William Cooper Ward

Professional Summary

Detail-oriented and highly motivated Software Engineering student with a strong foundation in full-stack development, cybersecurity, and AI-powered applications. Proven ability to lead teams, build robust web applications, and communicate complex technical concepts. Passionate about solving real-world problems through innovative software solutions.

Education

Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering
Florida Gulf Coast University – May 2025
GPA: 3.9

Work Experience

• Senior Project Intern – Full-stack Developer, Netspider Team

  Department of Homeland Security – Fort Myers, FL

  • Contributed to Netspider, an open-source web scraping tool for identifying online indicators of criminal activity.
  • Implemented scheduled scraping functionality using Python and Selenium.
  • Developed automatic keyword translation module to support multilingual scraping.

  Tech Stack: Python Flask, Node.js w/ Electron, Selenium

• Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) Student Assistant I

  National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) – Boulder, CO

  • Rotational student position in a high-performance computing lab.
  • Supported user services, network engineering, enterprise systems, and data support teams.
  • Gained hands-on experience with large-scale scientific computing infrastructure.

• IT Service Desk Student Technician

  Front Range Community College – Westminster, CO

  • Provided front-line tech support for students and staff.
  • Resolved issues related to login credentials, Wi-Fi, printing, and basic hardware/software troubleshooting.
  • Supported Microsoft Office, Outlook, Windows OS, Banner, and D2L systems.

Projects

• “AD some AI” – AI-Powered Advertisement Generator

  EagleHacks 2025 Team ‘Git Push –Force’ – 2nd Place & EightPoint Sponsor Challenge Winner

  • Built a SaaS platform for rapid ad image generation using GPT-4.o and DALL·E.
  • Created frontend in Flask and backend API with FastAPI.
  • Integrated Ollama local LLMs and OpenAI models; hosted and deployed a self-contained web app.

• Soil Organic Carbon Mapping & AI Prediction

  • Led a team of 8 in building a web application to map Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) and predict carbon content using custom-trained AI models.
  • Directed requirements gathering, UI/UX design, and end-to-end full-stack development.
  • Stack: Python Flask, AWS cloud-hosted infrastructure, custom ML models

• Smart Invoice Automation

  EagleHacks 2024 Team ‘Coding Cowboys’ – 3rd Place Winner

  • Designed and built a web application for invoice generation from natural language input.
  • Implemented GPT-3.5 API integration with Next.js frontend, hosted via Vercel.

• Cybersecurity Awareness Online Quiz

  • Led a team of 8 in developing a web-based quiz application on phishing scams.
  • Oversaw requirements gathering, UI/UX design, and front-end development.
  • Stack: Next.js, Tailwind CSS, JavaScript, PostgreSQL; hosted on Vercel.

• Duo Two-Factor Authentication Token Cleanup

  • Developed a Python script to query Duo API and identify inactive users.
  • Automated token deactivation for users inactive >6 months; ran bi-weekly.
  • Used by Shared Infrastructure Section at NCAR.

Skills