Hello,
my name is James Kan and this is my life

About Me

Hi! The name is James. I am currently working as an intern software developer in the Asset Intelligence department at Unison (New Zealand), with the aim of becoming a full-stack developer eventually. You can count on me to format my code nicely (I love my vertically lined-up nested code), write insightful reports, and talk to people fairly normally.

As part of my desire to retain and upskill programming areas that are not used regularly, I am currently open to accepting short-term project work.

When the IT side of the brain is not being used, you may sometimes find me working as a locum pharmacist or writing a speech for the next Toastmasters meeting.

Experiences

Unison
Nov 2016 - Present
Intern Software Developer
As a summer intern, my role is around Decision Support System (DSS), a project started by the Asset Intelligence team this year (2016).

The concept of a generic decision support system (DSS) is based on harvesting and analysing business data so that business information can be derived in order to make the relevant decisions. An example is Countdown collects customers' shopping habit (data) and analyses the data to determine the purchasing choices (information) so that the planograms can be re-arranged to promote certain business objectives (decision).

DSS is about harvesting data from the wide range of sensors installed at various points of the electricity grid system so that relevant information can be compiled. This allows optimisation decisions to be made in the interest of the company's vision.

Tasks completed / in progress:
  • Creating and created a series of user views on the DSS web application via ASP.net.
  • Learning how to create data connectors to facilitate the access of information from the back-end using WebAPI.
  • Creating a data quality assessment dashboard using Power BI for the Asset Management System department. Having designed the interface to be Metro-esque, I am now concentrating on learning basic DAX so that I can further perform data manipulation.
NOW Internet / EIT
Jul 2015 - Nov 2015
Student Lead Developer
I led a team of five student developers to create a customer portal for NOW Internet. The scope was initially front- and back-ends, but due to a change in circumstances, it was later reduced to front-end.

As the team leader, I learned how to delegate sections of the projects to my teammates and how to keep track of their respective progress. As a student developer, I learned the art of "two-way traffic" between my team and the client.

Although the deliverable was not implemented as NOW Internet's replacement customer portal, the experience has given me insight into the "real world" and shown me the difference between being a programmer and a developer.

The deliverable was formally accepted on the 3rd of November 2015 by NOW Internet, with 96% being the final score.
Andrew Spence Pharmacy
2012 - 2016
Community Pharmacist
I have been working as a sole-charge pharmacist at Andrew Spence Pharmacy in Napier. Similar to my previous employment, I oversee the running of the pharmacy as a whole. My responsibilities involve counselling patients on new medications and ensuring understanding with present medicines, blister-packaging medications for patients where medicine-management difficulty arises, dispensing and checking prescriptions and providing health advice as required.
Tamatea Pharmacy
2010 - 2012
Community Pharmacist
I undertook my internship at Tamatea Pharmacy in Napier in 2011 and continued my employment as a pharmacist in 2012. As part of the daily running of the pharmacy, I was responsible for dispensing and checking prescriptions, counselling patients, giving health advice, helping patients to manage opioid addiction and blister-packaging medications. I was also involved in the Medicines Use Review programme, whereby I paid a visit to selected patients in residence to review their medications and answer any queries they had. The range of activities involved has developed me into an “all-rounder” pharmacist.
Sunshine Pharmacy
2010 - 2012
Online Pharmacy Manager
I was appointed as the webmaster of Sunshine Pharmacy, an online pharmacy based in Gisborne, New Zealand. This position involved updating the database every fortnight, optimising the website's layout, and promoting its SEO position on Google and other major search engines.
Grafton Hostel
2010
Computer Technician
I worked as a part-time computer technician at Grafton Halls of Residence in Auckland. My responsibilities included troubleshooting computer and network problems. I enjoyed the challenges this brought and the opportunity to work with a variety of people.
New Zealand
2009 - Present
NZCRS Webmaster
I am the webmaster of the New Zealand Controlled Release Society Local Chapter (NZCRS) website, whereby I ensure the web pages are up-to-date with the latest content. This includes upcoming NZCRS workshops, notices, and minutes from meetings.

