What college/ university do you attend? Berea College
Your major? Economics with a concentration in Methods and Models
Why did you decide to apply for the DSPG internship opportunity? I applied because I was interested in learning the basics of data science and gain an understanding of how it connects to economics and agriculture. Additionally, I wanted to observe the data science field to see if I am interested in it as a potential career path.
What skills are you learning? I am learning analytical, programming, and teamwork skills.
What college/university do you attend? I attend Berea College.
Your major? Economics
Why did you decide to apply for the DSPG internship opportunity? I am interested in research, and I see this as an opportunity for me to get a feel of what research will be like especially research that has an impact. Also, the fact that it is in Virginia Tech also plays an important role in my decision.
What skills are you learning? Before starting this internship, my coding experience was limited, but I recognized it as an opportunity to enhance my coding skills. This internship has been instrumental in teaching me how to convey a narrative through coding and data. It has enabled me to tackle complex coding challenges and create visually appealing and insightful graphs and charts. Additionally, I have had the chance to refine my presentation abilities, further strengthening my overall skill set.
What project are you working on? My project, titled "Optimizing VCE Agent Services," focuses on identifying the most effective territories for VCE agents to operate in. Currently, VCE agents, particularly those involved in Family and Consumer Services, are unable to adequately serve the entire commonwealth. By conducting thorough research, we aim to determine the optimal areas for these agents to cover, as well as identify suitable new locations to add additional agents. This process will not only alleviate the workload of existing agents but also provide enhanced support to counties and cities in Virginia.
What college/university do you attend? I attend Virginia Tech.
Your major? Environmental Economics, Management, and Policy
Why did you decide to apply for the DSPG internship opportunity? I had heard about the program in my AAEC internship class and it sounded like a great opportunity to see if graduate school and research would be a good fit for me.
What skills are you learning? I am currently learning how to program in R and Python, to create an interactive dashboard for our project's stakeholders. I am also learning how to do lots of data clean-up!
What project are you working on? I am on the VCE-Health project. We are working to optimize VCE Family Consumer Science Agents, so agents can better support Virginian families and improve public health in Virginia.
What college/university do you attend? I attend Virginia Tech.
Your major? I am working toward a dual degree in Computer Science and Computational Modeling and Data Analytics.
Why did you decide to apply for the DSPG internship opportunity? I applied because I was interested in researching while giving back to the community our analysis applies to. I also wanted to see if I could gain on-the-job research experience that could help me in my pursuit of research
What skills are you learning? I'm learning programming skills such as R and some Python and Javascript to a certain extent. We are learning storytelling through the data we collect and how to display it to stakeholders when the time is right. We have learned soft skills such as literature review and working from constant feedback from questions.
What project are you working on? The project I'm working on is based in Hanover County near Richmond and where Kings Dominion is located nearby. The purpose is to work with governmental stakeholders to figure out what is the best prime farmland vs land that should be used for solar farming while keeping it statistical which will allow stakeholders to make decisions based on our data. This is important as we analyze ways we could potentially tackle their expansion issues and this data is important information to make educated decisions on where Hanover should take county decisions in what direction.
What college/university do you attend? I attend Virginia Commonwealth University.
Your major? Bioinformatics with a concentration in computational sciences.
Why did you decide to apply for the DSPG internship opportunity? I wanted to explore different ways to apply data science. With my major, I use data science to work with genome sequences but in this program, I was able to use work with a project on a much larger scale for the public good.
What skills are you learning? This program has taught me how to work with a team efficiently and produce quality work with the help of my teammates. We also learned R programming, and how to use remote sensing, and refined our research skills. One of my favorite skills that we learned and utilized during this program is just-in-time-learning which allows you to learn what you need right when you need it. This way you are constantly learning and acquiring skills that are directly relevant and beneficial to your project.
What project are you working on? I am working on the Bangladesh project. Our research question is the Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Flooding on Birth Outcomes: Evidence from Bangladesh.
What college/university do you attend? I attend Virginia Tech.
Your major? Business Information Technology with a concentration in Decision Support Systems.
Why did you decide to apply for the DSPG internship opportunity? I applied to the DSPG Internship because I knew it would provide me with room for growth and experience while simultaneously giving me an opportunity to do meaningful work I would be passionate about.
What skills are you learning? I am learning how to code in R, organize and analyze data and create meaningful data visualizations, teamwork, public speaking, and working with remote sensing to track flood extent.
What project are you working on? I am a part of the Bangladesh team.
What college/university do you attend? I attend Berea College.
Your major? Economics and Computer Science.
Why did you decide to apply for the DSPG internship opportunity? I am interested in data analytics and modeling.
What skills are you learning? R programming, Remote sensing, and conducting a professional project.
What project are you working on? I am working on a project about the effect of prenatal flood exposure on children's life birth outcomes in Bangladesh.
What college/university do you attend? I attend Virginia Tech.
Your major? Environmental Economics, Management, and Policy
Why did you decide to apply for the DSPG internship opportunity? I decided to apply to the DSPG program because of the "Ut Prosim" aspect. I was drawn to do work that I knew would have a real-world impact while learning and practicing invaluable skills.
What skills are you learning? Through this program, I am learning how to code in R and use Arc GIS to work with data in a way that will help us analyze land use in Hanover County.
What project are you working on? The project I am working on is analyzing land use in Hanover County and identifying the areas of prime agricultural land that are most at risk to be developed into solar farms.
