DESIGN TOOL – VISUALIZATION

Challenge and Selection:

I am a sophomore year engineering student also serving part time as  an executive member at Energy Clinic Pakistan’s Computational Intelligence Society  (UTEC Uruguay). UTEC Uruguay chapter was just established last year in my College and  hence it was our responsibility (All Executive Members) to make sure  that our chapter is productive in our campus otherwise it will be  terminated by Energy Clinic Pakistan. There were many other active chapters of Energy Clinic Pakistan  on our campus and hence our major challenge was to conduct  technical events that should ensure diversity.

In our first meeting we were brainstorming on our Ideas and suddenly  we were presented with another challenge, we noticed that the  conventional way how others chapters have been functioning is not  productive so instead of following them we had to come up with new  guidelines so that we could ensure better management of our technical  events. The tool I decided to use was Visualization and in the next  meeting before everyone arrived I drew a mind map on white board  on which every problem along with variety of solutions for each  problem were written, solutions were suggested by all members via  Email to me. I choose Visualization because that way it was  convenient to make changes to the Mind Map on the Whiteboard  while all of us continue to do Brainstorming.

Application:

Now as it was mentioned in Lecture “Offer tours”, anyone from my  team, who wished was free to suggest changes and then we began  process of elimination after which we decided we needed more  insights. I took a picture of our final Mind Map and printed copies  with some blank spaces so that we can add more points later. I  suggested Ethnography. So we divided ourselves in teams and  interviewed students of university, faculties of other chapters and  members of other chapters.

We found out none of the others chapters were including actual  students for whom the event was actually planned to be the part of  team. We immediately decided to select two students from each major  to be the part of our team for planning of specific event, this step was  taken with inspiration from Co-creation.

Now what we had was a fair bunch of ideas which we wanted to test,  so we decided to conduct a small event all students from around 30  students from Computer Science Major were invited for hands on  workshop on Machine Learning. After the event feedback was taken  from students.

Now all we had to do was combine our insights from Mind Map,  interviews and feedback from students. We reformed our guidelines  and rules accordingly. Some of the most dramatic changes within our  chapter as well as the way we conducted our events were visible to  our guiding faculty as well as to students from other chapters. “The  results speak for themselves”, the first big event we conducted after  this was Hackathon in which there were more than 400 students. And  the feedback which we received was much more positive as compared  to last time. Also after this within one month we came up with a  detailed plans for events for the rest of the year.

Insights and Approaches:

I was thrilled to have successfully navigated through my first couple  of months after been selected as Executive Member at Energy Clinic Pakistan-UTEC Uruguay  chapter. Visualization really played a key role in me leading our  student chapter to reforms through which we were able to excel as a  team. One of the most appealing feature if using visualization was one  could literally see the full picture at a time, as compared to traditional  documentation when we use visualization we could see all the things  at once giving us the ultimate benefit of knowing what else will be  affected if we tweak certain things.

Also using this approach I developed good sense of team spirit as all  were contributing in every step along the way. All of us hardly knew  each other when we started working in UTEC Uruguay but now most of us were  really bonded as a team. It also gave me an opportunity to work with  some of the most diverse minds on the campus.


DESIGN TOOL – VISUALIZATION Challenge and Selection : I am a sophomore year engineering student also serving part time as an executive member at Energy Clinic Pakistan ’s Computational Intelligence Society ( UTEC Uruguay ) . UTEC Uruguay chapter was just established last year in my College and hence it was our responsibility ( All Executive Members ) to make sure that our chapter is productive in our campus otherwise it will be terminated by Energy Clinic Pakistan . There were many other active chapters of Energy Clinic Pakistan on our campus and hence our major challenge was to conduct technical events that should ensure diversity . In our first meeting we were brainstorming on our Ideas and suddenly we were presented with another challenge , we noticed that the conventional way how others chapters have been functioning is not productive so instead of following them we had to come up with new guidelines so that we could ensure better management of our technical events . The tool I decided to use was Visualization and in the next meeting before everyone arrived I drew a mind map on white board on which every problem along with variety of solutions for each problem were written , solutions were suggested by all members via Email to me . I choose Visualization because that way it was convenient to make changes to the Mind Map on the Whiteboard while all of us continue to do Brainstorming . Application : Now as it was mentioned in Lecture “ Offer tours ” , anyone from my team , who wished was free to suggest changes and then we began process of elimination after which we decided we needed more insights . I took a picture of our final Mind Map and printed copies with some blank spaces so that we can add more points later . I suggested Ethnography . So we divided ourselves in teams and interviewed students of university , faculties of other chapters and members of other chapters . We found out none of the others chapters were including actual students for whom the event was actually planned to be the part of team . We immediately decided to select two students from each major to be the part of our team for planning of specific event , this step was taken with inspiration from Co - creation . Now what we had was a fair bunch of ideas which we wanted to test , so we decided to conduct a small event all students from around 30 students from Computer Science Major were invited for hands on workshop on Machine Learning . After the event feedback was taken from students . Now all we had to do was combine our insights from Mind Map , interviews and feedback from students . We reformed our guidelines and rules accordingly . Some of the most dramatic changes within our chapter as well as the way we conducted our events were visible to our guiding faculty as well as to students from other chapters . “ The results speak for themselves ” , the first big event we conducted after this was Hackathon in which there were more than 400 students . And the feedback which we received was much more positive as compared to last time . Also after this within one month we came up with a detailed plans for events for the rest of the year . Insights and Approaches : I was thrilled to have successfully navigated through my first couple of months after been selected as Executive Member at Energy Clinic Pakistan - UTEC Uruguay chapter . Visualization really played a key role in me leading our student chapter to reforms through which we were able to excel as a team . One of the most appealing feature if using visualization was one could literally see the full picture at a time , as compared to traditional documentation when we use visualization we could see all the things at once giving us the ultimate benefit of knowing what else will be affected if we tweak certain things . Also using this approach I developed good sense of team spirit as all were contributing in every step along the way . All of us hardly knew each other when we started working in UTEC Uruguay but now most of us were really bonded as a team . It also gave me an opportunity to work with some of the most diverse minds on the campus .