This year (2016), I rebuilt the website using Foundation and AngularJS, giving a modern impression to a now responsive single-page application (SPA) website.
University of Auckland
2009 - 2010
Summer Research Student
I worked on a summer studentship research project at the University of Auckland. The objective was to investigate the risk of prostate cancer based on the patients’ genetic makeup and dietary intake. Findings were submitted to Discipline of Nutrition and Cancer Society of New Zealand at the University and presented at Nutrigenomics international conference.
School of Pharmacy
2009
APSA Webmaster
I established the new Auckland Pharmacy Students' Association (APSA) website in 2009 and was subsequently appointed as the association's webmaster. The major roles I undertook included website administration, liaison with the publication managers, and troubleshooting of technical issues that the association faced.
University of Auckland
2008 - 2009
Summer Research Student
My summer studentship research involved a project at the University of Auckland, in which the susceptibility of enlisted patients to glaucoma was investigated based on their genetic makeup. Findings were presented and accepted by the Department of Ophthalmology at the University.
University of Auckland
2007 - 2009
UALUG Webmaster
During the two-year tenure, I was the web designer and the webmaster for the University of Auckland Linux User Group website. My responsibility was to update the web pages as required.
Howick College
2006 - 2007
Ingham House Webmaster
I was the webmaster for the Ingham house, whereby I played a role in re-designing all the web pages and updating the website on a regular basis.

Education

  • 2014
    2016

    Graduate Diploma in IT

    I scored straight A+ for all completed papers, with 94% being the average score. The papers accomplished are as below

    • Introduction to Object Oriented Programming
    • Advanced Object Oriented Programming
    • Business Application Programming
    • Special Topic Programming
    • Project Management
    • Information Technology Management
    • Database Management Systems
    • Database Administration
  • 2007
    2010

    Bachelor of Pharmacy (upper second-class honours)

    I studied a variety of chemistry, biology, medicinal science, pharmacology, pharmaceutical, pharmacy practice, and law and ethics papers at School of Pharmacy (The University of Auckland). For my elective subject, I pursued the Introduction to Computer Science paper and achieved an A+

Contact

Available upon request
inbox [at] james.kiwi.nz
jameskst
Let's go for a bike ride

Essential Skills

HTML
CSS
Bootstrap
Foundation
Javascript
AJAX
ASP.net
NodeJS
AngularJS
PHP
C#
Entity Framework
LINQ
VB6
Java
SQL
Agile
Novice
Proficient
Expert
Master

Life Skills

Pharmaceutical
Communication
Problem Solving
Public Speaking
Sense of Humour
Cycling
Badminton
Swimming
Cooking
Skiing
I see
I know a bit
Hermione

Languages

English
Mandarin
Cantonese
Malay

Paper co-published

Karunasinghe N, Han D, Goudie M, Zhu S, Bishop K, Wang A, Duan H, Lange K, Ko S, Medhora R, Kan S, Masters J, Ferguson L. (2012) Prostate disease risk factors among a New Zealand cohort. J Nutrigenet Nutrigenomics 2012 (5), 339–351 | DOI: 10.1159/000346279

Hobbies

Road Cycling
Badminton
Toastmasters
Critical Thinking
Phenomenology

What am I doing these days?

I recently developed a PHP / C# system to be used by health professionals in New Zealand. The planning process involved coming up with wireframes, user stories, and UML diagrams, while MVC and TDD were taken into account during the execution phase. Having completed the application development, efforts are now concentrated on usability testing and creating an Android application to facilitate one of the work processes. Details to follow

When I am not messing around with coding, you can find me out cycling on the road in Hawkes Bay or doing a bit of cooking. On top of that, I recently cycled from Napier to Mahia (170km) in September, stayed a night there, and cycled back to Napier the next day!

Profile photo credit goes to Tsumei.com

Pro Bono

Tongan name correction (29th - 30th October 2016) - While visiting a close friend of mine in Tonga, she described her pharmacy dispensing software automatically capitalises the first letter after an apostrophe (exa'Mpl'E) for Tongan names. I developed two solutions to the problem:

  • Existing records - Upon doing a bit of user interview, I discovered Tongan names typically contain multiple apostrophes in the names (e.g. Tu'i'onefoa, Ha'ato'ou). A C# program was written, where it uses entity framework to retrieve values that contain a capital letter immediately after the apostrophe in either the first names or the last names. The values are then populated as checkbox texts, giving the user the choice of ticking the appropriate names and changing them into Tongan format (e.g. don't change O'Connell). MetroFramework was used for the purpose of aesthetic compliance with Windows 10.
  • New records - I implemented an SQL trigger that screens the insertion of new patient records for the presence of the "apostrophe - capital letter" combination. On top of that, I create a user-defined function that changes the casing of an argument into Title Case (Proper Case). With both mechanisms in place, a new patient's first and last name records are now appropriately "case-d" depending on the spelling.