Capstone Chronicles: R.S.

Why did I choose this project?

I’ve always been interested in investing and tracking finances, which is what drew me to fintech and led me to intern in the industry this past summer. So when I saw this project as an option, it felt like the perfect fit, combining my interests with the opportunity to learn how to build an application around them. So far, the project has met my expectations in terms of functionality and design, but it’s also pushed me to think more critically about user experience, data visualization, and backend efficiency. It’s been exciting to see the app come together and know that it could genuinely help investors like me.

Who will use your project? Will it benefit them?

The primary audience for Dividend Dollars Application are long term investors who focus on dividend growth, reinvestment, and portfolio diversification. Many existing apps cater to day traders and short term investors, leaving passive investors with limited tools to analyze and optimize their portfolios. With Dividend Dollars, users can track their dividend income, monitor sector exposure, and get a clear picture of how their portfolio is performing over time without being overwhelmed with real time trading. This project is designed to make investment tracking easier, more intuitive.

Lessons Learned from Teamwork

Working in a team on this project has reinforced the importance of communication, especially when coordinating tasks across different areas like frontend, architecture, backend, and more. One key takeaway has been the need to establish clear responsibilities and check in points to make sure we’re on track. I have also learned the value of being adaptable, whether that be different coding styles to finding compromises on design choices.

Writing clean code is a skill every developer strives for, including myself. Looking at code I wrote a year ago can, at times, feel humbling due to poor readability or overly complex logic. One practice I want to embrace more consistently is writing meaningful variable and function names, as highlighted in Robert Martin’s Clean Code. Clear naming reduces the need for excessive comments and makes the purpose of the variable self evident. For example, naming a function ‘calculateMonthlyInterest()’ is far more informative than naming it ‘calc()’ or another vague name. This small but impactful habit improves readability for both the original author and future contributors.

On the other hand, one practice I want to avoid is overcomplicating logic through excessive nesting, a code smell outlined in Martin Fowler’s Refactoring. Deeply nesting loops not only makes code harder to read but also more prone to errors during maintenance. Instead of an overly deep nested ‘if’ statement, restructuring logic using guard clauses or simply breaking it into smaller functions can lead to cleaner and more maintainable code. For example, instead of this:

Lastly, using unit tests is a habit that I plan on prioritizing. While it is not always discussed in articles about clean code, testing complements clean code by verifying that refactored and well structured code behaves as expected. By getting in the routine of writing tests alongside clean code, I can ensure reliability and minimize the risk of introducing bugs during changes. Overall, the principles of clean code and avoiding code smells come down to one essential goal: writing code that’s easy to read, modify, and scale.

Project Reflection: Successes, Challenges, and Adaptations
Working on our project – which is a full stack investment tracking application – has been an enlightening journey so far. It has been a great experience these past few weeks to learn about new technologies and how we will use them in our project, as well as finding ways to all work together. At this point, we currently are setting up our main frame and GitHub Management. I continue to learn more through this project, and am existed to see how the rest of it goes.

Course Feedback
This course has been incredible in the different skills I am working on and gaining. For example, this course allows us to experience real-world scenarios, such as configuring different tools, working along side peers who could be in different time zones, managing timelines, and more. As we jump into coding in the upcoming weeks, it will also allow for skills in terms of having multiple peers on the same version control, and learning how to ensure everyone is on the same page. Overall, this course has been a great learning experience due to it simulating a real-world experience we could have down the line.

Career Goals and Job Hunt
On the career side, I am excited to apply these skills in my upcoming position at BofA. This project has reinforced my interest in finance-related technology, which has helped me solidify my plan of staying in the FinTech world. As I currently have a job for post-grad, I am excited to see how many skills that I gain from this course will be useful there!

Hello! My name is Regina but I go by Nina. I’m currently an in-person student based in Corvallis, OR, pursuing a major in Computer Science with a focus in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and a minor in Psychology.

My passion for Computer Science started when I was around 8 or 9. Technology has always fascinated me – how it works, the endless possibilities it offers. In high school, I took an introductory CS course, which solidified my decision to pursue this major.

This past summer, I had the incredible opportunity to intern at Bank of America in New York City as a Business Analyst. It was my first internship, and I gained so many valuable skills. The experience was so rewarding that I will be returning next year as a full-time Business Analyst.

Outside of school, I love spending time outdoors. I sail for OSU, enjoy hiking the local trails, and love baking.