science and programming are particularly special to me because they allow me to work on exciting problems in practically any domain. I aim to deliver long term value driven by sustainable technology and collaboration.

Throughout my time at UTS, I have worked in a diversity of environments, both in teams and individually, to solve a wide variety of problems across multiple specialisations. Below are just a few past projects:

Software Development Studio

The UTS Software Development Studio is a co-curricular program that puts students in multi-year teams to build a real software project for an industry client. The studio trains students to work in dynamic teams, with a particular focus on agile methodologies.

I have been involved as both a junior and a senior. As a junior, I focused on building up skills in communication, collaboration, and problem-solving. As a senior, I took more of a leadership role, where I coordinated the agile development process and provided mentoring in both the technical and organizational aspects.

CSIRO Undergraduate Vacation Studentship

The vacation scholarship with CSIRO is a summer internship program that gives students the opportunity to collaborate with leading researchers on innovative research projects.

My experience in this program allowed me to put into practice and grow my data science and analytical skills. The creative freedom I was given allowed me to really take ownership of the project and develop the autonomy for life-long learning.

Professional

1
Software Engineer
Displayr

Oct 2022 - Present, Sydney, Australia

Responsibilities:
  • Full-stack development of Displayr and Q using Typescript and C#

Junior Software Engineer
Glam Corner

Sep 2021 - Jul 2022, Sydney, Australia

GlamCorner is Australia’s leading designer fashion rental destination providing a one-time rental service as well as a subscription offering.

Responsibilities:
  • Designed, developed, and maintained full-stack web and internal applications using Typescript and Ruby
  • Containerized and migrated core microservices to AWS Elastic Container Service using Terraform in Typescript to create infrastructure, resulting in increased scalability and availability
  • Developed end-to-end tests in TypeScript using Cypress and Cucumber, ensuring comprehensive coverage
2

3
Software Engineer Intern
Academic Event Services

Mar 2020 - Oct 2020, Sydney, Australia

Responsibilities:
  • Revamped existing user interface and reporting application by developing an interactive web application in Python using the Dash and Flask frameworks, which is currently used in production
  • Included a customizable dashboard builder and advanced visualization modules with Plotly to enhance user experience and data insights

Data Science Research Intern
Data61 (CSIRO)

Nov 2019 - Mar 2020, Sydney, Australia

Data61 is a world-leading data science research and engineering organisation that transforms and creates industries by joining academia, government, and R&D globally.

Responsibilities:
  • Researched feature selection algorithms and the application of machine learning in disease diagnosis
  • Created software in Python to rapidly generate, evaluate, and optimise machine learning pipelines
  • Re-implemented existing data-wrangling and feature selection tools from Java and Matlab into Python
4

Academic

B.E. Software Engineering (Honours) in Computer Science & Data Analytics
GPA: 6.71 out of 7
WAM: 88.57
Taken Courses
Course NameMarkGrade
Applications Programming97High Distinction
Business Requirements Modelling87High Distinction
Computing Science Studio 187High Distinction
Data Structures and Alogorithms92High Distinction
Database Fundamentals96High Distinction
Deep Learning and Convolutional Neural Networks94High Distinction
Design and Innovation Fundamentals62Pass
Discrete Mathematics91High Distinction
Engineering Communication77Distinction
Engineering Research Preparation86High Distinction
Introduction to Data Analytics94High Distinction
Introduction to Information Systems96High Distinction
Introduction to Software Development91High Distinction
Mathematical Modelling 188High Distinction
Mathematical Modelling 289High Distinction
Network Fundamentals94High Distinction
Programming Fundamentals100High Distinction
Project Management and the Professional76Distinction
Software Architecture89High Distinction
Software Development Studio A95High Distinction
Software Engineering Studio 2A87High Distinction
Software Engineering Studio 2B82Distinction
Systems Testing and Quality Management81Distinction
Theory of Computing Science95High Distinction
Web Systems92High Distinction
Awards

Dean's Merit List 2020

Awarded to the top 10 students ranked by weighted average mark (WAM) over the previous year

    Dean's List 2019, 2020, 2021

    Awarded to students achieving a >85 WAM over the previous year

      Skills

      Projects

      Chameleon
      Owner Nov 2019 - Mar 2020

      A Python toolkit for automated generation and comparison of machine learning pipelines used for researching feature selection algorithms on high-dimensional biological disease data.

      Superhot VR EEG Game Mod
      Owner Mar 2022 - Jun 2022

      An innovative virtual reality game modification for Superhot VR, leveraging advanced electroencephalogram (EEG) technology to enable players to control the game using their brainwaves by focusing their attention

      Subjects R' Us Website
      Contributor Jul 2021 - Nov 2021

      Website for students to get personalised UTS subject recommendations based on their interests, subject ratings, and subject preferences.

      Subjects R' Us Recommendation API
      Owner Jul 2021 - Nov 2021

      Recommendation API hosted in Heroku that uses a modified kNN algorithm to recommend subjects

      ProctorUTS Exam Invigilator
      Contributor Jul 2021- Nov 2021

      IoT Device Online Shop
      Owner Mar 2021- Jun 2021

      Final team project for my ntroduction to Software Development subject at UTS. A Java web application for an IoT device shop.

      LL Parser Generator
      Contributor Aug 2019 - Nov 2019

      A lexical analyser and LL(1) parser generator built in Java. Used to generate a parser from any context-free grammar with Java-like tokens.

      Should I Be Worried About This Mole?
      Owner Apr 2020 - Jun 2020

      A web-based Python application for detecting skin cancer in uploaded photos. Uses a convolutional neural network to classify images of skin lesions as cancerous or benign.

      ImPulse
      Owner Oct 2021

      Very quickly put together demo of smart alarm that forces a user to raise their heart rate to wake up.

      Web Systems ePortfolio
      Owner Aug 2021

      Simple ePortfolio website for university assignment.

      Connect Four
      Owner Jun 2021

      Terminal version of the game “Connect Four”.

      Publications

      In my summer scholarship with Data61, I created a set of Python command-line tools to rapidly generate, evaluate, and optimise machine learning pipelines. I utilised these tools to research feature selection algorithms and apply machine learning in disease diagnosis for various cancers and malaria.