Terisa Lau

Student

I am studying for a B.A. in Computer Science in the Department of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi. I expect to graduate in Spring 2027.


Interests: Music, UI/UX Design, Web Development, Digital Art, Cats


Projects

Sushi Cat Video 2025

An animation made using Unity for a Programming Animations class.

Unity 2D Animation Hand Drawn

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Study Abroad in Shanghai 2025

A summer study abroad program at Shanghai International Studies University, where I immersed myself in language, culture, and new perspectives.

Travel China Language

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Bow-lletins 2025

A digital bulletin board platform for UH Mānoa students to discover and share campus opportunities, built for ICS 314: Software Engineering.

JavaScript TypeScript React PostgreSQL Software Engineering

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Interactive Birthday Card 2022

An interactive birthday card built in high school using Code.org's Game Lab, featuring clickable animations and dynamic text changes.

JavaScript Code.org

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Essays

A for Effort

12 May 2026

1. How did you make your effort estimates? My estimates were based mostly on gut feeling and how complex a task looked on the surface before I started it. I’d read through the issue description, think about how many moving...

Estimations Time management

Beyond the Autocomplete

12 May 2026

I. Introduction AI has become a regular part of how students learn, especially in technical fields like software engineering. Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, GitHub Copilot, and Gemini have shifted from novelty to utility, showing up in everything from debugging sessions...

Artificial Intelligence Software Engineering Reflection

Getting Code to Work VS Getting Code to Last

01 May 2026

Design pattern? Who is she? When we first started building the class website, the main goal was just getting things to function. A button that submitted correctly or a page that loaded without crashing felt like a win. But as...

Design Patterns

Final Project Proposal

31 Mar 2026

Overview Bow-lletins is a digital bulletin board platform designed for UH Mānoa students and affiliates. It helps students, organizations, clubs, and campus groups discover and share important opportunities such as jobs, internships, study groups, events, and deadlines in one centralized,...

Software Engineering Nextjs

The UI Dev Experience

26 Feb 2026

The Illusion of Simplicity When I first began learning HTML and CSS, everything felt pretty straightforward and simple. A few lines of code could create headings, paragraphs, or change the background and text color. Adjust a color property, and the...

Bootstrap 5 UI Design

Make Code Pretty

13 Feb 2026

Stop Judging My “HandWriting”! Coding standards are often reduced to minor stylistic preferences, with people debating over the use of two spaces or four, tabs or spaces, single quotes or double quotes. At first, I shared the same belief because...

Coding Standards

See all 9 essays