Meet Amanda
Amanda is originally from Bethesda, Maryland. She graduated from the University of Maryland in 2016 where she studied Mechanical Engineering. While working at srcLogic over the last few years, she also attended Johns Hopkins University part-time and completed her master’s degree in Computer Science.
Amanda Shekarchi
Consultant
USA
USA
Alma Mater
University of Maryland
Favorite Musician
John Mayer
Dream Vacation Destination
Anywhere with a beach
Favorite Sports Team
Maryland Terrapins Basketball
What motivated you to learn how to use Pega?
Before I started working at srcLogic, I had never heard of Pega. I have since had the opportunity to work for three different clients implementing Pega applications. Each of my clients have had requirements that allowed me to learn different pieces of the Pega platform. As Pega continuously changes, there is always something new to learn.
"Pega gave me the opportunity to learn about software development as a whole."
How has Pega shaped or impacted your career?
Prior to becoming a Pega developer, I had very little experience in software development. The opportunity to learn and implement Pega gave me the opportunity to learn about software development as a whole.
What message or advice would you give to anyone who is considering a career as a Pega Developer?
A career as a Pega Developer will keep you constantly learning and growing.
WINNING CATEGORY
Runner Up
PROJECT
Pyra
Pyra uses a modern React UI integrated with Pega’s DX API to give employees a way to get their ideas in front of the right people to effect change in their organization, even while working from home.
ORGANIZATION
srcLogic
TEAM
Alex Vargo, Anna Whittaker, Amanda Shekarch, Daniel Engel, bparlett, Allyson Meltzer, Joe Offutt
"I would like to continue using this project to make future implementations of Pega (and React) smoother for our clients."
How did you find out about the Pega Community Hackathon and why did you want to participate?
I found out about the Pega Community Hackathon from a post on LinkedIn. I sent the link to a couple coworkers who agreed that it would be a good chance for us work on something that was outside our normal client work.
Tell us about the Hackathon project that you worked on - How did you or your team come up with the idea? How did you or your team go about the process of building this Hackathon submission?
One thing I have always liked about srcLogic is how much of a voice every person is given in influencing the direction and culture of our company. Our office is often filled with discussions about new ideas, and our leadership is always willing to listen. The application we created, Pyra, was intended to be a centralized hub in which to bring our teams together and keep innovation alive as our company switched to working from home.
From the start of building this application, my team knew we wanted to utilize Pega’s Digital Experience APIs with a custom user interface. We used Pega’s DX starter pack to build out a simple version of our case type. Once we developed a basic implementation of a Pega case in our React application, we were able to create different React components to make a more advanced UI.
Are there any particular elements of this Hackathon submission that you are most proud of?
While our whole team has Pega experience, most of our team was new to React, including myself. We were skeptical that we would be able to put together an entire application using a language that we had never used before. I am proud of the hard work my team put in to not only build an app, but also to learn a new technology in just six weeks.
What would you like to build next on the Pega platform?
While we only built out one complete application for the Hackathon, we built it with the intention of creating a reusable Digital Experience React framework. I would like to continue using this project to make future implementations of Pega (and React) smoother for our clients. As the DX APIs move to V2, I would like to upgrade our framework to utilize the new functionality that V2 provides.
"Working on Pega technology has created opportunities for me to deliver real-world results quickly resulting in internal exposure and experience."