May 3, 2016 Topcoder Members of the Month – April 2016

It’s time to announce our Members of the Month! Each month, members from our community are spotlighted for their accomplishments. Please congratulate the following winners for the month of April, winning for their accomplishments in February!

tritias_apr2016

Development Rookie: Titrias

Won first challenge within a month of joining!

toxicpixel_apr2016

Design: ToxicPixel

Won $4200 with top prizes
in LUX and Idea Gen!

monicamuranyi_apr2016

Development: MonicaMuranyi

Won $8300 across 12 competitions

sugina_apr2016

Algorithm: Sugina

Total increase of 175 points,
with a jump from Div 2 to Div 1

Learn more about some of our winners below, and be sure to congratulate all of the winners in this forum thread.

ToxicPixel: April’s Design Member of the Month

ToxicPixel_candid

How did you first get started with Topcoder Studio? Do you remember your first project?

A friend of mine suggested TC to me way back, phew, must be over three years ago now (Nats!). Memories of speed adopting Adobe Illustrator, drawing trees that were not “poofy” at 4 AM…are all still fresh. Otherwise, it was an eye opening and awesome experience. I think I won my first comp which is most probably why I stayed.

What challenges have you enjoyed working on lately, and why?

Really enjoying the Idea Generation competitions offered by TC. Love approaching problems from different angles. Out the box/lateral thinking is also welcomed in those so that makes me very happy. The LUX’s are however equally as awesome. Submission numbers are always high, the pressure is mind blowing and same demands in a quarter of the time…banzai! Most importantly though, they are always run like well oiled machines (adroc, fajar and bwalles). Which makes competing in them more rewarding than the prize money involved, in my very humble opinion.

What design project types do you consider yourself to be an expert with? (web design, wireframes, UX, etc) and why do you like those?

A difficult question. I presumed I was an expert at some things before I joined TC. The caliber of design here quickly schooled me in humility. Now I am happy to replace “expert” with “competitive”.

Tell us about your hometown or country. What’s the one thing a visitor should see if they traveled there?

I kinda cannot summarize Africa, even how or where I grew up. It’s too big a concept to break down into bite sized bits. Lucky like that I guess. If you are visiting, don’t come to South Africa to see the animals. Come to meet the people. We will make you laugh and might even feed you (not to anything…just you). If you are good we will let you ride the cheetahs.

MonicaMuranyi: April’s Developer of the Month

MonicaMuranyi_candid

You’ve been a Topcoder member since 2010. What do you like best about Topcoder?

The best part of Topcoder is the TCO event. I made new friends during these events and even if we don’t see each other very often, we keep in touch online. They are the only ones with whom I can talk about work for more than 1 minute ๐Ÿ™‚ We share the same passion. I also like the fact that Topcoder pushes me to learn new technologies/tools because I change the projects I work on very often.

What challenges have you been interested in lately, and why?

I mainly work on Assembly and Code contests. My tasks at my previous job were very similar to the ones in these types of challenges.

What languages/platforms do you consider yourself to be really good at and why do you like those?

I am experienced with Java and Javascript. I chose Java because it was the first server side language I studied and also because most software development jobs in my town required it. I became experienced with Javascript by participating in Topcoder development contests. Most of them nowadays require Javascript. As for platforms, I use Linux and Windows.

Which industry (Financial, IT, Healthcare, Entertainment, etc.) do you have the most experience developing for both within Topcoder challenges and outside Topcoder?

Before Topcoder, I had experience with the e-commerce domain. Within Topcoder I work on very diverse projects/industries. Here are some with which I had experience this year: healthcare, entertainment, financial, space exploration, crowdsourcing, e-commerce.

Tell us about your hometown or country. What’s the one thing a visitor should see if they traveled there?

My home country is Romania although I recently moved to Vienna, Austria. I would recommend visiting the Peles Castle (in the Carpathian Mountains).

Titrias: April’s Development Rookie Member of the Month

TiTrias_candid

How did you first get started with Topcoder? What was your “beginner” experience like?

I joined TopCoder in January after a recommendation from my friend (Curapiket, Thanks buddy ๐Ÿ˜€ ). I was trying to have multiple stable sources of income as I am planning to open my startup later this year. TopCoder was by far the most professional community with multiple types of competitions and a very friendly environment. My “beginner” experience couldn’t be better.

You became a member in January and won your first challenge in February! Do you have any tips to share with other new members?

I had participated in two challenges before the one that I won. After the review phase of these challenges, I gathered all the notes and tried to avoid them and that was enough to get me my first win. As simple as that.

What challenges have you been interested in, and why?

I’m interested in “Code” challenges because it depends on how good your code is as long as you respect the deadline. F2F needs a fast “acceptable” solution even if not the best submitted, and that doesn’t suit me well.

What languages/platforms do you consider yourself to be really good at and why do you like those?

I love Python, NodeJS, PHP and all web development tools in general. Python for having great standards (PEP), Node for being the youngest and PHP for.. hmm. I just love it..

Tell us about your hometown or country. What’s the one thing a visitor should see if they traveled there?

Pyramids, Luxor & Aswan, Alexandria and Red Sea ( especially Hurghada) . Egypt is the best place to live history.


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