ABOUT WDI
Web Development Immersive
WDI is General Assembly’s Web Development Immersive track. Think of it as bootcamp. We certainly have. To us, immersive means all day, every day, weekends and weeknights, for 12 weeks straight. Fifteen students, completely different backgrounds, all retrained as web developers. Here is what we’ve accomplished.
HTML/CSS
We’ve covered front-end languages like HTML and CSS, HAML and SASS, and responsive design to create beautiful and intuitive layouts.
RUBY ON RAILS
We started with pure Ruby and OOP, then moved into Sinatra and Ruby on Rails, incorporating gems, RegEx, and open-source software.
JS/JQUERY/AJAX
We dived into Javascript, progressing with AJAX, JQuery, and Coffeescript, experimenting with APIs, libraries like Underscore and Ember, and testing with Jasmine.
THE FINALE
Pair programming, databases, computer science, version control, algorithms, refactoring, TDD with Rspec and so much more to bring it all together.
MEET THE DEVELOPERS
Software Engineers in the Making
ADAM RAIS
adamgoodapp.comA professional drummer with a business background, Adam first got into coding as a hobby. By the time he decided to join the WDI course, he had already developed impressive front-end skills and had spent some quality time with iOS. He is now ready to take over the world with his programming powers
ANDREA KENNEDY
Andrea has a masters degree from Cambridge University in the History of Science and previously worked as a freelance historical researcher for English Heritage. She joined WDI to become immersed in the London tech scene and to shift her career focus from the past to the future. She is project driven and excited about creating new things. With a background in research and writing, Andrea's favorite thing about coding is using words to create beautiful experiences in a completely different way.
ANKOOR PATEL
Prior to joining WDI, Ankoor was a computational materials science researcher, investigating optical and electronic materials. As an active member of London's social enterprise sector, he has also helped many organizations with their web development needs in his spare time. Ankoor enjoys finding elegant solutions to complex problems and he feels that WDI has been an effective way of enhancing his existing programming knowledge. He is looking forward to a role that further encourages these methods of learning.
ANNA HENDRE
Prior to joining WDI, Anna studied economics in Italy. Anna loves cats, reading and new experiences - and while cats were not as heavily featured as she hoped during the course, new experiences are exactly what WDI provided. Ruby wasn't the only language that Anna mastered: she also saw these twelve weeks as an opportunity to improve her English. She is moving to London and eager to find a job in the tech field, ideally with a fashion company.
Britney Jo Ludkowski
britneyjo.comChicago-born, Austin-based and passport-driven, Britney Jo relocated to London specifically for WDI. She previously worked in marketing for a telecommunications company, in addition to freelancing as a graphic designer. Having worked on numerous websites, Britney Jo decided she wanted to not just design but build entire projects on her own. She looks forward to applying her newly acquired programming skills to make functional but beautiful, intuitive and user-friendly sites.
CJ Ponti
CJ hails from NYC with a background in finance and economics. He previously worked as a private account manager for J.P. Morgan and CitiGroup, as a systems manager for Ferragamo, and as a creative director at Alexander Tedford. Since high school, CJ has been programming for fun, primarily in Javascript and Python. He enjoys the struggles involved in solving challenging problems through iteration and progressive enhancement.
Emile Denichaud
btmgmt.comEmile joined the WDI program with the goal of engineering teams within the tech sphere. He believes that new and traditional media work in harmony to create compelling narratives. Exciting things happen when aesthetics are communicated digitally in a dynamic & innovative way. Previously, Emile ran a boutique creative agency in Hong Kong & Tokyo.
James Elliott
Prior to joining the course, James worked in investment banking and commodities trading. His interest in tech and startups was ignited after running and managing a sales team of 6 people for an e-commerce startup in London. James' experience at WDI left him wanting more, and he is now looking forward to honing his new coding knowledge through a technical apprenticeship or in a business development/marketing role that incorporates programming.
James Poulter
jamesroypoulter.comJames worked in international tax for Ernst & Young for five years, achieving his chartered accountancy, before leaving to co-found his own startup, a cloud-based education platform called unilibri. He is an active member of the London tech community, attending numerous hackathons, startup weekends and conferences, and learning to code was the obvious next step. James has a love for startups and social enterprise and wants to build amazing, creative products that make an impact on people’s lives.
Jarkyn Soltobaeva
After several years in client facing roles within marketing and product development, Jarkyn grew tired of watching developers have all the fun. She decided it was time to join them and therefore, has equipped herself with skills in both front-end and back-end coding through WDI. Passionate about UI/UX, design, cycling and yoga, Jarkyn is looking forward to spending days translating great ideas into great code.
