Key Skills
- Technically minded
- Problem solver
- Confident speaker
- Interest in my work
- Leadership skills
- Planning skills
- Research skills
- Public speaker
Digital Skills
Awards
"The Watt Club Prize is awarded each year for exceptional distinction in the final honours year and as such recognises the highest achievement possible in undergraduate studies. No more than one prize can be awarded in each distinct discipline offered by a School." I won one of 8 out of all the students graduating from the university at the time.
"For the most deserving student in the fourth year of a degree course in the Department of Computer Science."
"For the most deserving student in the second year of a degree course in the Department of Computer Science."
"Issued to students who obtain more than 70% on average in the first and second years of the degree."
- Merit Award received in Computer Science course
- One of two awards given for the best project in the class of 20+
- Received for programming section and team leadership
Education
I was again voted as a class representative for my one year in the Professional Graduate Diploma of Education (PGDE) course. This course is also known as teacher training. The course involves 4 modules which are all assessed at the Masters level (SCQF Level 11). I passed all modules at the Masters level. I did not pursue the Master's Degree, however.
I was the class representative in the third year and fourth year of my studies for the Computer Science degree which saw me keeping the class up to date with the latest news and events related to the university, taking up issues with staff on behalf of fellow students.
I have worked on a number of projects at university, some of which I have documented on my website.
This was an introductory course to university. LEAPS was also aimed to assist those who felt that they might not get the school grades to get into university since it would provide evidence that they have achieved success at university level. Whilst I did not need this support, it did give me a good introduction to what university was like.
I also achieved the Merit Award for Computer Science.
I attended Ross High School, Tranent, for the full 6 years.
Whilst at high school, particularly in my sixth year, I was an in-class support pupil who would assist teachers with their classes. My duty was in a first-year Computing class which saw me running the class in two classes as well as generally giving help to the students around the class. This was entirely voluntary and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also was a paired-reading tutor, meaning that I was required to assist someone with lower reading capabilities than the normal levels for high school.
Mr Jamie Balfour
Curriculum Vitae
Summary
I am a dedicated hardworking individual interested in computer science. I have had experience in many different fields, particularly related to the combination of technology and teaching. My other main interests in the field are the world wide web, design, UX and interaction design, networking and hardware, programming and the effects of technology.
Currently, I hold a BSc with a First Class Honours in Computer Science and I am studying an MSc in the same field. I run a digital agency, Jambour Digital ltd. which has allowed me to improve my skills in software development as well as my ability to manage others and some skills in server management.
Teaching Experience
- Taught Computing
- Developed digital tools:
- Interactive slideshow engine
- Embedded online polling platform
- Online tracking and monitoring system
- Extended DragonDocs Engine for interactive worksheets
- Taught Computing and Digital Literacy
- School named Scotland's First Centre for Digital Excellence
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Developed digital tools:
- Slideshow engine with engaging features
- Interactive worksheets for pupils
- Took leadership role as Digital Leader in the school
- Taught Computing and Digital Literacy
- Became newly qualified teacher in August 2019 after PGDE
- Successfully completed 'Scotland's Mental Health First Aid' course (SMHFA)
- Developed a prototype online reporting system
Academic Experience
Interested in extending my academic achievements, I considered doing a PhD. I accepted an offer out of interest and was accepted as an 'outstanding candidate' due to all of my previous achievements such as my Watt-Club Prize and twice winner of the Andrew Stewart Prize.
My research here involved understanding concerns of carers of children with autism when it comes to their online safety and developing a solution to it.
I sadly left in February 2017 due to financial concerns around buying my own house which meant that doing this full-time was no longer possible.
As a second-time lab assistant I was well prepared for what I had to do here. Taking up two courses (F27PX: Praxis and F28WP: Web Programming) gave me diversity in what I was doing. One course, Praxis, a first-year course, gave me experience working with writing tips, IT help and generally helping students with professional development. The other course allowed me to exercise my knowledge of web programming since that is my forte. I spent two hours a week doing this.
In this role, I assisted students in the first year of the same Computer Science (G400) degree I was working towards in the Web Design and Databases course. I also assessed students' work to some degree and gave them feedback on their work. I believe that my contributions to this course were valuable. I helped students and the lecturers with my fresh new knowledge and helped to make things clearer for them. This job involved me using my knowledge of HTML, CSS and PHP as well as MySQL for the latter part of the course.
