Hydrogen

Overview

Hydrogen is the official landing page and information hub for CeSIUM (University of Minho's Software Engineering Student Center), serving as its primary digital presence. Built with Next.js, it provides students with centralized access to center resources, including membership information, upcoming events, team structure, merchandise shop, and more.

Impact

As the public face of CeSIUM, Hydrogen serves a critical role in student engagement:

• ~1,000 visits per month from students and prospective members
• Gateway for new members to learn about and join CeSIUM
• Showcases the center's activities and achievements to the broader university community

My Contribution

In 2024, CeSIUM's Technology Department (CAOS) decided to completely rebuild Hydrogen from the ground up with modern technologies and improved architecture. I've been involved in this rewrite project from its inception:

• Core Development: Contributed to building the new codebase, feature set, and user interface
• Ongoing Maintenance: Continued involvement in feature development, bug fixes, and improvements post-launch
• Production Support: Help maintain the live application serving hundreds of users monthly

Technical Stack

• Framework: Next.js with TypeScript
• Styling: Tailwind CSS
• Deployment: Fly.io

Key Features

• Responsive design optimized for mobile and desktop
• Dynamic event calendar
• Team directory and organizational structure
• Membership application system

Challenges & Learning

Working on a production application with real users taught me valuable lessons about:

• User-centered design: Balancing aesthetics with usability for non-technical users
• Performance optimization: Ensuring fast load times despite rich media content
• Collaborative development: Working with a team using Git workflows and code reviews, which is the standard for CAOS projects
• Maintenance mindset: Writing maintainable code that others can understand and extend