Knowing your team members is the most important factor when being a part of a team. It is the link to better cooperation and to finishing tasks in a timely manner. Usually I find myself working alone, but I understand the importance of working with others. You are exposed to different perspectives on the same thing. None the least, you do not have to carry all of the weight. So far me and my research team have been working together to get a publication ready for Microsoft Research. The end goal required all of us to work together efficiently.
Each of my team members specialized in areas that I may lack experience in. For example, one of my members named Josh knows how to analyze and generate statistical data. Personally for me, it was difficult to figure out what kind of data we should create for our research. It was good to get his input on the concern. As for my other team member, Brandon he was of great help in assisting me in creating raw data for Josh to analyze. Together it was a team effort and we had a pipeline system intact.
After completing our first draft of the paper, I have learned two things. First one being that I have learned how one should write and format a research paper. Using LaTex to compile the paper was a challenge in terms of positioning tables and figures, but for the most part was easy to learn. The second thing that I learned is how to manage a team. This is a skill that hasn't had a lot of exposure. I have been teams of group projects, but this was different. This time I was going for a bigger picture, and it was my job to keep the team all together. So far research has nurtured me in becoming a better leader and a smarter worker. I know that there is much more to learn, but I am looking forward to what is in store for me.
Friday, July 15, 2016
Young Scholars Advice for Networking
When I think back to my times in high school after taking the ACT and applying for colleges, I remember asking for advice and what to expect when actually in college. Everyone would mention things like "make sure you pick your dorm early so you get the nice ones" or "enjoy the meal plan but watch out for the freshman 15", or tell me to pick a nice schedule to avoid 8am classes. However, one thing I've noticed is that no one ever mentioned the term networking.
I didn't hear the word networking very often until I got into college and didn't really understand what it meant. If I could talk to students from my high school, I would tell them that when they get to college don't be afraid to step out of their natural comfort zone, and try to make the most out of every opportunity. Networking is something that happens all the time whether if it is a business event, research presentation, or just talking to people around the office, there is always an opportunity to put your best foot forward and represent yourself.
An important key to networking is to do your research on the person or company (sometimes both) that your interested in. For example, as a sophomore or junior student trying to earn an internship for the summer, I would recommend going online and browsing the company's website and looking for any interesting news articles they may have been mentioned in, learning about their products, and how the company operates as a whole aside from just the specific position of interest. Being familiar with the CEO and the organizations goals will give you a way to ease into the conversation at the next event or or interview.
Finally I would express the importance of staying humble while speaking about your current or past experiences. Instead of bragging about your accomplishments and what makes you so great, it might be better to talk about what you have done in the past and how it has been a benefit to others around you, or what you have learned from those experiences and new people.
I didn't hear the word networking very often until I got into college and didn't really understand what it meant. If I could talk to students from my high school, I would tell them that when they get to college don't be afraid to step out of their natural comfort zone, and try to make the most out of every opportunity. Networking is something that happens all the time whether if it is a business event, research presentation, or just talking to people around the office, there is always an opportunity to put your best foot forward and represent yourself.
An important key to networking is to do your research on the person or company (sometimes both) that your interested in. For example, as a sophomore or junior student trying to earn an internship for the summer, I would recommend going online and browsing the company's website and looking for any interesting news articles they may have been mentioned in, learning about their products, and how the company operates as a whole aside from just the specific position of interest. Being familiar with the CEO and the organizations goals will give you a way to ease into the conversation at the next event or or interview.
Finally I would express the importance of staying humble while speaking about your current or past experiences. Instead of bragging about your accomplishments and what makes you so great, it might be better to talk about what you have done in the past and how it has been a benefit to others around you, or what you have learned from those experiences and new people.
Investing in Education in Developing Countries
Luckily, in the United States as with most developed countries almost everywhere in our society people have access to necessary tools to learn how to code and improve their programming skills. However, that is not the case with most developing countries. For two weeks, I was able to spend sometime in Ghana and I got to experience what it is like to live in a developing country and the struggles that exist there for someone who is learning to code. While I was in Ghana, I was attempting to learn more about Python in order to work on the data analysis for Codehunt but the problem was I was unable to get any access to anything which could help me. The main reason for this was because of the fact that the electricity would be turned on and off at arbitrary times, and even when you could get access to electricity because of the lack of good wireless connectivity in many areas even with electricity internet was inaccessible.
