James Simmons

Background

About James Simmons

I'm a junior software developer with a strong foundation in backend development, AI logic, and full-stack systems design. I enjoy solving complex problems and building practical tools with clean, modular code. In recent projects, I developed a fully featured command-line Mancala AI game in Python, implementing both MiniMax and Alpha-Beta Pruning for strategic decision-making. I designed a custom evaluation heuristic and benchmarked performance through batch simulations, achieving a 95% win rate against random agents—all without external libraries, relying solely on the Python standard library. I also created a Rate My Professor API as part of an AI assistant website project. The service is built using Flask and Puppeteer (Node.js), integrating scraping automation and Python-to-Node.js communication. I containerized the application with Docker, supported CORS for frontend integration, and structured the architecture for maintainability and scalability. Additional experience includes: Integrating the Google Maps API into web applications Writing backend endpoints (e.g,/register) and supporting SQL database setup Setting up Docker environments to streamline deployment workflows I'm excited about opportunities where I can combine thoughtful system design with scalable solutions—and continue learning from great teams along the way.