Journal 2

Jan 15- 21 

Hi, future me. It's me again. This week's journal post is a bit more guided, I'll include a more personal weekly update at the end (spoiler alert: I'm sick AGAIN).

Part 1: Review & Reflect Learning Strategy

The top 3 items I am good at include: when to study, taking notes, and selecting a study space. When taking a psychology class a few years ago, I learned study habits that stuck with me. I no longer pull all-nighters for studying and have learned the value of sleep in memorization. I no longer study tired or hungry, and I try to keep my studying in the same circumstances as the test taking (for example: chewing gum while studying if I plan to chew gum during the exam). I pride myself in being an excellent note-taker, often volunteering to be the class note-taker for students with disabilities. My notes format is concise and broken down into sections for easy access to certain topics. My study space at home is my place of zen. I always have my workspace clean, smelling good, comfortable, and equipped with all I will need for a productive study session. I find it very difficult to study when my work station is messy, and I do not like to be interrupted by having to go find more paper or a highlighter, so it is important I prepare my workspace accordingly. 

The top 3 areas I am weak in are: creating a schedule, not reading aloud, and revisiting the syllabus. I often find it difficult to create schedules with time set aside for studying as my work schedule is wildly unpredictable from week to week. This means some weeks I'll be able to spread out school time over a few days, whereas others I'll need to cram everything into just one or two days. I find reading aloud to myself helps to keep my mind from wandering, and works well for me in retention of information. However, now I will look into if this is actually hindering me more than helping. I almost never revisit the syllabus after the first week of class, but I will be sure to look over it more whenever I have questions or need clarification on a topic. 

Part 2: Preview Time Management Skills

Activity Log

Part 3: Project Management Basics

Projects seek to fulfill a need or greater endeavor within a company such as market need, business need, customer request, or legal requirement. Time, scope, and cost each are major factors of a project and are somewhat reliant on each other. For example, cutting back on time may require more cost or diminished scope, while increased scope may need more time and cost. Project selection is dependent upon need and benefit. Project portfolios and management of such can streamline operations and funds. The project manager works within the time, scope, and cost timeframes to complete the goal. Should the time and resources not be enough, project managers can relay this to upper management. The project managers must be strategic and have leadership qualities are accountable for keeping workers on task and motivated. Project deliverables are products, capabilities, or results. Interim-deliverables are tasks and tests needed to produce the deliverables. Breaking down the work into manageable tasks creates sub-tiers of major and sub-deliverables. A WBS (work breakdown structure)-Dictionary can be very useful in such a breakdown as it can include a description, predecessors, duration, resources, cost, and more. Be sure to check that WBS are mutually exclusive (have no overlap) and collectively exhaustive (can be completed with work from the sub-levels below). Work packages should contain the activities, sequences, estimates, schedule, and budget of said project. A Gantt chart plots time along the horizontal axis and all of the activities and tasks needed to complete a project along the vertical axis. The length of a horizontal bar on the chart gives the duration of the task, and the positioning of the bar gives the scheduling of the task. Simple geometric shapes represent milestones in the time frame of a project. Vertical lines through Gantt charts often indicate "today" to ensure projects are on schedule. Both WBS and Gantt charts are helpful tools in project management and planning. 

Part 4: Check out Previous Capstones

National Al-Campus sought to improve an existing algorithm for identifying brain tumors in MRIs. I feel as though the project was well done and very interesting. I think the presentation could have had gone a bit more in-depth and the slides seemed a little over-simplified, but overall I thought the project was very good. I loved the presentation and project for A Bird Song, as I am Native Hawaiian and loved the overall concept. The graphics and mechanics for the game were very cute, and I loved the message of conservation behind the project. I really enjoyed the DriveDiary project, the idea and UX/UI were very well-planned. DriveDiary sought to track gas usage, milage traveled, and give maintenance reminders to drivers through a diary-like collection of information. There were many interesting projects, but these 3 stuck out to me in particular for their overall.

Part 5: Summarize Your Week

I learned a lot this week about my chosen topic for the Industry Analysis paper. I chose to write about data science and machine learning in the MLB. I read many articles about the topic and found a handful of useful internships and networking conferences. In addition, I learned about and implemented peer editing techniques to help my teammates revise their papers. Learning about effective teamwork skills and project management will help my teammates and myself down the line when we are given more in-depth team assignments. Reviewing past capstone projects makes me excited for the future and what we can achieve as a team. This week absolutely kicked my butt with assignments and pneumonia, but that leaves room for improvement for next week!