Laura Voss

Tech | Key Projects | Hackathon | Skills | Education
Professional Experience | Competitions & Installations | Interests

Languages: German - native   |   English - full professional proficiency

I am a Junior Software Engineer, recently completed Makers Academy Bootcamp and am looking forward to continue learning and growing as a developer. I have a background of working as an architectural lighting designer and coming from a design industry, with a passion for creating spaces and building custom solutions, I was surprised by how creative Software Development can be, which was one of the aspects that first drew me in.

Working with lighting in my previous career, the intangible nature of light itself and it’s power to transform spaces and impact emotions always felt quite magical.
Writing code evoked that same kind of sense of magic, a few lines of code, written words being able to create, build and change, with endless possibilities that seem to only be limited by time and ones willingness to learn and explore new things.

T E C H

JavaScript, Ruby, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, TablePlus, Git, HTML, CSS, Node.js, Express, React, Sinatra, Capybara, Jest, Cypress, RSpec, Handlebars, Figma

K E Y   P R O J E C T S

Name	Descriptions	Tech/ Tools	Demo
Palendar	Friend Calendar Coordination App	MongoDB, Express, React, NodeJS, Jest, Bcrypt, Cypress
Acebook	Facebook Clone	MongoDB, Express, Handlebars, NodeJS, Jest, Cypress
MakersBnB	AirBnB Clone	Ruby, RSpec, sinatra, capybara, PostgreSQL

H A C K A T H O N

Name	Demo
Athena Hackathon October '22 ShowCode, 22/10/2022 - 23/10/2022, London, UK * 24-hour in-person hack * we were a team of 5 and it was the first full hackathon for all of us * our team chose the R² Factory theme 'How can households reduce their carbon footprint?'

S K I L L S

Motivated to learn

• I feel passionate about continuous learning and exploring new and different ways of doing things and am able to adapt to change. The broad range of projects in my previous career required an adaptability to the required specifications, as well as a willingness to explore and dive into project specific technologies and solutions.
• When working on the exhibition for Antony Gormley at the Royal Academy of Arts, the project was under a tight deadline and within a few hours I was able to take up a new lighting control software and set up the scene settings for the entire exhibition.
• In the context of Makers, we discussed our goals for the final project and our team decided on working with the MERN stack. With no prior knowledge of React, I was able to overcome the challenge of learning the new framework within a few days and contribute as an active member of the team.

Team work

• The project based nature of lighting design, brings with it ever changing teams of people from varying disciplines with different professional backgrounds. The experience of working in these environments has set me up with tools for collaboration, from communication skills, open-mindedness, to being able to take different roles within teams, like leading a project or being able to take a more supportive position in a project run by someone else.
• The Tokyo EDITION, Toranomon involved an American client, Japanese Architect and real-estate developer, as well as a UK based lighting design company. In order to overcome challenges of working across the different time zones, it took substantial coordination and keeping an open mind to different ways of communicating instead of the traditional face to face meetings. In addition to video conferencing, I relied heavily on active email exchanges, using sketches and mark-ups to visually aide understanding of complex challenges.

Problem solving

• Due to the multidisciplinary nature of lighting design projects, problem solving is a main aspect of the profession. At any stage of the project changes are possible and inevitable, from design changes, unexpected site conditions, delays, reduced budgets to faulty products. An ability to react to those challenges and being able to prioritise and turn around a solution promptly is essential and at times requires unconventional approaches.

E D U C A T I O N

Software Engineering Bootcamp
Makers Academy, 04|2022 - 07|2022, London, UK
Hybrid

• An intensive 12 week course with an emphasis on self-directed learning
• Focus on Test Driven Development and pair programming
• During three team engineering projects employed Agile working methodologies
• Object oriented programming & software design
• Gained experience with MVC framework patterns
• Over the period of the course progressed form basic understanding in Ruby, to writing full stack web applications in Ruby and JavaScript
• For the final project I was part of a team of 5, building a web application using the MERN stack. We employed Agile working methodologies, running stand-ups, retros, sprints, creating user stories and an MVP. Pair programming to work through tickets and mobbing whenever bigger problems blocked progress. Throughout using Git for version control.

