Spawn

Spawn started as a hackathon idea and grew into a long-term project with a team of 7. The concept was simple but ambitious: make spontaneity easy. In practice, that meant an app where users could post activities they were currently doing to their friend network, with a real-time map, activity feed, and push notifications to keep everyone in the loop. I came on as a backend developer, designing and implementing a Spring Boot backend to handle core features like activity and account creation, friend requests, and push notifications. Later in the project I jumped over to the mobile side, helping wire up the iOS client to our backend and building out UI pages. Beyond the technical work, Spawn gave me a glimpse into startup culture and collaborating closely with teammates across design and marketing let me explore challenges outside of engineering which I felt was valuable.

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Highlights

• Built a Spring Boot backend and iOS app for spontaneous events, discoverable through a real-time map, feed, and push notifications
• Developed an authentication and authorization system using JWT access and refresh tokens, incorporating password encryption, email verification, and OAuth integration for Google and Apple login.
• Integrated AWS S3 and Amazon CloudFront for efficient delivery of profile pictures.
• Implemented the onboarding flow and more UI pages in the iOS app with Swift and SwiftUI.