Interview With Leigh

I was fortunate enough to talk to a friend of my sisters, Leigh, who works as a full stack software engineer at a start up company in Columbus, Aver Inc. Aver Inc works with healthcare companies to simplify and increase efficiency in their technology systems. Full stack engineers essentially work on both the front end and back end aspects of an application.

Talking with Leigh about her work as a software engineer at Aver was very insightful. Job descriptions of software engineers are usually very vague in terms of their responsibilities so it was helpful just listening to what she does day to day. Furthermore, the interview opened up a new option that I had never considered before: start ups. For the most part, most of the companies I had applied to already for internships were very large and established companies, which I assume would have a different work culture compared to a smaller start up. From Leigh’s experience in start ups (an internship in a start up in college and her current job), she’s had a lot of opportunities to learn different things because her job requires her to take tasks as they come and her work is determined by what is needed. As a person who does not enjoy restrictions on their schedule and enjoys challenges as they come, working in start-ups sounds very ideal to me. This does not mean the workload is light by any means–Leigh even mentioned that her work is very demanding a lot of the times. But if I ever do venture into working with start ups, I will anticipate and look forward to the challenge

A Brief Overview

I will be doing my capstone project on retention in engineering, with a primary focus on minorities. This is a continuation of research that I’ll be doing next semester under Dr.Froyd in the engineering education department. At the end of my second semester, the opportunity to research on retention in engineering for minorities arose and, after interviewing Dr.Froyd in my first semester about his past research, I immediately applied for the opportunity. As an Asian American woman pursuing computer science and engineering and as a someone who’s wanted to pursue engineering since they were in middle school, I have always been aware of how much of the engineering field is predominantly white and male. This has always been an issue that I’ve been concerned with because I have always believed in the power of many perspectives and the impact that engineering has on the world. I’m researching retention in engineering because I believe it’s impossible to carry forward and advance humanity with only one perspective. Right now, the disparity between the minority and majority in engineering is admittedly getting better, but this disparity is also still very present. If we work to figure out how to increase retention rates, we can bring in more perspectives into the engineering field which ultimately results in more innovation and a better workforce to solve the problems of our world.

Hackathon

From the first moment that I heard about Hackathon in my Intro to CSE survey class, I knew I had to sign up. And so within that week, I had quickly rounded up a few friends to participate with me in the event. I was ecstatic just thinking about the prospect of creating a program from scratch with my friends and although I had limited knowledge in coding(as did my friends), I was excited  for the opportunity to learn more at Hackathon.

The weekend of Hackathon had come and my friends and I arrived promptly at 8am at the Union where the event was held. We had decided to create a program in Java, a coding language that all of us were familiar in. The program centered on fixing syntax errors for beginner Java programmers so they could focus on the logic behind the code. The program developed an interface with buttons and a user-accessible text panel where the user could type in. Finishing the project was admittedly frustrating. Everyone within our group had never had experience with graphical user interface(GUI) coding and we had to learn Swing, which is a GUI widget toolkit for Java. After struggling for hours on end, we had ultimately given up near the end of the day. Although we hadn’t finished the first day, my team was not dismayed. We returned the next day and promptly finished our program near the end of the 24 hours. Although this experience was frustrating, it taught me to look for solutions where they aren’t usually found and to try again and again which is essential for Computer Science and Engineering majors because a lot of coding is often times trial and error.

 

Year in Review

Over the past school year, I have solidified my interest in Computer Science and Engineering through coding courses as well as events such as Hackathon. Coming in as a pre-major, I wasn’t necessarily sure that Computer Science and Engineering was the right path for me so I am relieved that after this year, I can firmly say that I genuinely enjoy what CSE seems to entail.

However, although I’ve discovered my genuine interest in CSE, I’ve also discovered some vices in my study habits. Coming into college, I had never developed proper learning and studying habits, and it reflected in my grades. I had received grades that I considered to be below my standard of excellence and I came into second semester dejected and with no motivation to stay involved in clubs I found during first semester. After a depressing second round of midterms, I went to visit my STEM EE Scholars advisor to talk about program requirements as well as issues I’ve been having concerning my academics and he recommended my a book on learning that is appropriately named Teach Yourself How to Learn by Saundra Yancy McGuire. Throughout the book, I took notes that I thought would be relevant to me and useful to refer back to and after finishing the book, I reflected on what I wanted to improve on and what strategies I would use from the book as I continue my academic career.

