Alex Van Heest

Computer Science and English Student

Alex Van Heest
Bio Pic

I recently graduated from Lehigh University and will be starting my career as a software engineer at Lutron in August.

About Me

Full Name : Alexander Van Heest

College : Lehigh University

High School : Marine Academy of Science and Technology

Interests : Data Analytics, Web Development, Online Privacy, Creative Writing, Literature, and Film

Experience

I've been fortunate enough to work in research and internship environments with some excellent people over the past few years.

  • Lutron Electronics as Software Engineering Work Study February 2018 - May 2018

    Continued working on summer project during the spring semester, specifically designing new architectures within the project and doing bug fixes.

  • Lutron Electronics as Software Engineering Co-op June 2017 - August 2017

    Redesigned an existing project’s architecture to decrease runtime speeds by about ten times. Learned C#, .NET, and WPF for the job.

  • Cardinal Spin as Web Development Intern June 2016 - August 2016

    Led a web development project for Cardinal Spin client Phoenix Mauritius for Boston University study abroad internship.

  • Whitman Correspondence Research as Data Cleaning Intern May 2016 - July 2016

    Cleaned address line data from XML files in the Walt Whitman Archive for graduate student Kyle Brett using Python.

  • PCG Digital Marketing as Web Development, SEO, and Video Editing Intern June 2015 - August 2015

    Created / updated multiple WordPress websites and designed SEO and infographic strategies for multiple web projects. Edited over thirty video modules and earned five certifications from the PCG Learning Center in analytics.

  • The Vault at Pfaff’s Database Research as Web Development Intern March 2015 - May 2015

    Worked with staff researchers and a technical professional on adding social network visualization features to the database.

  • Arlene's Admissions as Web Development and SEO Intern (Intermittent) May 2014 - present

    Updated and redesigned the layout of the website, utilizing HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Google web tools (2014, 2015). Currently rebuilding the website using WordPress with better UI and SEO performance.

Education

  • B.S. in Computer Science, August 2014 - May 2018

    While at Lehigh, I focused on cybersecurity and data science topics. My favorite course was the Programming Languages course taught by Professor Gang Tan. In this course, I learned about programming paradigms and gained a stronger foundation in object-oriented and functional programming design. I also got more exposure to Python, my favorite programming language.

  • B.A. in English, August 2014 - May 2018

    For my degree in English, I studied topics ranging from early modern literature to contemporary short stories and television. My favorite course was Shakespeare with Professor Jenna Lay, in which we close-read many Shakespeare plays and poems. I earned departmental honors by completing a literary theory course and an undergraduate thesis. For my thesis, I analyzed Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. I explored the relationships between film and reality, metafictional and real-world films, and World War II and the Cold War. I also incorporated my computer science knowledge to build a digital humanities tool to help me search through this lengthy novel for references to film topics.

  • Graduate of MAST, 2010-2014

    At the Marine Academy of Science and Technology, I took classes in marine sciences and developed skills in technical writing and design through two systems engineering courses. I also participated in the NJROTC program at MAST and took four naval science courses. One of my proudest moments at MAST was forming the school's Book Club senior year, where we discussed a new novel each month.

Achievements

I'm honored to have received these awards for my extracurricular projects and course work.

December 2016

LU Hacks Winter 2016: Top 5 Team

My partner and I were placed in the top 5 at our school's hackathon for our virtual reality energy visualization project. Our team and the other four presented our ideas before judges shortly after.

December 2016

LU Hacks Winter 2016: Lutron Prize

Recipient of the Lutron Prize for our virtual reality energy visualization project at the hackathon.

December 2016

LU Hacks Winter 2016: OSISoft Challenge (2nd Place)

Winner of second place in the OSISoft data visualization challenge.

November 2015

National Security Agency Cybersprint Challenge: Top 75

Placed in the top 75 in NSA's Cybersprint Challenge, a two-day event with a focus on hacking into secure networks.

2014 to present

Dean's List

On Dean's List for Spring 2015, Summer 2015, Fall 2015, Summer 2016, and Spring 2017 semesters.

May 2018

Lehigh University's Williams Prizes (Senior Year)

Received prize for 1st place in the Senior Year Essay category and 3rd place in the Junior Year Essay category.

May 2017

Lehigh University's Williams Prizes (Junior Year)

Received prizes for 1st and 2nd place in the Sophomore Year Essay category, 3rd place and honorable mention in the Junior Year Essay category, and 3rd place in the Fictional Creative Writing category.

May 2016

Lehigh University's Williams Prize: Sophomore Year Essay (1st Place)

Recipient of a Williams Prize in the sophomore year essay category for "Darkly Dynamic Dexter," an essay about the conclusion of Showtime's Dexter.

May 2015

Lehigh University's Williams Prize: First Year Essay (3rd Place)

Recipient of a Williams Prize in the first year essay category for an essay on Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass."

June 2016

Merit-Based Scholarship for Sydney Study Abroad

Recipient of a merit-based scholarship from Boston University to be put towards the Sydney Film Festival study abroad program in the summer of 2016.

Skills

  • Python
  • HTML, CSS, and Javascript
  • Java
  • C/C++
  • Oracle SQL

Object-Oriented Programming

90

Data Mining

85

Research

85

Web Development

80

Penetration Testing

80

Web Scraping and Data Collection

75
Project Image

Project Title

( Live Link )

Write a short description (2 lines) about your project (when you did this? for whom you worked for? ) How was the accomplishment etc? Remember, a good practise, you must not write more than 40 - 60 words