McKaulay Kolakowski

Front End Engineer at AWS,
B.S. in Informatics & security from the UW iSchool

Experience & Projects

T-Mobile IoT Hackathon
1st Prize

My team developed both a new dashboard to integrate with T-Mobile's existing room booking system, and an internet of things-connected light switch which would require employees to check in to conference rooms with their badges in order to turn on the lights and confirm that they were using the space.

Source Code on GitHub

Web Crawler & Search Engine

Developed using C# Bootstrap, XML, Azure, utilized various data structures and algorithms
Implemented web roles and worker roles to compartmentalize crawler functionality and operation
Implemented a Trie data structure for search suggestions

LaunchSchoolHR.org

Adapted the school’s HR policy document into a rich, interactive website (view at launchschoolhr.org)
Developed using PHP, JavaScript, Twig, & GRAV. Created documentation for client use

Visit Site

TrainStuff.info

Developed a custom plugin to migrate a static website with nearly 5,000 individual railroad-related products to a new WordPress website with WooCommerce.

Visit Site

HoganWildlifePhotography.com

Migrated a static web store of original photographic art posters to a new WordPress website with WooCommerce.

Visit Site

Seattle Monorail Game

Designed in 2012 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of Seattle's famous engineering landmarks: the Seattle Center Monorail!
Featured by The Monorail Society

Special thanks to Conner Starkel for helping to port the Seattle Monorail Game to JS

Seattle Bus Game

Try the new Seattle Bus Game!

Emerald Refuge Resource Directory

Autumn 2016 - I was the group leader in a university project in which my team and I conceptualized and created a directory website to list refugee and social services in Washington. I personally implemented an SMS chat bot to make the information accessible to individuals without internet access.

Skills

  • Security: Authentication, Web Application Security, Enterprise Risk Analysis, Blockchain, IoT
  • Front end: JavaScript, HTML, CSS, SASS, React
  • Backend: C#, Node.js, Java, Python, PHP, SQL
  • Data science: R, Python, Data Visualization, Machine Learning
  • Infrastructure: Serverless, AWS, Azure, DigitalOcean, Firebase
  • Design: Graphic Design, Web Design, Branding, Logo Design, Typography
  • E-commerce
  • WordPress
  • Adobe Creative Suite, focus on Illustrator and Photoshop

Education

University of Washington Information School

Bachelor of Science - Informatics 2019
Minor in Ethics
Graduated with Honors

News & Press

Mill Creek teen creates monorail video game
Everett Herald – Mar 14, 2012
McKaulay Kolakowski, 8th Grader, Makes Seattle Monorail Videogame
Seattle Weekly – Mar 15, 2012
“Move aside, Bill Gates, there's a new whiz kid in Seattle: 14-year-old programmer McKaulay Kolakowski spent over 200 hours building a video-game tribute to the Seattle Monorail, just in time for its 50th birthday...”
4 Ways to Celebrate the Seattle Monorail's 50th Birthday
Seattle Magazine – Mar 23, 2012
“Just choose between the blue or the red train and you're ready to cruise past several of the Seattle landmarks you'll see from the real train's window. An adorable interactive game that recalls the days of 8-bit Nintendo, you can travel with the train's doors closed or recklessly open and even honk the horn. ...”