Reflection Paper

With these new skills and techniques on learning in mind, I hope to improve my learning habits and work to my highest potential to receive the grades that I want.

G.O.A.L.S.

Of the Honors & Scholars goals, Academic Enrichment is perhaps the one that I am most focused on. Despite being only a pre-major in Computer Science and Engineering, I have found that one of the best things about CSE, specifically coding, is how easy it is to get involved in coding outside of an academic environment. With countless of learning applications for coding languages on the internet, you can easily improve your coding experience, which is exactly what I plan to do in the upcoming semesters. In my free time, I hope to learn new coding languages such as Python, swift, and html so that I can not only improve and nurture my coding experience but have fun creating programs.

However, I also see Global Awareness as a prevalent goal within my life. My parents were immigrants from China and as a first generation native born Chinese-American, my parents have always stressed the importance of maintaining a connection to Chinese culture. Furthermore, growing up in a relatively diverse friend group has taught me the importance of creating connections with other cultures besides my own and with different people in general, which is why Global Awareness to me is not only a goal, but also a desire of mine. In the future, I wish to get involved with clubs like East Asian Club or even clubs that center on Chinese culture to become more involved with the culture that my parents grew up in. Furthermore, I want to be a part of a community that promotes positive mental health as I’ve had friends that have struggled from mental health issues, whether by joining a club that focuses on promoting positive mental health or doing volunteer work in general.

Although I see Global Awareness and Academic Enrichment in my immediate future, I believe that throughout my time here at The Ohio State University and my life past my college career that I will at some point or another, have experiences that relate to every goal within the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S. In order to reach my full potential as well as accomplish my personal goals, I believe that integrating all of the Honors & Scholars G.O.A.L.S into my own goals will be most beneficial to my personal growth as well as my academic growth.

 

Career

[“Career” is where you can collect information about your experiences and skills that will apply to your future career.  Like your resume, this is information that will evolve over time and should be continually updated.   For more information, go to: http://honors-scholars.osu.edu/e-portfolio. Delete these instructions and add your own post.]

Artificial Intelligence Club

 

I had never imagined coming into my first year at Ohio State that I would be a part of AI club. It was by luck that I had passed their booth at the involvement fair, and by a whim that I had signed up. The club was new with this school year being its first year;  however, the reception for this club was overwhelming with over a hundred people interested as they had said at one of their meetings. Although I had entered as a Computer Science Engineering pre-major, I had never entertained the idea of working on artificial intelligence. I had never even really thought about it as a possibility as I had always wanted to end up in game creation and design after finishing my degree.

But a whole other world was shown to me as I walked into the AI club meeting on September 11, 2017. AI club was hosting a guest speaker that night, Mark Freeman, a data scientist from IBM. Despite the presentation being a bit of a blur (I was terribly sick that night) with a ton of technical jargon being thrown around that I did not understand, I remember being completely enthralled in the conversation that he and the other attendees of the meeting were having. From the importance of machine learning behind AI to the application of machine learning in other fields and finally, to the ethics behind artificial intelligence, I was given a small glimpse into the relationship between human and machine that I had never considered before. It was at this point that I knew that I wanted to learn more about machine learning and artificial intelligence.

About Me

Sharon Qiu is from Lewis Center, Ohio and is a first year scholar in the STEM Exploration and Engagement Scholars program. She is an undergraduate computer science engineering pre-major in the College of Engineering. Along with her involvement in STEM scholars, Sharon also enjoys playing the violin and volunteering in engineering outreach programs to promote STEM to younger students. In high school, Sharon was involved in the Women in Engineering club and her desire to lessen the disparity in men and women in STEM fields has not faded. She wants to continue promoting the involvement of women in engineering as she continues in her college career.