Developer
Hi, I'm Ian Emsens, a 25 year old developer from Belgium. I build websites, applications and technical integrations with a focus on end-user interaction and ease-of-use. In this case, you (the user) are interested in learning what I can do and who I am. Or you're a friend (Tom) looking for some banter.
I'm currently working at Studio Hyperdrive, a bunch of JavaScript enthusiasts who thrive on getting things done. As I'm working on a wide variety of different projects I'm very quickly realizing that the programming language just about as old as me is a perfect fit for me.
So far, I've worked on a ThreeJS-based modular package to simplify maintaining and creating 3D blueprints on the web, a platform to help connect digital archives with educators and a fun little application to help urban students explore the rural farmlife.
In short, a really good time!
At Springbok Agency, I chose to diversify. The Mechelen-based agency allowed me to gain experience in DevOps (GitHub, Envoyer, Azure DevOps), AWS, Azure, Stencil, Vue.js and many more full-stack technologies. My role at Springbok was extremely fluid, between assisting in project management and analysing SAP-based back-end integrations I spent my time building projects from scratch, maintaining existing applications and guiding colleagues.
The culmination of these responsibilities is the website of Bridgestone's European & Middle-Eastern branch. Built entirely using a corporate-level headless back-end and web components, this huge project is very technologically diverse. Working with the team got me acquainted with a lot of new technologies like GraphQL and JSX.
After a successful internship, I decided to stick around at Flow Pilots, an Antwerp-based mobile app developer. With a primary focus on building native mobile applications, I got a lot of experience working with strongly-typed languages, object-oriented and reactive programming. This is also where I picked up my Angular (rc3 - v8) and TypeScript experience and passion.
Hybrid (web) apps were shunned but not out of the question, the most challenging project I picked up was the Antwerp Voting App. This app is still used (to my knowledge) during Antwerp city councils. It uses redux and websockets to replace the old on-site hardware and provides Antwerp with a more flexible way for officials to vote.
A practice enterprise run by Thomas More for third-year students. During this time, students are able to work as a small, independent agency guided by professors. The whole technical and administrative process is performed by students, from offer to go-live.
This is where I got my earliest professional experience, creating websites and stand-alone applications in Symfony, Drupal, AngularJS and Laravel.