After coming back to America, I talked about my experience with some of my friends and learned that this is not only a problem in Ghana but also a problem in the a large majority of Africa, the Philippines, and many countries in South and Central America. The reason I find that this is a problem is because the people in those countries may have talents and abilities in computer science which they are unable to capitalize on because of their lack of access to knowledge about computer science, and that not only hurts them but also hurts us here in the United States also. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, 2.5 million STEM jobs are not filled every year in the United States because of a lack of people who have the ability to fulfill those jobs. This same report also states that the majority of people who are studying science and technology in the United States are not Americans but instead Chinese and South Koreans, and although that type of diversity is appreciated what if we could get more diversity allowing for a wider ranger of ideas and thoughts.
Individuals from different cultures all see things in different ways and this diversity of though allows for the creation of broad perspective which is important not only in academics but also in the corporate world. There are many opportunities for business in numerous countries around the world which live in a different culture than our own and as such need different products than we use in our culture. I feel that it would be beneficial for not only universities but also companies to take a greater look at the potential of individuals in foreign countries to help make their universities and companies more diverse. I believe that these companies and universities should invest in improving the situation in those countries to allow the people more access to useful knowledge about science and technology which would allow them to then help educate those people to bring them to the United States to fill jobs and help turn companies into more globalized brands.
After coming back to America, I talked about my experience with some of my friends and learned that this is not only a problem in Ghana but also a problem in the a large majority of Africa, the Philippines, and many countries in South and Central America. The reason I find that this is a problem is because the people in those countries may have talents and abilities in computer science which they are unable to capitalize on because of their lack of access to knowledge about computer science, and that not only hurts them but also hurts us here in the United States also. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, 2.5 million STEM jobs are not filled every year in the United States because of a lack of people who have the ability to fulfill those jobs. This same report also states that the majority of people who are studying science and technology in the United States are not Americans but instead Chinese and South Koreans, and although that type of diversity is appreciated what if we could get more diversity allowing for a wider ranger of ideas and thoughts.
Individuals from different cultures all see things in different ways and this diversity of though allows for the creation of broad perspective which is important not only in academics but also in the corporate world. There are many opportunities for business in numerous countries around the world which live in a different culture than our own and as such need different products than we use in our culture. I feel that it would be beneficial for not only universities but also companies to take a greater look at the potential of individuals in foreign countries to help make their universities and companies more diverse. I believe that these companies and universities should invest in improving the situation in those countries to allow the people more access to useful knowledge about science and technology which would allow them to then help educate those people to bring them to the United States to fill jobs and help turn companies into more globalized brands.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Inclusion: Choice of Words
After taking 100+ credit hours at the University of Illinois I have experienced many different classroom atmospheres. To begin with, most entry level undergrad courses range from weed out classes and general ed required courses with class sizes of about 300+ students to upper level major courses with only 15-30 students per section. Clearly, the professors cannot honestly make an attempt to allocate their time to all 300 students during the lecture time, but in the smaller class sizes I feel it is important for each student to feel comfortable with their peers and the professor when it comes to asking for help, working together, and learning.
I hardly ever think it's a good feeling to be left out, unheard, excluded, or singled out in the classroom or other learning environments. I really think that even the changes in tone, mannerisms, or choice of language can make all the difference in a students learning experience.
For example, in both my accounting and business technical writing courses I've experienced group based work and discussion based participation throughout the regular course schedule. One of the most frustrating times as a student is feeling like you're the only person who doesn't understand or constantly has questions in the class when everyone else sort of just gets it or understands the materials.
I had a professor who would sort of rush through the lecture and stop to ask "who doesn't get it?" or "who doesn't understand?" as a way to ask if any students have questions. In this instance, a few students usually have lingering questions but do not raise their hands or say anything because they do not want to feel isolated under the rhetoric of someone who "doesn't get it".
I'm not exactly sure what caused the change, but later in the semester the professor made a point to correct his choice of words when pausing for questions to ask in less isolating way by changing his words to "Do you have any questions?" or "Is there anything you want to go over that might have been unclear?". I would notice 3-4 hands go up (including my own). I feel like that simple change made my entire learning environment more comfortable to ask questions as well as simply participate when I felt I had the right answer or something valuable to say to add in the discussion.
I hardly ever think it's a good feeling to be left out, unheard, excluded, or singled out in the classroom or other learning environments. I really think that even the changes in tone, mannerisms, or choice of language can make all the difference in a students learning experience.
