About Shannon Holgate

About Shannon Holgate

My name is Shannon Holgate, I am a Software Engineer working with Kainos Software in Belfast. I Recently graduated with honours in Financial Engineering which is where I began working with Kainos (during work placement). On placement I gained vital experience working on the front and middle end of enterprise insurance software and, in terms of technical experience, I have gained a wide knowledge of Java and most front end languages; although I am certainly not an expert. I also like to dabble in mobile technologies yet have only ever fully released one mobile app - this is something I would like to change. Upon graduating I shifted my focus towards architecture and analysing solutions from a clients perspective, which I plan to persue further. I am keen on understanding and leading software solutions from conception to delivery whether it’s services or products.

Aside from my Kainos placement I like to keep busy with any other opportunities I can get my hands on. Up until now I’ve kept busy getting involved competitions and any further development I can get my hands on.

My end goal is to promote investment in automated vehicles in Northern Ireland and be at the forefront of the software that will go into them, mostly from an information gathering and business intelligence perspective.

Kainos App Camp

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In 2011 I got a chance to be involved in Kainos App Camp where I got my eyes opened to the world of IT and created my first iOS app No.Brainer. App Camp is where I received most of my knowledge in Objective-C, it’s also where I got the motivation to push into IT and all the possibilites there is within the industry.

Imagine Cup

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Back at university, I got involved with an Imagine Cup team. I mentored team SODDA to produce a drink driving simulator using Microsoft’s Kinect with C#. The team were very successful placing 3rd in the Irish Imagine Cup finals 2012 - credit to the guys presenting in Dublin on the day!

Elswhere…

More recently I’ve been involved in teaching secondary school students how to build simple Android apps using Google’s App Inventor software. This was a fun and very rewarding challenge as the couple of teams I taught grew more proficient each day and eventually presented their apps to the judges. It was inspirational to see what junior students could do in such a short space of time.