Full-stack Development: Application to aid Automation; Investigating the Political Design of Social Media Applications

In the world we live in today, technology can either break or make things in our society. Technology has so many implications, yet so new to the humankind. One crucial part of creating a technology that impacts user’s lives is creating it with strong foundation, without overlooking possible loopholes. Foundations here include security measures, ethics, and social and political implications. Technology created with strong foundations can minimize the negative implications while improving and changing our lives.
My technical research project was research on what I had done at my internship in the summer of 2021. I was tasked to create a technology from the ground up that internal employee can use to make it easier to access certain resources in the company’s database. I documented the entire process of creating the application from start to finish, noting the importance of each step, including features that contribute to an application with strong foundations, such as security and tests. Along with the process I learned during this time, I was able to relate it to the courses I have taken at UVA and was able to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses for the related classes, and outline what could be changed to better prepare students for the real world applications.
My STS research project was research to investigate political design and digital constitutionalism in the social media platforms by conducting case studies on Facebook (Meta) and YouTube (Google). I found information on the social and political implications to show significance of this topic. I have also found information about the industry’s foundations, and the root cause of the implications. This research paper is just a suggestion with things to consider. And in conclusion, research paper serves to aid in reasoning why a stronger governing body is needed and to outline some of the current issues that needs to be considered by whatever governing body.
In conclusion, I was able to meet all that I have set out to do. I have learned that foundations matter in creating an application for everyone, suggested changes that should be made in some UVA CS classes to help better prepare students for the industry, found significance in the issues revolving the social media industry and why a stronger governing body is needed, and learned that issues regarding the social media industry is a lot worse than I believed prior to this research. I hope to have contributed in raising voices for the need of some governing body for this industry.
Finally, I would like to thank prof. Ferguson for guiding me through my STS research project, and prof. Vrugtman for reviewing my technical research project. I would also like to thank my manager and my mentor at Viasat this past summer for working with me and teaching me strong foundations.

School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Technical Advisor: Daniel Graham
STS Advisor: Sean Ferguson