BSc Computer Science Student

Ruben Ward

BSc Computer Science student at the University of Sheffield looking forward to my third year abroad at Yonsei University, South Korea. I am focused on Rust, Nix, and distributed systems. Co-founded and ran Swift News from 2018 to 2022, writing a Python/FastAPI CMS that handled invoicing and scheduling for 70 customers. Hoping to gain experience building reliable software in a professional engineering team.

ruben.john.ward@gmail.com

LinkedIn • GitLab • Github

Sheffield / London / Remote

Looking for: Summer internships, 2027

Education

University of Sheffield

BSc Computer Science with a Year Abroad

10/2024 – 06/2028

Currently achieving first-class honours

Relevant Courses

  • Foundations of Computer Science

    Score: 94/100

  • Engineering - You're Hired

    Score: 83/100

  • Intro to Software Engineering

    Score: 79/100

Show 14 more courses

  • Machines and Intelligence

    Score: 79/100

  • Introduction to Algorithms and Data Structures

    Score: 77/100

  • Web and Internet Technology

    Score: 76/100

  • Data Driven Computing

    Score: 76/100

  • Systems Design and Security

    Score: 73/100

  • Java Programming

    Score: 71/100

  • Functional Programming

    Score: 68/100

  • Devices and Networks

    Score: 64/100

  • Global Engineering Challenge

    Score: Distinction

  • Robotics

    Score: 70/100

  • Logic in Computer Science

    Score: 83/100

  • Automata, Computation and Complexity

    Score: 83/100

  • Software Hut

    Score: 65/100

Work

Sheffield Students' Union

Senior Stage Manager

01/2025 – Present

Responsible for a team of people running live events for gigs and club nights.
  • Manage a team of up to 7 staff during live events.
  • Coordinate sound, video, and lighting teams.
  • Resolve live technical faults invisibly to attendees.

Swift News

Co-Founder

08/2018 – 06/2022

Co-founded a newspaper-delivery company during secondary school. Designed, built, and operated the software used to run the business.
  • FastAPI (Python) CMS for 70 customers, automating invoicing via SMTP email or post and centralising customer data.
  • Automated scheduling for 5 employees, eliminating manual daily planning and improving operational reliability.
  • Maintained production systems, ensuring daily schedule delivery, monthly invoicing, and regular customer data backups.

Projects

Rocket SQLx Migrator

06/2024 – Present

Developed an open-source Rust library that automates SQLx database migrations at application startup.
  • Engineered a custom Rocket fairing utilising rocket_db_pools for safe, asynchronous launch-time execution.
  • Optimised developer workflow by eliminating boilerplate, reducing migration setup to a single-line API call.
  • Published and maintained the crate on crates.io, achieving 1,500+ downloads and adoption by external dev teams.

Prime Number Miner

02/2024 – 06/2026

Distributed system originialy written in Python then re-written in Rust to calculate and verify large quantities of prime numbers across multiple (web) clients.
  • Implemented work validation system to prevent duplicate or malicious submissions.
  • Container-based deployment using Podman/Docker and Docker Compose.
  • CI/CD pipelines for automated build-and-test on every push.

NixOS Infrastructure

2023 – Present

Wrote a declarative system configuration managing multiple machines. Hosting my Prime Number Miner, a multi-user Nextcloud server, and my CV website (rubenward.com).
  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Nix Flakes and Home Manager.
  • Automated deployment of development environments.
  • Centralised and synchronised configuration and secrets to deploy personal projects.

Robotics Navigation System

02/2026 – 05/2026

Autonomous maze-exploration and target-tracking system developed for a TurtleBot3 utilising SLAM, A* pathfinding, and OpenCV written in Python.
  • Architected a modular ROS 2 system with decoupled nodes for vision, navigation, and hardware control.
  • Implemented collision-free autonomous exploration utilising LiDAR and odometry for real-time map generation.
  • Engineered an OpenCV image-processing pipeline to identify visual targets and dynamically route the robot to them.

Software Hut

02/2026 – 05/2026

Contributed to Team Management Tool for a real client. It is a full-stack university administration platform centralising team management, purchasing approvals, supplier workflows, donations, role-based permissions, and notifications.
  • Built Rails 8 workflows for finance approvals, suppliers, and donations with robust state and edit controls.
  • Added request version history and accurate balance modelling (pending vs confirmed) using integer currency handling.
  • Implemented role-based access (Devise/CanCanCan) and CSV admin imports for suppliers, teams, memberships, and roles.

Automated CV System

12/2025 – Present

A custom-built CV generation engine that transforms JSON data into professional PDF and web formats. This very CV was generated by it.
  • Built using Astro and declaratively deployed via Nix.
  • Supports dynamic schema-based content selection tailored to specific job roles.
  • Developed utilising AI generation with human review to maximise iteration speed and deployment velocity.

Sticks & Stones - Beta

02/2025 – Present

Developed and designed a public real-time competitive game for mobile and desktop in Rust. Currently in open beta, with ongoing playtesting and open user signups.
  • Built a custom 2D rendering and game engine from scratch rather than an existing framework, rendering directly to canvas for both mobile and desktop client capable of operating parallel/asynchronously.
  • Implemented realtime multiplayer netcode over WebSockets with multi-room support, including client-side prediction and server-side move verification to prevent cheating.
  • Developed as a fullstack Rust single-page application using Dioxus, unifying client and server in one codebase.