Hello there!
My name is Konstantin!
From the Kitchen to the Keyboard
My professional journey began with passion. For food. After graduating from the Belgrade Hospitality and Tourism School with honours in 2013, I jumped straight into the frying pan, getting a job at a five star hotel in downtown Belgrade. Always looking for more, I started my academic journey with a major in Hotel Management in the same year, promptly leaving mid-way, disenchanted with the Hospitality industry, and craving a chance to make something more impactful than the worlds tastiest lasagne. After a year of meditative contemplation, mostly through Argentine Tango, I threw away my chef's hat for good. I enrolled at the Belgrade Faculty of Mathematics in 2016, where I am currently in my last year (hopefully) of pursuing a degree in Computer Science, ready to change the world one bugfix at a time.
Doing things by the book
An overview of the most interesting team projects and industry courses I took on for my university. I'm very happy that I had the chance to work on these instead of just grinding down boilerplate code!
Vampelvis:
The Game
A 2d game my team and I wrote for the course "Game Development in C++" held by the Belgrade branch of Ubisoft. I was focused on the engine , gameplay mechanics and level generation. Browse the complete project.
Buzzwords: game development, SDL2, procedural generation, engine, C++
The Unnamed OpenGL Game
A 3d game developed for the course "Computer Graphics". Currently it's just a demonstration of graphics concepts like rendering and lighting, but we're hoping to make it playable in the future. Find it on GitHub.
Buzzwords: OpenGL, engine, computer graphics, rendering, C++
Djiki:
The Algorithm Assistant
This application was made to help students by illustrating a bunch of sorting and graph algorithms. It goes through each algorithm line by line, showing the progress graphically and in pseudocode. Take a look!
Buzzwords: Qt, algorithms, GUI, C++
Software Testing Course
I took this course looking to improve the quality of my code and I was not let down. The guys from Zühlke, who were teaching the course gave us a practical tour of Software Testing through a web application.
Buzzwords: Unit Testing, TDD, webapp, .NET, C#
The Linux Kernel for Embedded Devices
Another course by Zühlke. Nothing like writing low-level drivers for Linux with a bunch of wires sticking out of your single board computer. It really reminds you just how valuable computer resources are!
Buzzwords: embedded, Linux, drivers, C
When books rest on shelves
If university is the flame and anvil that forges us as people and professionals, then the extracurriculars are the fine grindstone that gives us finesse. Here's how I grind down my rough edges.
RISK
RISK is a brilliant club for Computer Science students aimed at spreading around knowledge. I did my part by giving two talks - one on Web Framework and the other on the basic of Python, and I'm still a proud member!
Debate
I took up British Parliamentary Debate after my ex, an avid debater, began winning all the arguments around the house. Through it, I became a better orator, and for a while I was a BP coordinator and adjudicator.
AIESEC
During my year at AIESEC, I went from a teamster to acting VP of Global Talent at my Local Committee. Trying to get companies to accept foreign students as interns, I leveled up a lot of skills, especially communication.
Where there's a dev, there's a way
Since I grasped the basics of coding back in my first year at university, I've been doing my best to apply my knowledge to practical, real-world problems. One of the driving forces of my learning and work was my contemplating the amount of time and effort a well-executed system could save everyone. This has led me to work on many projects, ranging from small web scrapers to a full-blown web application, on a quest to make life easier for people around me while making something I found cool.
eMbrace: The Event Management System
eMbrace is the culmination of several years of my work automating festival organization tasks for Tango Natural. I've written the app with the help of my friend Goran, who mostly tackled the frontend. The app has now been in use by 4 major European tango events for more than two years, with a combined audience of over 2500 guests annually - handling everything from user registrations, to content management and statistics.
Buzzwords: Laravel, PHP, Python, Django, WebApp, Fullstack, JavaScript, Vue.js, jQuery, SQL
Web Development and Design
Even though I got into it by chance, web development has provided me with ample opportunity to hone my coding craft, as well as improve my communication skills - especially with people who are not tech-savvy. In the past four years, I worked on around a dozen sites, some of the more recent being: FaceStyle, Mistero Buffo, the UniUkiyo page, and Personal website of Svetlana Cemin.
Buzzwords: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, WordPress, plugin development, CDN, DNS, server setup
Consulting and System Administration
I began my system administration work with Tango Natural, doing server and network administration. I've also done consulting work for the Swiss-based Carpe Diem Design and Epic Assistants by Relja Dereta, providing feedback on topics ranging from web development and task automation to website and server security.
Buzzwords: Linux, server, NGINX, SSL, web, network, IT
Gather 'round the fire
I enjoy sitting back and listening to a good talk, even more so when I am surrounded by tens or hundreds of enthusiastic people at a tech conference. These are the ones I had the pleasure of attending - Data Science Conference Europe 2020, PyCon Balkan 2019 (where I gave my first ever Lightning Talk), Data Science Conference Europe 2019 (as a volunteer helping out the org team), and PyCon Balkan 2018.
The stuff that keeps me sane
I have a tendency to keep attacking a problem until I solve it. Naturally, there are problems that cannot be solved in a single day, or even a week - that's why I have a few choice pastimes to keep me sane and happy!
Argentine tango
Tango is THE dance for those of us who find they were born with two left feet. The local milonga (dance event) is the perfect place for me to unwind, be it on the dance floor or by sitting comfortably with a glass of blackberry wine while listening to the music.
Computer Gaming
Gaming has been a part of my life since I was three - It's what got me interested in computers in the first place. Even though I don't spend as much time gaming away as I did ten years ago, it is still one of my favourite pastimes - be it while I stroll across Tamriel alone, lose at any competitive match, or play an old-school hot seat game of Heroes.
Writing
Writing satisfies my creative urges when I need to take a break from coding. I've been writing poetry since primary school, but I also do not shy away from prose. My love of tango as well as my beginner's fears have been immortalized through my blog Tango Unmasked. I recently began writing technical posts, the first of which debuted over at StackAbuse.
Cooking
Finally, the passion that took me on a career roller coaster is still alive and well - cooking is something I still enjoy and practice on a daily basis. Somehow, it never feels like a chore, and I'm always up for learning and trying out something new!