- Table of Contents
- Personal story
- Tips for fitting study time/project time into your daily schedule
- Result
During my two years in a large molecular biology lab at Harvard, I became frustrated by the lack of technology tools to do my work efficiently. I saw that we are facing a reproducibility crisis in science, in which the discoveries that we publish are not correct or relevant to humans. I also saw that many scientists are struggling to sustain work/life balance.
We will never effectively address these issues without better technology tools to perform and document our work. After realizing this, I left my job at Harvard to dedicate myself to web development. My purpose is to build science technology tools for a more efficient, reproducible and sustainable research culture.
I wanted to expand my training into progressive web apps (PWAs). I think about PWAs every time I look at my phone. I regularly prune my app collection to remove anything I don't use, but my Google Pixel XL still currently has >150 apps. That seems like too many. I think we are over-dependent on native apps. Native apps have their place, but have reduced the openness of the web and created clutter on our mobile devices. The future seems like it's going to be in blurring the line between websites and apps. I'm excited to be surfing the next wave of PWAs!
I was really pumped when I got this scholarship. And even more pumped when I started the lessons. I enjoyed the introduction to progressive web apps (PWAs) in the lessons, and found that the program improved my life!
I discovered that web development engages the two major motivating outcomes in my life, focused personal growth and positive impact.
I am most happy when I am improving myself. Web developers use a large set of tools and skills. I have enjoyed building these skills so far, and appreciate how quickly I can make progress. My vision for improving science leads my personal growth to be focused and purposeful.
Web development will enable me to have a positive impact on the world by building technology tools for science. Science is of central importance in our society, but scientists do not have the software or hardware to work effectively. I will be able to deliver improved technology tools that will allow science to become more efficient, reproducible, and sustainable.
The participation was challenging for me, but ended up really enriching my experience. Social media can be distracting. It took me a little while to warm up to the forums and Slack, but I was glad I did. Two positive outcomes of the social networking were meetups and pomodoros. I got to meet up with some fellow Udacious humans in Boston. I also learned about the pomodoro technique. It's like interval training for working, and really helped me get through the course materials efficiently. My participation not only helped me, but the other students as well. I took detailed notes on the course materials and shared them on GitHub. Other students appreciated the organized, thorough notes. I also put together a guide to writing with Markdown to help other students maximize their documentation.
Thanks Udacity and Google!
Pomodoro intervals were really helpful for watching lessons. I found that each lesson took about one 25 minute pomodoro. After the 25 minutes, I would reflect on how well I used my time, and how I want to spend the next 25 minutes. Pomodoros helped me stay efficient and focused.
One story winner was selected from each track of the program.
Slack announcement:
WAY TO GO, SCHOLARS! You exceeded our 1,000 story goal by submitting 1,193 of your amazing Student Stories to us! 🕺💃
And now, we'd like to introduce the five Mobile Web finalists:
HUGE congrats to @jSick, @neuralnet, @derick_gross, @twip, and @Serenity 👏
Read their personal story and vote for your favorite in the doc below. You can only pick one! All votes need to be in by tomorrow March 21st at 11:59 pm PT.
Thank you to everyone who submitted a story! It was so much fun getting to know you better.
Mobile Web Finalist Stories here