Haydn Bannister

Haydn Bannister

Software Engineering Student

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About Me

I'm a problem solver. I'm in my fourth and final year of my Bachelor of Software Engineering Honours degree at Victoria university this year, and am looking forward to getting into the software industry full time. I have experience with full stack web development, virtual reality development, and I'm always keen to branch out into new areas.

I love taking things apart and seeing how they work and what I can improve, whether it's software, an engine, or a project. I spend most of my time either building things and tinkering with cars, or drinking coffee and listening to music (or all four at the same time).

Recent Projects

Datacom Internship

Virtual Reality and Intelligent Agents

New

During my internship in Datacom's MARS Innovations team, I got a chance to work on a variety of virtual reality experiences and intelligent agent simulations. I developed things like weather and climate visualisations, geographical property data visualisations, layout planning tools and flow testing simulations, and a bunch of other cool bits and pieces. Check out the video for a few clips of some of the stuff I developed in my time there!

QuickRoster

Labyrinth - An immersive atmospheric survival game

The Labyrinth game, built in Unity3D, has the player explore a dimly lit underground labyrinth in search of the shattered pieces of a sword. They must escape and outsmart various monsters using their sense of hearing, limited sight, and memory alone.

In order to get the replayability of procedural generation without sacrificing the ability to hand-craft specific experiences and interactions, the labyrinth is constructed from hand-crafted room sections linked together by procedurally generated maze sections. Upon being caught by a monster, these mazes re-generate, adding to the difficulty of the game.

The team behind Labyrinth was composed of myself and three other programmers, two designers, and a sound designer. One of the larger features I was responsible for was the Artificial Intelligence controlling the monsters. I created three distinct intelligent agents to control the three types of monster in the game, each with completely different traits and behaviours.

QuickRoster

QuickRoster - A time saving rostering application

QuickRoster was an application made in 36 hours at the Wellington Google Developers Group Hackathon. The Google-sponsored Hackathon had a brief of making a simple but functional Android application, of a suitable quality that it could theoretically be deployed on the Google Play Store. Scoring involved innovation, quality, and functionality.

QuickRoster was awarded third place.

I entered this competition with zero experience in app or Android development, and came out with a toolkit of skills in app development. The Hackathon was a very valuable experience.

Find out more

Work Experience

Software Developer - Datacom (November 2017 - March 2018)

During my internship with Datacom's MARS Innovations team, I worked on:

  • Virtual reality tools and experiences
  • Ruby on Rails web applications
  • Intelligent Agents in simulations

IT Systems Coordinator - Project Plus Limited (February 2017 - November 2017)

As IT Systems Coordinator at Project Plus I was involved with:

  • Modifications and updates of Project Plus's Website
  • Maintaining, coordinating, updating, troubleshooting, IT Systems
  • Training others in the use of IT Systems
  • Development, design, and formatting, of project management course material

Administrative Assistant - Project Plus Limited (June 2016 - February 2017)

While an Admin Assistant at Project Plus I was responsible for:

  • Formatting CV's for our project management contractors
  • Organising and ordering an office-wide furniture re-fit
  • Designing dynamic budget calculator and cost analysis tools in excel
  • In-house IT and systems support
  • Re-designing and updating content for workshops and courses

Delivery Driver - Bedpost Wellington (May 2015 - August 2016)

  • Customer service
  • Ensuring deliveries are performed correctly and on time
  • Organizing delivery schedules
  • CBD and highway driving

Cook - The Little Waffle Shop (January 2016 - June 2016)

My shifts at the waffle shop were completely unsupervised, involving:

  • Cash handling
  • Daily reports and administration
  • Customer service

Bartender, Cook - Golden Bear Brewing Company (October 2014 - February 2015)

I worked as a bartender and cook at the Golden Bear during the busy summer periods.

Sales Assistant - Mapua Four Square Supermarket (October 2012 - October 2014)

While in High School I worked part time here as a sales assistant, and worked full time over the summers and breaks.