Derick Alangi
Senior Software Engineer at Wikimedia Foundation
Buea, Southwest, Cameroon
Summary
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Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolDerick Alangi is a Senior Software Engineer with 12 years of experience, currently helping improve the MediaWiki platform at the Wikimedia Foundation while also leading technical efforts like the Climate Justice Map and co-founding Wikimedia Cameroon. He combines backend systems expertise with practical open-source stewardship, contributing notable fixes and feature work to projects such as pocketlang (adding operators, trig functions and REPL improvements) and the widely used pywikibot library. Comfortable across full-stack and platform engineering roles, he has built automated portals, APIs, and tooling that support global Wikimedia operations and community programs. A seasoned mentor and organizer, he has guided GSoC/Outreachy students and run community programs for years, showing a strong commitment to developer education and project sustainability. Based in Buea, Cameroon, he pairs formal studies in software engineering and open source technology management with a long track record of volunteer-driven impact.
12 years of coding experience
9 years of employment as a software developer
Computer Software Engineering, Computer Software Engineering at UdacityOpen Source Technology Management , Open Source Technology Management at Brandeis University - Graduate Professional StudiesBachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.) Computer Software Engineering, Bachelor of Engineering (B.Eng.) Computer Software Engineering at University of Buea
English, French
Stackoverflow
1,100reputation
194kreached
26answers
12questions
Github Skills (25)
categories10
mediawiki10
programming-language10
python10
c1110
interpreter10
c1710
scripting-language10
manage10
cat10
refactor9
refactoring9
vms8
functional8
api-client8
Programming languages (13)
Github contributions (5)
wikimedia/pywikibot
Sep 2018 - Jan 2022
A Python library that interfaces with the MediaWiki API. This is a mirror from gerrit.wikimedia.org. Do not submit any patches here. See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_account for contributing.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:108 commits in 3 years 4 months
Contributions summary:Derick primarily contributed to the core functionality of the Wikimedia Python library, focusing on script improvements and cleanups. The contributions involved adding options to existing scripts like "category.py" for enhanced category list management and refactoring code in scripts such as "wikisourcetext.py" and others. These updates show a commitment to code quality and maintainability.
pythonsubmitwikidatawikipediawikia
ThakeeNathees/pocketlang
Jun 2021 - Jun 2021
A lightweight, fast embeddable scripting language.
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:28 reviews, 20 commits, 28 PRs in 21 days
Contributions summary:Derick primarily contributed to the pocketlang project by fixing bugs, improving code clarity, and adding new features. Their work included correcting typos, refactoring code, and adding support for new operators and functions, such as bitwise operators and trigonometric functions. Furthermore, they worked on improving the REPL implementation and enhancing the string functions available in the language. This demonstrates their focus on improving the core functionality and extending the capabilities of the scripting language.
scriptingembeddable-scripting-languagerustbytecode-compilerscripting-language
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