Adelaide University Internship Experience - Kane Hengchuan Zhao
Welcome Kane!
Kane Hengchuan Zhao joined our SAcommunity Data Analytics Team for his University of Adelaide SET (Sciences, Engineering and Technology) Internship for his Master of Data Science Trimester 3, 2023: 12 September 2023 - 24 November 2023.
He is completing a 270 hour internship onsite with SAcommunity at the Connecting Up Office, Infoxchange for 3 days (22.5 hours) a week for ~12 weeks around his classes.
Since finishing his internship, Kane has returned as a volunteer in January to the office to contribute to the community and work on expanding his reports to discover and present new insights into community services and demands in South Australian council areas.
Total Hours 276 Joined 12 September 2023 Last check-in 21 February 2024
Kane Hengchuan Zhao joined our SAcommunity Data Analytics Team for his University of Adelaide SET (Sciences, Engineering and Technology) Internship for his Master of Data Science Trimester 3, 2023: 12 September 2023 - 24 November 2023.
He is completing a 270 hour internship onsite with SAcommunity at the Connecting Up Office, Infoxchange for 3 days (22.5 hours) a week for ~12 weeks around his classes.
Since finishing his internship, Kane has returned as a volunteer in January to the office to contribute to the community and work on expanding his reports to discover and present new insights into community services and demands in South Australian council areas.
Total Hours 276 Joined 12 September 2023 Last check-in 21 February 2024
Image: Intern Kane Hengchuan Zhao and Volunteer Stathis Avramis, Data Analytics Lead
Personal Bio
Kane Hengchuan Zhao is a first year Master's student of Data Science at the University of Adelaide. He previously worked for 3 years as a Data Analyst at China Merchants Bank after graduating from UESTC with a Master of Computer Science. Proficient in data analysis, web application programming, database, and data visualization, he followed his family to South Australia late last year, choosing to study Data Science to further his interest in the analytics field.
Kane is undertaking his internship at Infoxchange to gain some practical work experience in Australia, further his understanding of the local work culture, and make new networks and connections in Adelaide. He aims to utilise his existing skill-set to work on further exploring SAcommunity's open data, and to investigate other tools and automation in the Data Analytics program to improve efficiencies for the team. Specifically, he will be working on presenting community services data operating in the Kangaroo Island council, and through this project have the opportunity to solve real world problems, while contributing to the community.
Kane's future career goals are focused on the technology and banking industry as a data analyst or software engineer. He looks forward to constantly seeking out new challenges that allow him to apply his skills to drive meaningful change to help business organizations optimize their data and unlock new insights that drive growth and innovation.
Image: Stathis Avramis, Data Analytics Lead, Kane Hengchuan Zhao demonstrating the Kangaroo Island data report visualisations he has created in Power BI (including ArcGIS maps for Geographic Information System (GIS) map visualisation reports) to Volunteers Thea Shiye Jin and Alice Jingyi Zeng
Community Services in Councils Project
Kane is currently working on presenting the ~108 community services listed within the Kangaroo Island dataset 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 updating and building on those data and information visualisation reports created by Renu Bala for the financial years 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, when complete these reports will be found >>here. Kane will then introduce and present the community service reports to council stakeholders by phone and email to provide an indication of community service information trends for their area.
In particular Kane has been extending his community service council project by creating map visualisations using ArcGIS for Power BI using SAcommunity records data. These new visuals aim to enrich his report by offering location analytics for community services operating within the council area. Combining service data on a map with geospatial analysis provides new insights and helps to explore services and how they might affect community needs, influence social participation and service site/provision selection decisions.
Capacity Building and peer-to-peer learning is a critical aspect of the SAcommunity Volunteer and Intern program. The team operates on the basis of collective genius and creates and maintains innovation through team collaboration, allowing the program to continually improve, evolve and build though encompassing a wide range of ideas, tools, processes and methods.
Consequently, Kane has assisted with capacity building for the Data Analytics Team by documented the steps required for presenting maps / geospacial data in his Kangaroo Island GIS project >>here.
Kane has also summarised some helpful codes and a number of visualisation tools, methods/ processes and open data resources that can be used to create and utilize various data visualisations in Power BI >>here for consideration by the team. Exploring Python, Sankey diagrams, WordClouds, and websites including Data.SA and the ABS.
