This has been an interesting month! I was thinking about who I was last year (June 2020), and I gotta say: I’ve changed so much.
I feel like I’ve become more mature and responsible. In addition to that, I feel more focused and motivated than ever before.
Perhaps it’s because I finally found what I’m interested in and I’m fully applying myself to the best of my abilities.
Shaping my academic identity
I was chatting with my co-advisor, and one thing she suggested is that I look into researchers who are working in fields that I’m interested in.
Here’s some:
I also learned about some informative guides to life during and after a PhD:
Power of Neurogaming (PoNG) Internship
I’m almost halfway through my internship, and I love it! The folks in the program and at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) are super helpful and supportive.
Furthermore, I love working with my interns! I always look forward to working with them everyday because I learn a lot from them. I’ll elaborate more on this in another post!
I’m also embracing Jira and Agile/Scrum. I can see why they’re so heavily used. They’re pretty straightforward and the learning curve is fairly small.
Important tidbits:
With that said, I think the hardest part is making sure that you’re recording/moving your Jira tickets! It’s so easy to forget.
Also, always remember to take notes during standup meetings!!!!
Yea, I was over ambitious about my summer
In a previous post, I listed the stuff I wanted to accomplish this summer. But now I realize that I’m being a little too ambitious.
I’m so used to the saying of “shoot for the sky and hopefully you’ll end up among the stars” (I forget the exact saying, but it’s something like that haha).
In other words, I have always thought that you should have lofty goals. Because even if you fail the original goals, you could still have successes.
Learning about Agile and Scrum made me realize that goals are supposed to feasible.
Either way, I’m scaling back on my summer ambitions. I may not accomplish everything, but at the very least, I want to accomplish the few things very well.
Let’s focus primarily on:
- Machine Learning
- Python
- SPIT Lab research (aka grad school stuff!)
- PoNG internship
- Practicing Kapampangan.
I’m combining items 1 and 2 by going through this book called Introduction to Machine Learning with Python: A Guide for Data Scientists, and it’s a good read so far! I like everything is laid out and user-friendly.
And learning Kapampangan has felt so empowering! I still have a ways to go but I’m proud at how much I can speak/understand.
Dati, ing Kapampangan ku e masyadong aintindiyan. Pero ngeni, mas aintindiyan na 😊
Translation: Before, my Kapampangan was not understandable. But now, it’s more understandable! 😊
Roselynn Conrady 