Nicholas Voelker

My passion for writing code started in 2015 when I started learning the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I found it fascinating that there were so many free resources on the internet and began to learn as much as I could. This would lead me to enrolling in college and obtaining my Associate’s degree in web publishing and eventually earning my Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology. I am still as passionate about software development now as I was when I first started.

I joined the Navy straight out of high school and I’ve had a very exciting career from driving patrol boats in Iraq to teaching survival skills at the Navy’s SERE (Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape) school to working on the latest geolocation tools for the Navy SEALs at DEVGRU (Naval Special Warfare Development Group). I have fulfilled all of my goals in the Navy and I am now ready to move on to my next adventure.

I currently live in Chesapeake, VA with my wife of 21 years and my three beautiful children. When I am not writing code or solving coding challenges I spend a lot of time on my boat with the family. I also like to polish my skills as an novice horticulturist and self taught auto mechanic.

Bachelor of Science in Information Technology — American Public University System

Associate of Science in Web Publishing — American Public University System

• Garage Log

  The Garage Log is an application to track maintenance on a fleet of vehicles. The user is able to add vehicles through a built in VIN search. Once a vehicle is added it can be modified or deleted. Each user may have multiple vehicles and each vehicle may have multiple maintenance logs associated with it.

  • Svelte
  • PocketBase
  • Tailwind

  
• User profile app

  This is an application for registering and allowing users to sign in. Once signed in the user can update all of their information to include name, avatar, email, and password. This app has email verification. The frontend was built with Svelte and deployed on Netlify. For the backend I used PocketBase and deployed on Fly.io. This is by far my favorite tech-stack. Check it out, you can register with a fake email to test the features.

  • Svelte
  • PocketBase

  
• Small buisness blog

  This is a site built for a small business that might want to reach customers with articles or blogs. The menu is a little different from the standard hamburger menu. It has an animated landing page with some graphics that I created using GIMP. The contact form is functional and I will receive messages there (probably not as fast as I would with an email). Check out the subtle color animation in the text.

  • Astro

  
• Python web scraper

  My wife grew tired of manually gathering data from a website and assembling it into a spreadsheet for her job. The task consumed hours of her time, prompting her to seek my assistance. In response, I developed a web scraper tailored to her needs. Tkinter facilitated the creation of a user-friendly interface, simplifying the process of entering login credentials. Selenium efficiently navigated the website and extracted the necessary data. Lastly, Pandas proved invaluable for data cleaning and formatting, ultimately generating an HTML document for easy access and analysis.

  • Python
  • Tkinter
  • Selenium
  • Pandas

  
• RGB Guessing Game

  This is a guessing game that is great for anyone that uses RGB color. It was built using pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It is linked to my CodePen page because I really like being able to showcase the game as well as the logic. Give it a try and see where you RGB guessing skills are.

  • HTML
  • JavaScript
  • CSS

  

1. 2021 — Present

   Navigation Division Manager

   Salesforce database administrator responsible for user management, permissions, providing end user support. Charged with data maintenance, including building new functions, processes and reports to improve efficiency for 300 users.

   Developed an Excel spreadsheet to calculate and track daily physical activity for 300 users. This spreadsheet was linked to an automated dashboard that would display individual scores and group rankings based on physical activity.

   Managed the professional growth of a department of 20 people comprised of administration, medical, maintenance, and navigation personnel. This included career counseling, periodic evaluations, and oversight of day to day routines.

2. 2017 — 2021

   High Risk Training Evaluator

   Lead instructor responsible for the development of curriculum for electronic charting software called the Common Geospatial Extensible Navigation Toolkit (COGENT) and the Garmin radar systems.

   Spearheaded the construction of a one of a kind stand-alone mobile radar and electronic navigation training system. This allowed instructors to increase class size fivefold by moving the class from the boat to the classroom.

3. 2013 — 2017

   Naval Special Warfare Research and Development

   Collaborated with NSA, FBI, and CIA to design, development, and support new products from concept to full production for ground to Satellite Communication via radio frequency. One of the products that went into production was a passive geo-location device.

   Identified how the SQL database used for the geo-location device was storing date/time data improperly. Worked with the database engineer to implement the solution.

   Field tested the geo-location device from aircraft, vehicle and on foot. This testing was done at sub-zero temperatures so each piece of hardware needed to be carefully monitored and modified when it failed.

4. 2010 — 2013

   Lead Instructor at SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) School

   As the lead instructor at the Navy’s survival school. Utilized a variety of blended learning techniques such as eLearning tools, lectures, classroom discussions, team exercises, readings, case studies, role-plays and demonstrations.

5. 2006 — 2010

   Riverine Patrol Boat Operator

   Responsible for the safe navigation of Riverine patrol boats during two combat tours in Iraq.

6. 2003 — 2006

   Quartermaster

   Responsible for the safe navigation of Navy war ships.