Matt DeDiana, Lead Software Engineer, Ellucian
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WHO? Matt DeDiana ROLE: Matt is a Lead Software Engineer for Ellucian. “I write web applications for students and employees at colleges and universities! My focus right now is with human resources… things like timesheets, banking information and statements. I also work with student-side financial aid”, he explains. In essence, Matt builds web applications that make the lives of students and faculty much, much easier. BIGGEST WIN IN THE PAST YEAR: “Almost a year ago I got a R&D employee of the month thing I was pretty proud of… all of our front-end development patterns were built by back-end engineers, and we needed a better way to write code. I introduced a component-based development process for our UI that cut down the messiness and made it easier to onboard new developers”. With this new coding toolbox, Matt was able to improve developer efficiency and organization across the board. HOW? Matt believes that going to school was the right choice. “The first thing I noticed was that I felt like my computer science degree and knowledge of data structures gave me a step up from other developers”, he outlines. “It was eye opening to see that other developers didn’t have the same base knowledge that I had”. Matt notes that Ellucian helped him succeed by letting him work remotely. “VCET has made a huge impact on me because I didn’t have a professional network before coming up here, and now I have people I can talk to… other innovative smart people. The sum is greater than its parts!” |
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Ellucian: A company out of Reston, VA that specializes in software solutions and services for higher education institutions. Ellucian is about six years old and is a combination of two older companies. “I started working with Datatel in 2008… in 2011 we combined with one of our competitors and became Ellucian”, Matt explains. “I got the job straight out of college after having an internship with them junior year”. Matt attended Allegheny College in northwestern PA. MATT AND THE FUTURE: “We definitely need to buy a bigger house… two beds, one bath, four people. The challenge is finding one at the right price”. Matt has two children, a four-month old named Selene and a three-year old named Maris. He hopes to ski Silverton, CO in the near future. ICE CREAM or PIZZA? “Pizza! You can’t go wrong with Flatbread, but I think the best NY style in Burlington is Mr. Mikes”. FUN: Matt sings in the Solaris vocal ensemble. “It’s a great group of professional and ametuer musicians. Work is sort of my engineering brain outlet… my puzzle-brain outlet. They can overlap, but my singing is generally my creative outlet”. Besides singing, Matt likes to ski and ride his bike. “S/o to my Mom!” – Matt DeDiana |