All Staff Meeting with the Infoxchange Board - Meet & Greet with Q & A (Hybrid Event) 24 November 2023 SAcommunity Team members in attendance: Neil Anubhav Datagupta, Edward Windsor, Daisy Fangqiang Shan, Pujan Maharjan, Kane Hengchuan Zhao and Alexander Bull
Work Experience - Internal Organisation Connections & Networks
Volunteers and Interns are encouraged to attend monthly team and organisation-wide meetings to understand more about the whole organisation, direction and mission and a greater understanding of how their individual roles and projects align with our goals, so they can feel more included and informed about their impact on the organisation they are involved in. These include monthly Connecting Up staff meetings to learn more about the Infoxchange Adelaide Office, and Kane attended sessions on Tuesday the 10 October 2023 and 14 November 2023.
In addition, Kane has attended IX Lunch & Learn, and IX Staff meetings a combination of educational lectures, and sessions to learn more about the current programs and divisional activities of the organisation. Kane attended Infoxchange All Staff Meetings such as Delivering Sustainable Impact and Understanding Our Top 5 Priorities held Wednesday 25 October 2023, a discussion on our plan to deliver sustainable impact, understanding our Top 5 priorities for FY24, and what this means for staff, volunteers and interns, as well as attending the Quarterly IX Town Hall Meeting held 2 November 2023.
CEO David Spriggs writes a weekly e-news summary on internal and external events impacting the organisation adn these are emailed to interns and volunteers including Kane to keep them informed. This included the release of our Digital Technology in the NFP Sector report for 2023 on the 20 November. This year’s report surveyed more than 1,000 not-for-profit organisations across Australia and New Zealand helping build the most comprehensive picture of digital technology in the sector with the official launch held 1 December 2023.
Finally, Kane attended the Infoxchange Board Meet & Greet held on the 24 November 2023 as a hybrid session online across the organisation. This was an opportunity for staff, volunteers and interns to be introduced to the Infoxchange Board Members, understand more about their background and roles, and have their questions answered.
The aim of including volunteers and interns in these organisational meetings, planning sessions and staff activities allows them to: Gain experience in the field; Understand how KPIs and goals are tracked and ideas are generated and raised; Participate and provide input and suggestions; Observe various business meeting structures, staff and management interactions, and communication channels at work, and build meaningful relationships with staff, increasing their recognition and professional visibility.
In addition, an awareness of the campaigns and causes of the organisation and its partnerships, along with LinkedIn posts to share, provides options to allow volunteers and interns to act as advocates, sharing relevant stories and developing their networks, whilst building their own personal brand through new connections and across media such as LinkedIn. This organisational involvement and online activity strengthens their professional profiles, alongside their online volunteer and intern portfolio stories.
Volunteers and Interns are encouraged to attend monthly team and organisation-wide meetings to understand more about the whole organisation, direction and mission and a greater understanding of how their individual roles and projects align with our goals, so they can feel more included and informed about their impact on the organisation they are involved in. These include monthly Connecting Up staff meetings to learn more about the Infoxchange Adelaide Office, and Kane attended sessions on Tuesday the 10 October 2023 and 14 November 2023.
In addition, Kane has attended IX Lunch & Learn, and IX Staff meetings a combination of educational lectures, and sessions to learn more about the current programs and divisional activities of the organisation. Kane attended Infoxchange All Staff Meetings such as Delivering Sustainable Impact and Understanding Our Top 5 Priorities held Wednesday 25 October 2023, a discussion on our plan to deliver sustainable impact, understanding our Top 5 priorities for FY24, and what this means for staff, volunteers and interns, as well as attending the Quarterly IX Town Hall Meeting held 2 November 2023.
CEO David Spriggs writes a weekly e-news summary on internal and external events impacting the organisation adn these are emailed to interns and volunteers including Kane to keep them informed. This included the release of our Digital Technology in the NFP Sector report for 2023 on the 20 November. This year’s report surveyed more than 1,000 not-for-profit organisations across Australia and New Zealand helping build the most comprehensive picture of digital technology in the sector with the official launch held 1 December 2023.
Finally, Kane attended the Infoxchange Board Meet & Greet held on the 24 November 2023 as a hybrid session online across the organisation. This was an opportunity for staff, volunteers and interns to be introduced to the Infoxchange Board Members, understand more about their background and roles, and have their questions answered.