MA Architectural Lighting Design
Hochschule Wismar, 09|2014 - 07|2016, Wismar, Germany
graduated with distinction

 Master Thesis: 'Light Pollution - Problems and Solutions'

• The thesis looks into a variety of issues resulting from light pollution, covering the effects on humans, animals and plants and compares a selection of different strategies and approaches proposed by different countries and cities to control and reduce the problems.

BA Architecture
Fachhochschule Dortmund, 09|2008 - 10|2014, Dortmund, Germany

P R O F E S S I O N A L   E X P E R I E N C E

During the past 7 years of working in the lighting design industry I had the chance to gain experience working on a large variety of projects in scale and complexity, ranging across hospitality, residential, commercial, public realm and leisure.
The job required collaborating with international design teams, liaising with architects, interior designers, clients, contractors etc, to develop lighting design concepts that were translated into technical detailing and deliverables to take projects from concept through to construction and commissioning phases.

Lighting Designer
Foundry, 06|2020 - 12|2021, London, UK

• took leadership for hitting targets of reduced lighting budgets, while maintaining the integrity of the design strategy
• practiced detail oriented and dedicated approach to avert project delays
• further developed my commercial awareness, getting involved with purchasing and supply of 3rd party light fittings
• took initiative for the responsibility of training the 3 junior lighting designers
• brought strong team working skills to all my projects, which are integral to architectural lighting design, where coordination and working towards a common goal between a multitude of disciplines is crucial, to ensure the highest quality end results

Intermediate Lighting Designer
Isometrix Lighting and Design, 12|2018 - 05|2020, London, UK

• successfully delivered a variety of high-end international projects from hospitality, residential to exhibitions
• lead projects from concept stage to construction, managing and prioritising workload and information packages across a multitude of projects simultaneously, including the Antony Gormley Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, Matteo's at Annabel's and The Tokyo EDITION, Toranomon
• tight deadlines and the dynamic nature of projects required strong problem-solving abilities and personal resilience, these allowed me to respond to unforeseen challenges and my ability to think outside the box let me resolve them efficiently
• used strong communication skills to collaborate with international design teams
• my passion for continuous learning allowed me to explore and implement new and unconventional solutions and project specific technologies even under critical time constraints

Designer
dpa lighting consultants, 03|2017 - 11|2018, London, UK

Junior Lighting Designer
Nulty, 02|2016 - 02|2017, London, UK

Intern Lighting Designer
Nulty, 08|2015 - 01|2016, London, UK

C O M P E T I T I O N S   &   I N S T A L L A T I O N S

Competitions

• Darc Night, 'Helios' - Best Darc Night Installation, 09|2017, London, UK
  
• AufRuhr! Wald und Holz Wettbewerb, (AufRuhr! Forest and Wood Competition), 1st Prize, 08|2009, City of Arnsberg & FH Dortmund, Germany
  

Installations

• Helios
   Luminale, 03|2018, Frankfurt, Germany
   Winter Lights, 01|2018, Canary Wharf, UK
   Darc Night, 09|2017, London, UK
  
• Lewes Light, Festival of Light, 10|2016, Lewes, UK
  
• Licht fuer die Kunst, 9. Internationaler Lichtworkshop, 11|2014, Neuruppin, Germany
  

I N T E R E S T S

• bouldering   |   quite recently discovered passion (at this point pretty much a V0 - V1 enthusiast)

• roller skating   |   the old school quad kind of type (aspiring artistic roller skater, in reality still working on a clean heel toe spin)
• live music
• plant collection   |   all about the lush green, all about aroids (over the moon about my monstera albos latest leaf turning out half moon)
• podcasts   |   podcasts, podcasts, podcasts