University Lead Project

During university, I found that many assignments were technically straightforward due to prior experience building real applications outside of coursework. In one major group project involving five people, I led the technical direction and implementation.

The brief required building a database and frontend system for thousands of articles containing highly unstructured data, where each article could have an effectively unlimited and varying set of fields. From the outset, this was clearly a NoSQL problem. I had already worked extensively with NoSQL databases while building my social media application, whereas other group members initially began designing traditional SQL schemas.

I redirected the technical approach, explaining the limitations of relational schemas for this use case and leading the group toward a NoSQL-based solution. Once the correct architectural decisions were made, the remainder of the project was straightforward. The assignment became trivial from a technical standpoint, allowing the group to complete it efficiently and without friction.

This experience reinforced my ability to identify appropriate technologies early, guide technical decision-making, and lead implementation when requirements demand real-world engineering judgment rather than textbook solutions.