I am a Backend Engineer with 5 years of industry experience. I've worked extensively with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Python, Javascript, Express.js, Docker, and Postgres.

When working with a Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern I prefer to compose models that use raw SQL queries as opposed to an Object-Relational-Mapping library. The benefits of having transparency into your queries and the ability to make fine-tuned adjustments outweigh the benefits of an ORM abstraction layer. I find ORMs are great for quick prototyping but for large, long-lived applications it's best to rely on raw queries.

In my spare time I like to build projects that benefit the communities I am a part of. Specifically, I love taking open source and public domain data and remixing it in some useful and creative way. Some examples:

• RyeWatch, 2013: Ryerson University sends out a weekly summary of campus security incidents (burglary, assault, etc.). I manually collected these events and created an interactive heatmap, pinpointing the safest/most-dangerous parts of campus.
• http://DogParksNear.me, 2015: I queried the OpenStreetMap database for all publicly-accessible dog parks around the world and built a website that made it easy to find local dog parks using an interactive map. Emphasis on intuitive UI/UX.
• http://DanceLessonsToronto.ca, 2015: Compiled a list of Toronto dance studios and built a website to easily find one via an interactive map.
• Splash, 2019: Taking public domain comic book covers, restoring them using manual and Machine Learning methods, and selling them on Shopify.

I recently wrote about how to form an effective technical debt strategy for a software team: alexalksne.com/how-to-form-an-effective-technical-debt-strategy.html