High-school maker-portfolio

At some point in high-school, I was in my dot-com phase where I believed that the sole purpose of life was to create websites (or apps) and that these websites (or apps) could fix all the problems in the world. When I say dot-com, I really mean burning my parents' money on buying .com domain names. I was also exploring my entrepreneurial bend at this time, looking for ways to convert my projects into products. This often meant that not only was I playing the role of a software developer, but also that of a social media manager, salesperson, and even a customer support representative.

When I was applying to undergraduate programs abroad, I prepared a maker portfolio to attach to my applications. This portfolio showcased many of these projects that I took up during high-school. Some of these may have found mention in my blog post about logos. Here is a portion of what I submitted (omitting less relevant projects and the needlessly long descriptions accompanying each set of images). Note that most of the webpages mentioned have either been taken down or moved.

WebME — Game for spreading cybersecurity awareness

This even had a promo video. An unmaintained webpage about the project and its media coverage can be found here.

Kronologue — Smart scheduling to increase productivity

Here is the link to the project. Another related website is now parked here.

TattleGEN — Crowdsourced news verification forum

This too had a promo video. The project is now parked here.

LocalBrackets — Platform for local hobby clubs

This project is now parked here. There is a fun backstory to this project. I first made this as an Android app called LocalLink with the MIT App Inventor in my 9th grade, put it on the Google Play Store, and forgot about it. When I revisited it in my 10th grade after creating TattleGEN (and having learned more about web development), I created a new and improved version of the same as a website (renaming it because I could not get locallink.com). Before shutting down LocalLink, I realized that there were some 100 users on the app whom I had no idea about! I had their phone numbers and I sent them all an SMS about the new website. Over the next few days, many of them called back to know more, and my dad ended up pitching the website to all of them since I had used his phone to SMS them. So cheers to him for being my pro bono salesperson for this project! (They were not active users and only a handful registered on the new website, but that is besides the point.)

LocalQueue — Platform for supporting local businesses

The consumer and the business websites are now parked here and here respectively.

EcoGo — Platform to promote sustainable shopping

Credit also goes to my amazing team from LaunchX 2021 who worked with me on this project. The consumer and the business websites are now parked here and here respectively.

Crowdically — Collaborative music creation

In case you're wondering, my application was rejected by every school that I applied to.

But where did this begin?

I loved programming in QB64 when I was in middle-school, and towards the end of my 8th grade, was considering learning game development after making some simple games in QB64. Unfortunately, my potato laptop couldn't really handle any serious game engine — and I was not very sure of what I would do next.

Around this time, I was introduced to the brilliant concept of romance. As fate had it for me, I had also already found a potential candidate to share this brilliant concept with. The only problem was that this candidate did not seem to acknowledge my own candidacy. I started chatting with her on Facebook, carefully crafting my words to impress myself upon her. But again, as was my fate, right before I thought I had made a breakthrough, her mother discovered our conversations and put a stop to her Facebook usage.

It occured to me that if I could create my own website over the summer that we could use to chat, not only would she be awed by my technical skills but we could actually communicate once again without any restrictions. And that was it. I spent my summer figuring out all that I needed — HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and also MySQL. After several rounds of getting banned on StackOverflow because of my novice queries (at some point I even started desparately answering questions to gain reps), I finally had a working website which I called SocialME (I mentioned a more ambitious iteration of the same in a previous blog post). I also showed it to my other friends in school and pretty much everyone found it quite cool — of course I did not tell anyone why I really made the website!

This moment however became a turning point for me. I had just learned something new, and I was soon filled with many more ideas for other websites that I could make. And this is exactly where it began. As you may have already predicated, she was very impressed :grin:!