For example, in both my accounting and business technical writing courses I've experienced group based work and discussion based participation throughout the regular course schedule. One of the most frustrating times as a student is feeling like you're the only person who doesn't understand or constantly has questions in the class when everyone else sort of just gets it or understands the materials.
I had a professor who would sort of rush through the lecture and stop to ask "who doesn't get it?" or "who doesn't understand?" as a way to ask if any students have questions. In this instance, a few students usually have lingering questions but do not raise their hands or say anything because they do not want to feel isolated under the rhetoric of someone who "doesn't get it".
I'm not exactly sure what caused the change, but later in the semester the professor made a point to correct his choice of words when pausing for questions to ask in less isolating way by changing his words to "Do you have any questions?" or "Is there anything you want to go over that might have been unclear?". I would notice 3-4 hands go up (including my own). I feel like that simple change made my entire learning environment more comfortable to ask questions as well as simply participate when I felt I had the right answer or something valuable to say to add in the discussion.
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Broadening My Skillset
As of lately, a lot of people have been asking about my summer plans and what I want to do after completing my last year of undergrad. I begin explaining my Code Hunt research position and explain how I'm learning computer programming. "Well aren't you an accounting major?" is typically the first response I receive. Yes I am, however, learning computer programming software has helped sharpen my "beginning-to-end" thinking process, which is critical in the accounting field.
Seeing as most accountants actively use excel spreadsheets and other financial related software and programs for accounting measures, it is important to understand the step-by-step decision making process that is also derived from learning and executing computer code. Learning R has gotten me familiar with troubleshooting errors line by line and that same skill transfers over when working on my accounting related course work in cost accounting and other upper level courses I have taken.
Recent articles from AICPA, explain that graduating accounting students pursuing the Big Four public accounting firms [E&Y, Deloitte, KPMG, and PwC] should pursue Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license and students should also consider learning how to code. The combined range of skills makes students highly competitive in their field and very marketable as technology continues to carry on. I am excited to continue learning about code and see how I can take these skills with me once I enter the work force. Initially, I never would have thought about combining the two, until the opportunity presented itself after a quick discussion with Dr. Xie and I am glad I took the chance.
http://www.aicpa.org/interestareas/accountingeducation/newsandpublications/pages/should-accounting-students-code.aspx
Joshua Reed
July 2nd, 2016
Seeing as most accountants actively use excel spreadsheets and other financial related software and programs for accounting measures, it is important to understand the step-by-step decision making process that is also derived from learning and executing computer code. Learning R has gotten me familiar with troubleshooting errors line by line and that same skill transfers over when working on my accounting related course work in cost accounting and other upper level courses I have taken.
Recent articles from AICPA, explain that graduating accounting students pursuing the Big Four public accounting firms [E&Y, Deloitte, KPMG, and PwC] should pursue Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license and students should also consider learning how to code. The combined range of skills makes students highly competitive in their field and very marketable as technology continues to carry on. I am excited to continue learning about code and see how I can take these skills with me once I enter the work force. Initially, I never would have thought about combining the two, until the opportunity presented itself after a quick discussion with Dr. Xie and I am glad I took the chance.
http://www.aicpa.org/interestareas/accountingeducation/newsandpublications/pages/should-accounting-students-code.aspx
Joshua Reed
July 2nd, 2016
Friday, July 1, 2016
Moving Forward
As I start writing our research paper, a question came to mind. What is next? After my meeting with Dr. Xie yesterday, we started discussing future plans after the research paper. One of the suggestions was working with one of my research partners to create APIs that could expand on what Code Hunt is. Since I have been programming in Python, it was mentioned that we try to get a feature where users could play Code Hunt by coding in Python. I actually like this idea, because I believe that it will also build my programming foundation and give myself another challenge. Doing this task would be very enjoyable since it is much more different than assorting and processing data.What I have come to realize about research is that you are given more freedom in what you can explore. When working in the corporate world, all of your efforts are directed towards a specific mission that the company has set for themselves. This what I am liking about research; the freedom to explore. As I continue to do research this summer, more questions will be asked and more finding will come from it. I am looking forward to where research is going to take me for the next four weeks.
Website for CodeHunt
Being able to use the skill that I learned over 2 summers ago is kind of cool because I was previously using this skill from time to time. Now that I am able to use my web development skills to help display data that was extracted from CodeHunt Data. From that I have set up a website that will display the raw data for each Sector. Within each Sector there is levels and there is the Raw Data for each level. I am still a little rusty so somethings are taking much longer to work than I thought. It is still a work in progress, but I am thinking positive for the completion of this site.
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