Syed Ahtisham Zaheer

Software Developer

Software developer with commercial .NET experience, building web, mobile and embedded applications.

View My Work

Work Experience

Feb 2026 - Sep 2026 · Contract · Bristol, UK

Junior Software Developer

Durell Software

Commercial insurance software
CRM and Schemes teams

VB.NET
C#
JavaScript
XML
SQL
MSTest
Azure DevOps

Developed and maintained commercial insurance software, from CRM bug fixes and performance investigation to dynamic question sets, automated testing and production releases.

CRM development & profiling. Delivered bug fixes and new features, and extended existing VB.NET RTP profiling with targeted log events to diagnose slow page loads and execution bottlenecks.
Dynamic insurance workflows. Developed Schemes question sets with JavaScript and XML, implementing conditional branching, validation and front-end behaviour across scheme configurations.
Automated testing. Wrote C# unit tests with MSTest to validate functions, classes and components, aiming for practical coverage of the areas under test.
Data investigation & imports. Used SQL and MySQL Workbench to diagnose and fix application and policy-data issues, and carried out bulk imports of roughly 600–900+ policies per import.
Source control & documentation. Worked with TFS/TFVC before the team migrated to Git in Azure DevOps, creating branches, committing and merging changes, and writing and adding new technical documentation alongside updates to existing documents.
Release delivery. Performed release testing, resolved Jira issues and personally promoted Schemes question-set changes through beta and live production environments.

About Me

Software, curiosity and a little about me

My first name is Syed, but I go by Ahtisham to friends and family.

I’m a First-Class Computer Science graduate with junior software development experience working with .NET, C#, VB.NET, JavaScript and SQL, alongside a strong foundation in Python and C. My projects span web and mobile apps, AI, embedded systems and data analysis. I enjoy turning ideas into useful, reliable software. Outside development, you’ll usually find me lifting, playing chess, reading or exploring films.

Education

University of the West of England (UWE) Bristol, UK

BSc (Hons) Computer Science

Grade achieved: First-Class

September 2022 - June 2025

My Projects

Chess Analysis Tool

Chess Analysis displaying recent games for v1_ahtz — My recent Chess.com games · v1_ahtz

Starting position and move list for my game as Black against Floppi07 — Board & move navigation · v1_ahtz vs Floppi07

My queenside castling move against Floppi07 highlighted on the board — Move-by-move review · 12... O-O-O

My checkmating move against Floppi07 with its position analysis — Checkmate & position review · 24... Qe1#

A free tool for reviewing Chess.com games and exploring alternative moves, with all analysis running in the browser. It uses depth-3 minimax with alpha-beta pruning, scoring material, piece placement and mobility to compare each move with the best alternative it finds. The shallow search keeps reviews quick, but offers less depth than a full chess engine.

JavaScript
Chess.js
GitHub Pages

Live Demo GitHub

ServoArm - Real-time CV Robotic Arm

ServoArm in motion · Original GIF

My 3D-printed robotic arm connected to an Arduino and breadboard — 3D-printed arm, Arduino and servo wiring

A four-servo, 3D-printed robotic arm that mirrors live hand and body movements. Python, OpenCV and MediaPipe track camera landmarks, which are mapped to servo positions and sent to an Arduino through compact serial commands. Smoothing and deadzones reduce jitter in the movement signals.

Python
OpenCV
MediaPipe
Arduino

GitHub LinkedIn Post

iOS Fitness AppFitSwift · Final-year dissertation · 77%

FitSwift health data screen — Health data

FitSwift weight history screen — Weight history

FitSwift calorie tracking screen — Calorie tracking

Inspired by my own fitness routine, FitSwift brings workout, weight and calorie tracking together in an iOS app. Built with SwiftUI, HealthKit synchronisation and persistent data, it includes achievements, local notifications and personalised AI workout recommendations through a reusable service layer. The app formed my final-year dissertation, awarded 77%.

SwiftUI
HealthKit
Core Data
Claude API

View Code LinkedIn Post

UniHub Social & Events App

UniHub activity feed with posts and upcoming events — Activity feed

UniHub directory of student communities — Community directory

Code and Coffee community with discussion and events — Community hub

UniHub tagged discussion with a student comment — Posts & comments

UniHub upcoming event listing and search — Upcoming events

UniHub event details with capacity and confirmed registration — Event registration

Student profile

UniHub member management showing admin moderator and member roles — Member roles

Profile · Upcoming events

Edit profile

UniHub notifications with fictional event invitations and a registration confirmation — Notifications · Sample invitations

A group project built with Django, PostgreSQL and Docker to help students connect, join communities and manage events. I took a leading role in development and was responsible for managing the sprints and creating sprint documentation. UniHub combines session-based authentication, editable profiles, posts, comments and notifications. Membership roles control content access, while event registration includes capacity checks and email confirmations.

