UNST presentation-Current Intern

Nov 12, 2025

What is my Internship

Full stack developer intern @NovaCards

NovaCard is a Software As a Service that generates flashcard based on user uploads and vector similarity search

Highlights

export default function Highlights() {
  return (
    <ol>
      <li>
        I designed and developed the analytics dashboard using
        Next.js and fetched relevant data from PostgreSQL.
      </li>
      <li>
        In the process I faced UI & UX challenges
        and database optimization challenges.
      </li>
      <li>
        I also documented and communicated
        with the team to meet the requirements.
      </li>
    </ol>
  );
}

Tasks that I completed

Analytics Dashboard

Analytics Dashboard

 Component

Component in the main page

 Placeholder

Plcaeholder for when user is not logged in

Reflections

💡

I learned more about web development and how popular technical stack that startups use.

💡

I learned about effective ways to validate and communicate my work with teams. Which was crucial because I worked virtually and it posed challenges in terms of collaboration and feedback.

💡

I was able to build professional relationships (through networking and reaching out to individuals in the industry) on LinkedIn and other professional platforms.

My Thoughts

Career Interests

I always imagined working as a software engineer because I wanted non-repetitive and creative work.

This internship further validated my interest in this field and especially in fullstack development. I think this field appeals to me because knowing how to code is a valuable skill that can be applied to a wide range of industries and problems and allows analytical thinking that can be applied to a lot of different things.

Relevant Skills

Technical skills and personal projects.

I utilized some of the practices I learned in this experience to build personal projects and decided to get certification in AWS after learning how dependent companies are on cloud computing.

Future Considerations

AI is disrupting the industry right now

and there's a belief that it may replace software engineers. However, this experience taught me that AI is not a replacement for human creativity and problem-solving skills. Instead, it can be a tool to enhance and augment human capabilities. For example, when I was using AI to do the work, it often neglected that the best possible solution is not necessarily the one that suits the user's needs. And many of the creative work such as designing UI & UX and logos require human intuition.

Steve Jin