Week 7

Part One: Team Project Reflection

For our Final Research Video Project, my team's collaboration centered on Google Slides for project creation, using it to storyboard, organize content, and create the final visual product. We communicated primarily through Slack for real-time discussion and used email for formal requests and sharing final deliverables.

While using these tools kept us aligned, the process usually hits bumps with scope creep and ensuring workload balance. Next time, I would implement two changes:

  1. Earlier, Mandatory Integration Checkpoints: Instead of waiting until the final week, we'd schedule a "Content Freeze" and a "Draft Review" far in advance. This forces us to integrate components earlier and catch misalignment between the script and visuals.

  2. Formalizing the Review Loop: We would dedicate synchronous time specifically for high-level feedback - everyone must review the document before the meeting, saving the meeting time for strategic discussion.

Part Two: Learning from Weekly Activities

This week’s activities emphasized that communication is as critical as technical skill for a software engineer.

Resume & Cover Letter Peer Review

Reviewing my teammates' documents (Josh and Anthony) highlighted the need for audience-centric articulation.

  • From Josh's Resume (Senior): I learned the power of quantifiable results ("increased production 9x" ) and the necessity of managing employment gaps/overlaps transparently.

  • From Anthony's Resume (Career Changer): I saw how vital a "Technical Projects" section is for career changers; you must show application of skills (C++, Python ), not just list them.

Reflections on AI, Presentation, and Lectures

  1. AI's Perils and Promises (Harvard Podcast): As a future engineer, I recognize my responsibility to build responsible systems. The promise of AI (automation, complex problem solving) is immense, but we must actively mitigate the perils of bias and accountability by implementing robust testing and prioritizing human-in-the-loop oversight.

  2. Presentation Skills: The key takeaway is to focus on audience-centric communication—less time on how I coded something and more time on why it matters to the business or the user. Presentations must rely on visual storytelling and conciseness, not dense text.

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