Hey, I’m Joanne.
Introduction
Hi, I’m Joanne Wijetunga, a third-year Computer Science student with a strong interest in data science and project management. What I enjoy most about my program is how versatile it is, it opens the door to a wide range of opportunities across industries. Over the past year, I’ve explored different paths through hands-on experiences. As a STEM Research Mentor, I guided high school students through a sustainability-focused project using computer vision and sensors, helping me grow as both a leader and a problem-solver. Currently, I’m working as a Business Systems Analyst under the eCRM Applications team at CIBC, where I’ve had the opportunity to learn Salesforce. It’s been an extremely rewarding experience, and I believe it’s opened many doors for me.
Artifacts
This is a photo of the ElleHacks organizing team, a group I’m incredibly proud to be part of. Last year, I joined ElleHacks as an IT Executive, and this year, I stepped into the role of IT Director, leading the development and maintenance of the hackathon’s technical infrastructure. My responsibilities included overseeing the event website, building a user dashboard for participants, and implementing a QR code system to streamline logistics during the event.
Being part of ElleHacks has been more than just a technical role, it’s allowed me to grow as both a leader and a collaborator. I’ve learned how to manage a team, delegate responsibilities, make quick decisions under pressure, and deliver accessible, reliable tools to hundreds of users. Most importantly, I’ve had the chance to contribute to a space that supports women and non-binary individuals in STEM, a mission I care deeply about. As a woman in tech, helping build an inclusive, welcoming environment through my technical contributions has been one of the most meaningful parts of my undergraduate journey.
Covid-SQL-Analysis
This project involves data exploration and analysis of COVID-19 deaths and vaccination data from the year 2020 to 2021 using SQL queries.
Personal Projects
Android App Market on Google Play
Analyzed a dataset of over 10,000 Google Play apps to uncover trends in user ratings, downloads, and app categories. Gained insights into app performance by exploring factors that influence popularity and user satisfaction, and visualized key findings using Python libraries to support data-driven decisions.
Seasonal Recipe Collection
Built during a hackathon, this web app recommends recipes based on seasonal ingredients to promote sustainable eating habits. Designed and implemented custom web scraping tools to gather ingredient data from hundreds of pages, and proposed future integration of computer vision to detect fridge contents for personalized recipe suggestions.
About Me
In this video, I talk about my first co-op experience as a STEM Research Mentor, a few of the projects I worked on, and my goals at the time. It’s nice to look back and see how much has changed since then, both in terms of what I’ve learned and how I’ve grown.