About Myself
My Path to Software Engineering
Dyolzas is an alias that I use to sign-off all my projects. My real name is Wouter Duyols. I already knew I would become a software engineer since I was a kid. I was always building stuff with whatever I could find. It started with Lego and Playmobil and a few years later I was already experimenting with nails, screws and wood. When I became older I realised that if you really want to create something useful that you need the tools for it. I thought programming would be the easiest to realize as I only needed a computer. I was 12 years old when I wrote my first website. At that moment I would not know that developing that website would determine the path that I now travel.
When I was in the 5th grade of high school we had an informatics course where we really needed to develop stuff. The programming language used was Visual Basic. I enjoyed it so much that in one week I read the whole course. I started to develop my own applications in Visual Basic. It were mostly some easy games but I also created the first version of the 'Cash Desk'. This has been used for several years until I made a new, more simple version of the 'Cash Desk' in javascript. It won't surprise you if I say that I passed the course with an average of 95/100
One year later, the local youth movement asked me if I could renew their website. My knowledge about HTML was not that great (see my first project 'Duyolskes'). So I started to learn HTML and after a few months the website was ready.
Later on in university I was always way ahead on the HTML courses. Everything in the courses were repetition and my websites where outstanding in comparison with the websites of others.
In the last year of university I've build my thesis in PHP. I did my thesis with another student who was also very good in PHP programming. Together we build a big application in PHP using the framework Symfony. This was the first time that I used a framework and it really showed me how proper programming should be done.
After this I recreated the registering tool for our local youth movement's food festivities. It was first part of the chiro skippy website, but later on the chiro skippy website got obsolete and it was rewritten by someone else. That's when I extracted the registering tool and rewrote it using my own framework inspired by Symfony. This 'own' framework would later be used by some other applications like the 'Altcoin Tool' and 'Songs Bivak'.
When I've build the website of 'KWB Zemst-Laar' I used the Drupal CMS. This CMS is build with some key components of Symfony and I saw again how clean it was in comparison with my own framework. The only thing that held me back earlier was the compatibility of Symfony with my NAS. It was not easy to get Symfony running on my NAS. But eventually I managed to get it working. I decided to rewrite my apps with the Symfony framework. The first project I rewrote was the Altcoin Tool
Education and Work Experience
1996 - Sint-Maarten school
In primary school it was already clear that I didn't like the 'normal' courses, however my results were actually good. I really liked the science subjects and my outcome of mathematics was outstanding. At the end of primary school they advised me to go to a theoretical school as my results were so good. If I would've chosen at that time, I would've chosen to go to a theoretical school, so I could be with my friends. I'm so happy that we eventually did not follow that advise. That was by far the most important decision I took in my life. And I'm really grateful to my parents that they took that decision for me, because I would've chosen the other path.
2004 - Technische Scholen Mechelen - Engineering Technology
In the beginning I was a bit nervous because I didn't know anyone at that school, but that feeling went away after a few weeks. There were a lot of students just like me and we learned to know everyone better during a small camp in the first week. After a few months I knew this was the right direction for me, and I'm still so glad that my parents decided that for me. I had so many courses that I liked: woodworking, metalworking, electricity, mechanics, physics, informatics, mathematics, .... And the courses that I didn't like were not so extensively treated. For example the language courses.
2010 - Catholic University of Leuven campus De Nayer - Engineering Technology - Electronics and ICT
After six years of Engineering Technology at TSM I continued this path at De Nayer. This time I was 100% sure of this decision. I again really liked the courses and I was already way ahead of others who came from theoretical schools. The first year was a lot of repetition of what we saw in high school. This was mainly because other students, coming from theoretical schools, didn't had this courses during high school. After one year and a half we had to choose our speciality. I've chosen for 'Electronics and ICT'. By choosing this path, I would again split from my friends. But I've never been so sure about a decision as then.
2015 - Catholic University of Leuven - Civil Engineering - Computer Science
After 4 years at campus De Nayer and after obtaining my degree as 'Master of Electronics and ICT Engineering Technology', I made my path even longer. I went to Leuven for initially 2 years extra so I could obtain the degree of 'Civil Engineering - Computer Science' as well. However after one year I decided to stop my studies. My results were not good and I felt not at home in Leuven. There was such a distance between the profs and the students and between the students themselves. Although I learned a lot during that one year. I learned to be independent and I had a lot of interesting courses as well.
2016 - MEDIAGNIX
In 2016 I started my journey at MEDIAGENIX. I found this company really interesting as it was developing in a programming language that I did not know, Smalltalk. At that moment I wanted to learn as many programming languages as I could, so it was really nice that I could learn a new programming language. Also the atmosphere at MEDIAGENIX stroked me. It was so open. There are not a lot off walls and you are not isolated at your own desk. The job interview was thoroughly done and you were well evaluated by different job interviewers. I also liked the fact that you have an extensive training before you actually start developing real stories.
Hobbies
Sports
I like playing soccer. I already play it in competition for almost whole my life. First I played it at SK Laar after a few years I moved to Zennester Hombeek as a lot of friends were also playing it there. After some years at Zennester Hombeek I moved back to SK Laar. Since recently I'm also playing it now indoor as well. This is also in competition.
I also like biking. I always went to school with my bike. Even when I got my driving license I kept going to school by car. De Nayer was located 13km from my home. So that was 26km each day. I also bike to work now when the weather is good. The head quarters of MEDIAGENIX is based in Groot Bijgaarden which is 20km from my home. That's good for an average of 2500km each year.
Whenever I don't play soccer or when I didn't bike to work, I'm finessing. I always take a workout DVD from Insanity or P90X because I like intensive workouts.
I also like hiking. It's nice to let all stress go for a short period. Hiking is really a good way to do that. I spent at least one week of holidays on hiking each year.
Youth movement
I've been part of Chiro Skippy since I was 6 years old. I was a monitor for 3 years, a freelancer for 5 years and at this moment I'm part of the cooking team. I always liked being part of Chiro skippy and I always had a good connection with it. Chiro Skippy gave me friends for my life and that's probably why it's hard to say goodbye.
I'm also part of Old Chiro Skippy. That's an organisation of old monitors of Chiro Skippy. And the KWB of Zemst-Laar which is basically an organisation for older men of our neighborhood.