Django
PostgreSQL
Docker

View Code

Android NewsApp

Updated NewsApp headline cards with article photos, category filters and cached headlines — Headlines · Cached reading

NewsApp technology search results with headline photos and source information — Search · Technology results

Publisher article displayed inside NewsApp with AI summary and open original controls — Article reader · In-app WebView

A real Gemini-generated article summary in NewsApp above the original publisher page — AI summary · Gemini

A team-built Android news app using Kotlin, Jetpack Compose and NewsAPI to browse headlines, filter categories and search for articles. The updated interface keeps the original NEWS header and purple styling, with full articles displayed in an in-app WebView. ViewModel, StateFlow and coroutines manage loading and error states, while paginated lazy lists, image loading, request cancellation and local caching reduce unnecessary work and support cached reading. An optional Gemini or OpenAI summary service produces short article or preview summaries through a separate backend, keeping the API key outside the Android app; summaries use available page text or clearly labelled previews when full text is unavailable.

Kotlin
Jetpack Compose
NewsAPI
Gemini / OpenAI API

View Code

Horizon Restaurant Management System

Horizon homepage with food photography — Restaurant homepage

Horizon menu with food photographs and prices — Food menu

Horizon sample food order with quantities — Create an order

Horizon reservation form filled with fictional customer details — Book a table

Horizon reservation records with fictional customers — Manage reservations

Horizon menu management with sample dishes and prices — Manage the menu

Horizon inventory quantities and prices — Stock inventory

Horizon staff records with fictional employees — Staff management

A university group project built with Flask, MySQL and Bootstrap to support restaurant operations. Customers can browse the menu and create food orders, while management screens handle reservations and menu records. Staff can maintain stock inventory, and administrators manage employee records. Jinja templates, Flask sessions and password hashing support the interface and account flows.

HTML/CSS
Bootstrap
Flask
MySQL
Git/GitLab

View Code

Hotel Booking Website

World Hotels browsing page with hotel photography — Hotel browsing

World Hotels customer sign-in form — Customer sign-in

World Hotels booking form with check-in and checkout dates — Choose booking dates

World Hotels completed booking confirmation — Booking confirmation

World Hotels administration dashboard — Administration

World Hotels booking records including the completed demo reservation — Manage bookings

World Hotels hotel management with peak and off-peak prices — Hotel pricing

A first-year university project built with Flask, MySQL, HTML, and CSS to practise web development and relational database design. Customers can register, sign in, browse hotel photos and select dates to create a booking. Flask sessions and Jinja templates support the customer journey, while an admin area provides booking management, customer records and hotel pricing with peak and off-peak rates.

HTML
CSS
Python
Flask
MySQL

View Code

GameMaker Multiplayer Racing Demo

Two named players connected to the same GameMaker driving session — Multiplayer race · arrow-key driving and lap tracking

GameMaker client showing shared player and server chat messages — Shared chat · player and server messages

GameMaker server displaying connected players and their messages — Server view · connected players and chat

Originally built in 2022 to explore TCP sockets and client–server networking in GML, this project connects up to five players through a separate server. Binary packets, buffers and socket-to-instance maps handle usernames, joins, disconnects, movement and shared chat. The updated demo adds arrow-key acceleration, braking and steering, track boundaries, a countdown, ordered checkpoints and three-lap races. The server tracks lap counts, race times and finish order, while clients calculate driving movement and send position updates. That keeps the networking approachable, though it is not a fully authoritative racing simulation. The original project now runs in GameMaker LTS 2026 using native YYC builds, with packet validation, resource cleanup and reconnect handling.

TCP Sockets
Client–Server Networking
Binary Packets
GML / GameMaker
Race Logic

View original code

My Skills

Programming Languages

C#
VB.NET
JavaScript
Python
SQL
XML
Swift
Kotlin
C

Frameworks & Tools

.NET
Django
Flask
SwiftUI
Jetpack Compose
HealthKit
Core Data

Data & AI

PostgreSQL
MySQL
pandas
NumPy
Plotly
OpenCV
MediaPipe
OpenAI & Claude APIs

Development & Delivery

Git
TFS/TFVC
Azure DevOps
Jira
Docker
Linux
MSTest
Release Testing
Debugging & Profiling

Embedded & Engineering

Arduino
Raspberry Pi Pico
Serial Communication
Sensor Integration
3D Printing
UDP Sockets

Engineering Practices

Technical Documentation
API Integration
Team Development
Requirements Analysis

Academic Modules

BSc (Hons) Computer Science · First-Class

View modules and gradesHide modules and gradesKey coursework, project links and all 17 results

