Technical Workshop Series: Building and Deploying a Full-Stack MERN App on Azure with CI/CD
Presenter: Gurjot Singh
Date: Starting Friday, January 30, 2026 (8-week series; every Friday)
Time: 3:00 PM EST
Location: Lecture Space (4011), 4th Floor - 300 Ouellette Ave., School of Computer Science Advanced Computing Hub
Abstract:
This workshop series is a beginner-friendly, hands-on introduction to building and deploying a simple full-stack MERN application using a modern frontend and an industry-standard Azure deployment workflow. Attendees will build a Todo application with a Next.js frontend and an Express.js backend, integrate a database for persistent storage, and progressively prepare the application for production. The series then focuses on containerization using Docker and setting up a complete CI/CD pipeline using Azure DevOps, Azure Container Registry (ACR), and Azure App Service. By the end of the series, participants will have a working production deployment on Azure and a clear understanding of how modern full-stack applications are built, containerized, and deployed using automated workflows.
Workshop Outline:
This is an 8-session workshop series. Each session builds incrementally toward a complete, production-deployed application.
· Introduction to the overall system architecture and backend application setup
· Database integration and API development for managing application data
· Frontend development using Next.js and integration with backend APIs
· UI enhancement and application polish using modern styling and component patterns
· Containerization of frontend and backend services using Docker
· Azure cloud fundamentals and infrastructure setup for hosting containerized applications
· Continuous integration using Azure DevOps to build and publish container images
· Automated deployment to Azure App Service and production-level debugging workflows
Prerequisites:
· Basic familiarity with JavaScript and web development fundamentals (client/server concept and HTTP requests).
· No prior experience with cloud platforms, Docker, or CI/CD is required.
· Students must have the following software installed before the series begins: Node.js (LTS), pnpm, Git, VS Code, Docker Desktop, and Postman.
· Students must have active accounts for Azure, Azure DevOps, and MongoDB Atlas.
· Attendees are required to use their own internet connection (personal hotspot or equivalent), as the university network may restrict access to external cloud database services.
Biography:
Gurjot Singh is a full-stack software developer and Master of Applied Computing student at the University of Windsor. He is currently completing a co-op placement at Synopsys within the Ansys Electronics Unit, where he works on the web-based version of ConceptSI Wave software. Gurjot has professional experience building full-stack applications using Next.js, React, Angular, Node.js/Express, and MongoDB, and has hands-on experience with Docker-based deployments and CI/CD workflows using Azure DevOps. He has also contributed to AI-powered academic and industry projects and
has experience organizing and leading technical workshops and developer meetups.