Kenya Chan

Junior developer in Sydney

At UTS I spent years replacing manual work with software: JavaScript Excel add-ins and UiPath robots that save staff hundreds of hours a year. Now I want to build for the web full time.

Kenya Chan

Career path

My career, drawn the way I learned to map processes at UTS

  1. Start 2009
  2. Computer science degree Information Systems, University of Sydney 2009–2015
  3. Student services Workforce and enquiry teams, UTS 2015–2021
  4. Process improvement Automation, add-ins, UAT for a cloud migration, UTS 2019–2026
  5. Junior developer Your team? Available now

Work highlights

The code for these stays with UTS, so here is the problem, what I built, and what changed.

Robotic process automation

UiPath · University of Technology Sydney

Staff were keying the same data into the student system for thousands of requests a year. I built software robots in UiPath that process these transactions instead, freeing the team for work that needs a person.

Manual handling time the robots took over, per year (estimated from volumes)
Automation Volume a year Time each by hand Hours saved a year
Leave of absence applications 1,000–2,000 10 min 170–330
Digital transcript purchases 1,500–2,000 3–5 min 75–165
Alumni discounts 3,000–4,000 30 sec 25–35
Total 270–530

I also built a robot that applies scholarships to student records. Before building, I mapped each process in BPMN 2.0 with the teams who ran it.

Roster data extraction add-in

JavaScript and TypeScript · Office Add-ins (Excel JavaScript API) · University of Technology Sydney

The Student Enquiry Team kept its roster in a visual Excel workbook that was hard to analyse. I first updated an inherited VBA tool, then rebuilt it as an Excel add-in that turns the whole roster into a clean table the team can report on.

About 4 hours a week saved on roster reporting. I then adapted the add-in for a second team, the Future Learners Contact Centre.

Projects

Built during The Odin Project, a full-stack curriculum I've followed since 2022. Each one has a live demo and its code on GitHub.

Smaller exercises, including a calculator, Etch-a-sketch and a sign-up form, are on my GitHub.

Skills

What I've used in real work or the projects above.

Languages
JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, CSS, VBA
Tools
Git and GitHub, Node.js, npm, Webpack, Jest, Vim
Platforms
Excel JavaScript API (Office Add-ins), UiPath
Ways of working
Process mapping in BPMN 2.0, gathering requirements with the teams who use a tool, coordinating user acceptance testing (33 teams and 373 reports for a student system cloud migration)
Also familiar with
C# and Entity Framework (built a small CRUD API), PowerShell, Windows Server

About me

After finishing a computer science degree, I joined UTS and moved from student services into process improvement. I mapped how teams worked, found the repetitive steps, and built tools and robots to take them over.

I'm now looking for a junior or associate developer role in Sydney, and I'm available to start straight away. I'm continuing The Odin Project to deepen my full-stack skills.