Ethan Sorto Kaplan

Shirk

This will be a Chrome extension to block distracting websites similar in functionality to BlockSite but 100% free and with more features like pausing the block list, allowing redirects from Google for research*, and nestable profiles with schedules to allow for a less-restricted yet still-focused browsing experience. I'm building it to learn more about React, Webpack, Chrome extension development, and to help me focus on my work.

*For example, I'll have Reddit blocked while Googling something but the most useful result might be a Reddit post. If I disable the block list just to view that one post I'll need to remember to reenable it or risk leaving it off and finding myself distracted later. With this feature, I'll allow following links from Google such as Google → Reddit while blocking Reddit → Reddit redirects so that only that single post is viewable.

Elephant Ears

For senior design, my team used the MERN stack to build a web app that utilizes a spaced-repetition algorithm during a pre-determined ear training course to learn each user's strengths and weaknesses. Then, the app automatically schedules new exercises for them to train in the future. This way, the user never has to ask "what should I study today?" because the app will learn what they're bad at and schedule those exercises for them. While the variety and difficulty of the exercises increase, the user will still be able to focus on training their ears instead of worrying about what to practice.

Skills I improved during this project include: React, MongoDB, Express, Node.js, the WebAudioAPI; managing a team of 5 people; using git for version control.

Foreign Word Search

A simple tool which has saved me hours of repetitive work while making digital flashcards for foreign language vocabulary. Building it was also an excuse to learn useful development skills like managing a website with git over ssh, ssh and git for remote development in general, and building something useful with non-programmers in mind.

*This was the first web app I ever built from scratch so it's not very pretty and limited in functionality. I wrote it in plain Javascript, HTML, and CSS to get a feel for those languages and to learn how to use git for version control. In the future, I plan to rewrite it with a modern framework to add more features like a prettier UI, more languages, a way to save and share word lists, and to give the user the option to add their own sites.

University of Central Florida, FL