Kyle Duncan

Software Developer

I’m someone who loves to see people make meaningful connections and memorable experiences. As I grow as a developer, I’m always excited to learn and experiment with the tools at hand, with the goal to create dynamic and engaging products that are intuitive to use and technically sound.

At Torontoverse (https://torontoverse.com) I’ve solidified and expanded my tech stack, building map-based visualizations that tell stories big and small, helping readers to explore Toronto in a new way. I’ve led strategic analysis of complex problems, facilitated projects through evolving challenges, and produced tangible outcomes on strict deadlines.

Originally from Aotearoa (New Zealand), I’m now living in Hamilton, Ontario after five years in Toronto. I’ve been lucky to discover and join welcoming communities on my journey, and getting to know people along the way has led to so many of the things I love today, like great coffee, tabletop gaming, and reading anything from comics to critical theory.

Experience

Software Developer | Torontoverse (January 2022 - August 2023)

  • Built custom interactive, geographic visualizations for over one hundred articles over a year, like this one, this one and this one.
  • Individual articles generated up to fourteen thousand views, helping grow site traffic from launch in September 2022 to over fifty thousand monthly viewers in July 2023.
  • Initiated and completed an accessibility review of the site, implementing changes to improve compliance with WCAG and A11y standards, such as the use of semantic elements, ensuring equitable site access for differently-abled users.
  • Planned and carried out the restructuring of the JavaScript code base of over ten thousand lines into modern modular JavaScript, to optimize loading times, and improving the legibility of the code base and overall developer experience.
  • Used emerging AI tools (GPT3) to develop a live sports commentator connected to a play by play API.
  • Tested and refined prompts to ensure accurate, context-specific AI responses. Collected and analyzed stored responses to create fine-tuned language models that were deployed on site.

Professional Development

  • Front End Masters online courses

    JavaScript: The Hard Parts, v2 (Will Sentance)

    Go for JavaScript Developers (Brenna Martenson)

  • FITC Spotlight UX 2022

    Attended events led by design and experience experts including Roxi Nicolussi, Stephanie Speranza and Laura Schaefer.

  • Juno College Mentor (2021-present)

    Providing drop-in and scheduled 1:1 mentoring for current bootcamp students, Scaffolding students toward solutions appropriate to their expertise.

Skills

  • HTML5

    WAVE (WCAG & A11Y compliance)

  • CSS3

    SASS/SCSS, Tailwind

  • JavaScript

    jQuery, React, Typescript, Material UI

  • API

    Firebase, Mapbox GL JS, OpenAI

  • CI/CD

    Git, Github, Linear

  • Data Processing & Visualization

    Mapbox Studio, Placemark, QGIS

  • No-SQL/Graph databases

    Go & Redis

  • Protocol Buffers

    proto3, gRPC

Education

  • Juno College of Technology (2021)

    Intensive Web Development Bootcamp

    Introduction to JavaScript

    Introduction to Web Development

  • Laidlaw College (2010-2013)

    Masters of Theology

  • University of Otago (2005-2006)

    Graduate Diploma in Community and Social Work

  • University of Auckland (2001-2003)

    Bachelor of Arts