My election as class representative for the third time means that it is my job to do what I did at the previous university - act as a voice for students' in the university. As the class representative, I attended meetings and dealt with concerns raised. I also supported one pupil who was not getting enough support at first.
My election as class representative meant I had the responsibility of raising other students' concerns, worries and requirements at class representative meetings. I was elected as the third-year class representative from September 2014 until April 2015, and then again from September 2015 until April 2016 as the fourth-year computer science class representative.
As a representative of the department I was given extra leadership jobs to do. During my time as third-year class representative in 2014 and 2015, I had to represent the university in front of a panel from the BCS (British Computer Society) to help the university to receive recognition from them.
Industrial Experience
Based on my knowledge of web development I was asked to do two large websites for two individuals. I realised at this point that I had a real talent that could lead to becoming freelance. I decided to start my own company, Jambour Digital and registered the company as a limited company in July 2018. Jambour Digital focuses on web development and also on graphics and consultancy.
In July 2023, I stepped down as Executive Director to hand over to Michael and focus more on the web handling part of the company.
I developed websites for companies in the car salvage market. My first project saw me develop a system to generate an XML phonebook to work with Grandstream SIP phones using PHP and a database, thus allowing easy updating of the phonebook system. My second major project was to develop a new database-driven server monitoring application using PHP. I then proceeded to re-developing some websites for the car salvage companies that were hosted by DH Systems. I left this job due to health issues that occurred and took the opportunity whilst recovering to start my own company. As well as being a web developer I was focused on UX design.
My job at Maglabs was fast paced and required me to think on my feet a lot of the time. My job primarily involved me generating reports on database data and fixing bugs as well as adding small features to a PHP based web application service. The job taught me a lot, and I managed to hone my skills in PHP, MySQL and shell scripting as a result of it. On top of that I learned a lot of React.js and Symfony whilst I worked there.
When I did freelance web development it was my job to develop websites on request for others. The technologies used had to be modern and as a result, I used PHP7, HTML5 and CSS3. I stopped doing freelance web development in February 2017 to start a limited company doing what I did as a freelancer.
Voluntary Work
I noticed our local library was offering a Code Club for kids under the age of 16 and since I wanted to be a teacher and loved programming, I saw this as a golden opportunity. I volunteered on a Saturday morning from 10 am to about 11.30 am.
Projects
I took the hobby of programming due to my interest in it. I have developed products such as an imaging/graphics application, a web browser and an easy-to-use programming language. Nowadays I develop several large personal projects, but I also help others by writing programs to automate things for them.
My personal website is one of my biggest achievements. In April 2010 I had an idea that it would be good to share what I know with the world. Because of this, I decided to open a website dedicated to both professional work and my personal life. My website went through a major refurbishment in June 2013. My website is built with my skills in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP and MySQL.
This project is a personal project to build the best content management system out there! In July 2017, the project was renamed DASH and was rebuilt from the ground up. My CMS is designed from the ground up to integrate with any website and make it easy to use. DASH is used on my own website and it is constantly receiving updates to make it better and better.
As part of my own website development and moving away from using third party plugins, I decided to invent my own plugins that can easily be reused. I call this group of plugins my Web Independently Styled Project (WISP) and it consists of a slideshow, responsive navigation bar, PHP comment system, a content management system and much more.
In October 2014 I began working on a completely new project, writing my own BlackRabbit Script in Java. I had to stop due to work and university consuming my time. In May 2015, I rewrote the whole engine. This time within one week, I had written a very powerful engine that can be built upon by others too. After two months of work, it featured a mathematical parser, a logic parser and a compiler for Java code. Some of my friends and colleagues were very interested and have written programs in my language. There is much more about it on my website.
In October 2015 I began to work on my BSc Honours year project. As part of this, I developed an application to aid new web developers with web development called ClickIt. The main purpose of this was to help school children and new web developers learn HTML using a drag-and-drop system.
Other Work
I was a key member of our Young Enterprise Scotland team in charge of the IT side of the products as well as being one of the front members of the sales team. Our team managed to sell the majority of our products that were for sale and were one of the more liked teams by the public.