Selected module highlights

Principles of Programming
Structured Python programs with classes, objects and reusable behaviour.
Stack · Python
Focus · Object-oriented programming
84%
Security Data Analytics and Visualisation
Analysed security datasets and visualised relationships to identify suspicious activity and anomalies.
Tools · JupyterHub, pandas, Plotly
Focus · Dataset investigation, data visualisation, security analysis
83%
Digital Systems Project
Built FitSwift for my dissertation, combining workout tracking, health data and personalised recommendations.
Stack · Swift, SwiftUI, HealthKit, Claude API
FitSwift · Final-year dissertation
77%
Foundations of Computing
Developed foundational reasoning skills through Boolean algebra and logic.
Focus · Boolean algebra, logic, computing fundamentals
76%
Communications and Protocols
Designed a USB serial protocol between a computer and Raspberry Pi Pico, with variable-length packets, checksum validation and acknowledgements.
Project stack · Raspberry Pi Pico, C, Python, pySerial, USB serial
CustomPicoProtocol · Repository
71%
Distributed and Enterprise Software Development
Worked in a team to build UniHub, a student platform for communities, posts and events.
Stack · Python, Django, PostgreSQL, Docker
UniHub · Group project
70%
Advanced Algorithms
Implemented Python algorithms for constrained password generation, sliding-window substring analysis and parallel name counting in text files. Modelled a UK railway network as a weighted graph and used Dijkstra’s algorithm to find the cheapest routes between stations.
Tools · Python, itertools, multiprocessing, regular expressions, heapq
Focus · Algorithm design, text processing, shortest-path search
69%
Mobile Applications
Built a team news app with category filters, search and AI-generated article summaries.
Stack · Kotlin, Android Studio, NewsAPI, OpenAI API
NewsApp · Group project
68%
Digital Design
Developed a stack-based calculator for reverse Polish notation and infix expressions, with unit tests for arithmetic evaluation. Explored Raspberry Pi GPIO keypad input, a Python extension written in C, and a console Minesweeper game with recursive cell revealing.
Tools · Python, C, RPi.GPIO, unittest
Focus · Stacks, expression parsing, hardware input, recursion
68%
Web Development and Databases
Built a database-backed hotel booking website with registration and reservations.
Stack · Python, Flask, MySQL, HTML, CSS
Hotel Booking Website
65%
Systems Development Group Project
Collaborated on a restaurant management website, translating requirements into application features.
Stack · Flask, MySQL, Bootstrap, HTML/CSS, Git/GitLab
Horizon Restaurant · Group project
64%
Operating Systems
Built a C command-line utility to concatenate two text files into a third. Compared Linux and Windows file-management commands and their underlying system calls, and investigated buffer-overflow risks alongside Linux VM and Git workflows.
Tools · C, Linux, Git/GitLab
Focus · File I/O, system calls, memory safety
48%
Internet of Things
Module materials covered UDP socket communication, packet structures and checksums using a supplied C++ networking library.
Tools · C++, supplied IoT socket library
Focus · Datagram networking, packet handling, messaging protocols
42%

Full module results

BSc (Hons) Computer Science — module results
Module	Date	Mark
Computer Systems Architecture	07/06/2023	66%
Foundations of Computing	07/06/2023	76%
Principles of Programming	07/06/2023	84%
Artificial Intelligence I	16/08/2023	65%
Web Development and Databases — Hotel Booking Website	13/06/2024	65%
Advanced Algorithms	13/06/2024	69%
Internet of Things	13/06/2024	42%
Operating Systems	13/06/2024	48%
Systems Development Group Project — Horizon Restaurant	13/06/2024	64%
Digital Design	15/08/2024	68%
Embedded Systems Programming	12/06/2025	66%
Communications and Protocols — CustomPicoProtocol	12/06/2025	71%
Digital Systems Project — FitSwift dissertation	12/06/2025	77%
Distributed and Enterprise Software Development — UniHub	12/06/2025	70%
Mobile Applications — NewsApp	12/06/2025	68%
Professional Studies in Computing	12/06/2025	66%
Security Data Analytics and Visualisation	12/06/2025	83%

Beyond the Code

01 / Chess

At the board

v1_ahtz on Chess.com

Ratings and game records from my Chess.com profile.

Why not review my chess games (or yours, or anyone’s!) using my Chess Analysis tool?

02 / Currently reading

Rubicon

Tom Holland

History · Ancient Rome

The story of the Roman Republic’s final years, exploring the ambition, rivalries and political upheaval that led to its fall.

Previously read

Flowers for Algernon — Daniel Keyes

03 / Favourite films

My life in films

A few of my favourite films.

04 / Weightlifting

Strength & consistency

The gym has taught me to keep showing up, even on the days I don’t feel like it. I never look back and regret going. Over time, that consistency has helped me build strength and become more disciplined outside the gym too.

My interest in fitness led me to build FitSwift for my final-year dissertation. It was something I wanted to make for myself as well. The idea was to bring my favourite features from different fitness apps into one app, so I could track workouts, weight and calories in the same place.

Get In Touch

Have a role or project in mind? Email me directly or use the form.