Julien Deslangles-Blanch
deslangles.comAfter a stint in diplomacy, Julien spent a few years advising multinationals on how to successfully expand their activities in Asia. While working with exciting tech companies on equally exciting projects, he decided to make a full transition into the tech field. A tech aficionado, lifelong expat and hot chocolate enthusiast, Julien loves languages; as if speaking a whole bunch of them wasn't enough, Julien joined WDI to learn a few more - this time of the programming type. And he's had such a great time coding that he will be back to teach the next WDI at General Assembly.
Luke Robertson
Luke initially studied Physics at Oxford University and graduated with a first class Masters degree. He then enjoyed a successful twelve years in equity research sales before deciding to shift direction towards his underlying passions: tech and innovation. Luke elected to join the WDI program to build coding skills and fluency in full stack web development, and has loved every minute of it. His experience in sales and relationship management maps directly on to business development roles in the tech space.
Salman Khalifa
For as long as he can remember, Salman has had an interest in programming. With a background in Computer Science, Salman flew from Bahrain to join WDI and expand his knowledge in web technologies. He has especially enjoyed the nurturing environment this program provided, and how much he has learnt about himself and working with others. Salman intends to use the momentum this course has built to constantly push himself and develop awesome stuff.
Stewart Scougall
scougs.comPrior to joining WDI, Stewart was born, raised, married, and employed in Edinburgh, Scotland. A project manager by trade, he even has an MBA to prove that he's followed the traditional big-business career path. He is now looking to combine past skills with those he's learned over the course of WDI to do something awesome! Passionate about good coffee, Stewart is also currently working on launching a social enterprise coffee project in Haiti.
Will McVay
Will studied philosophy at Durham University, which has only subsequently come in use in the context of the pub debate! Following a number of years at the Ministry of Justice, and then as a partner in a start-up physical commodities business, Will is now embarking on his third career in the exciting world of web development.. Outside of work, he enjoys music (listening), cricket (watching), standup comedy (laughing) and single-malt scotch (drinking).
Featured Projects
Coding Masterpieces
Practice makes perfect, so we put our skills to the test. Project 1 was an independent assignment: Music sharing app, GA scheduler or a Tic Tac Toe gaming platform. For Project 2 we teamed up in threes to create far more complex sites: an RSS feeder, a photo sharing app, a "cheerup" tweeting site, a dating app and a wifi sharing service. For the Final Project we were given the choice to work solo or in groups and on the topic of our choice. Below is just a small selection of some of the awesome things we’ve produced over the 12 week course.
10 seconds
Gaming App that takes you back in time to use your former self to solve puzzles.
By: Salman Khalifa
Gwenyth Herbert
Interactive site for critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Gwyneth Herbert.
By: Will McVay
EHXE
EHXE is a new way to visualise stories. Add words, photos, and sounds to capture your experiences.
By: Andrea Kennedy, CJ Ponti & James Poulter
Footsteps
Create interactive maps of your travels, blog at each stop, and share them with the world.
By: Britney Jo Ludkowski & Julien Deslangles
Breeders Duty
An app for dog lovers and professional breeders to locate rare breeds.
By: James Elliott
VAPP
Vapp helps you find good causes to support and to create your own volunteer events.
By: Ankoor Patel
HootBox
A social network allowing investment managers to share market insights with their peers.
By: Luke Robertson
Team Lines
A sport teams management app that co-ordinates the players through email and text.
By: Stewart Scougall
Something Like
Stop wasting hours trying to find a movie to watch, with our suggestion filter, finding movies you like is a breeze.
By: Adam Rais
Let's Talk Better!
Connecting people all over the world to have one-on-one conversations to improve their communication skills.
By: Anna Hendre
tickl
Time management app to help you stop wasting time at work!
By: Jarkyn Soltobaeva
HELLO
Casual dating site for IT professionals.
By: CJ Ponti, James Poulter & Jarkyn Soltobaeva
THE INSTRUCTOR TEAM
Learning from the Best
Breaking down complex topics for beginners is a tough task, but our instructors made it seem easy. A big thank you to all four of them who detangled our spaghetti code, put up with our ranting, whinging, crying, and incessant questions, and for all the laughter, beers, love and support over those oh so long, but much too short, three months spent together.
GERAUD MATHE
A self-taught developer, Geraud has over 7 years of experience in web development. He worked in gaming , e-mailing, and has been freelancing for over a year. He specializes in Rails, testing and javascript.
KIM SZELONG
Kim has a HND in Interactive Multimedia Creation and a BSC in Multimedia Technology. She is a graduate of General Assembly London's first WDI course and was kept on as a TA for the June session. She is starting her new job as a junior developer at Adaptive Labs in September 2013.
JAMES WILLOCK
James is a designer and developer, with previous work experience at Ubuntu, WorldSkills and Edelman. He is passionate about interaction design and visual communication and has taught several courses at General Assembly.
MICHAEL PAVLING
Michael has been working with web development technology since 1999, and for the last six years has specialized in Ruby and Rails. He has extensive experience teaching beginners and is also a qualified instructor in skiing and martial arts.