The aim of including volunteers and interns in these organisational meetings, planning sessions and staff activities allows them to: Gain experience in the field; Understand how KPIs and goals are tracked and ideas are generated and raised; Participate and provide input and suggestions; Observe various business meeting structures, staff and management interactions, and communication channels at work, and build meaningful relationships with staff, increasing their recognition and professional visibility.
In addition, an awareness of the campaigns and causes of the organisation and its partnerships, along with LinkedIn posts to share, provides options to allow volunteers and interns to act as advocates, sharing relevant stories and developing their networks, whilst building their own personal brand through new connections and across media such as LinkedIn. This organisational involvement and online activity strengthens their professional profiles, alongside their online volunteer and intern portfolio stories.
Image: Australian Digital Inclusion Alliance (ADIA) & Future Skills Organisation (FSO) Meetup - Digital Capability in Australia: Unpacking digital preparedness for access to work, learning and life 20 September 2023
Work Experience - External Partners & Stakeholder Networks
Volunteers and Interns are provided with opportunities to attend organisation meetings and key partnership events. This enables students to learn more about how their internship projects contribute to SAcommunity, Connecting Up, and Infoxchange's work in building digital capacity and understand more about the work of our external partners and networks. Interns Kane, Natasha Kwan and Grace Hong Hong with Volunteer Daisy Fangqiang Shan attended the event Digital Capability in Australia: Unpacking digital preparedness for access to work, learning and life meetup held on the 20 September 2023.
Moderated by ADIA Chair and Infoxchange CEO, David Spriggs, this was an in-depth panel discussion on the challenges and opportunities of digital capability in Australia, and an opportunity to hear about the ADIA/FSO approach with panel speakers including Ishtar Vij, Convenor, Australian Digital Inclusion Alliance and Patrick Kidd, CEO, Future Skills Organisation in addressing this issue, with a Q&A following the discussion.
The Australian Digital Inclusion Alliance (ADIA)’s vision is to build a digitally inclusive Australia where everyone is equipped to fully participate in the economy and society. ADIA is supported by Infoxchange, Google and Telstra. The Future Skills Organisation (FSO) is a Jobs and Skills Council funded by the Australian Government Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. The FSO mission is: 'Through close collaboration with industry and other stakeholders, we work collectively to grow Australia’s pool of finance, technology, and business talent to benefit all industries'.
Connecting Up, a partner of TechSoup, has services available in Australia, New Zealand and throughout the South Pacific. Through the provision of technology, training and other capability building services, the work has a huge impact across all sectors of the not-for-profit sector, increasing the effectiveness and digital capabilities of organisations in almost every area that they operate hence the importance of understanding more about the activities of others working in this sector.
Image: Volunteer Neil Anubhav Dattagupta, Marcus Harvey Manager Digital Transformation Hub and Kristen Moeller-Saxone Data Capability Lead, from Infoxchange Melbourne with Kane Hengchuan Zhao, also in attendance but not pictured is our Intern Natasha Kwan and Volunteer Rex Porter 6 October 2023
Work Experience - Wider Organisation Connections & Networks
On Friday 6 October 2023 Marcus Harvey and Kristen Moeller-Saxone visited the Connecting Up Office for a meeting held in Adelaide as part of the Data Catalyst Network. They had an opportunity to talk to our students afterwards regarding a data request for community services operating in a target suburb of Adelaide of disadvantage.
These areas are indicated by the Socio-economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA). The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) broadly defines relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage in terms of people's access to material and social resources, and their ability to participate in society (ABS, 2006). SEIFA latest release (consisting of 4 indexes sumarising census variables) is >>here.
The Data Catalyst Network brings together people from across sectors to break cycles of disadvantage through the innovative use of data. As a collective, the network will harness data and knowledge from the community sector, academia, government and business to better use and manage data to improve the lives of people across Australia.
Infoxchange's Digital Transformation Hub supports not-for-profit organisations on a journey to build their digital capability and enable them to support service transformation. Providing practical guides, technology discounts specifically for not-for-profits through Connecting Up and tailored advice.
Fortunately our internship students Kane Hengchuan Zhao and Natasha Kwan were able to assist checking an SAcommunity data export of community services in the target suburb with Volunteer Rex Porter, as a former ABS employee, helping provide further ABS information on the census and region summary. SAcommunity data can provide information on the current community services operating and available to assist people with health, educational supports etc., whilst the ABS data can provide information on the region and be used as a tool to determine areas that require funding and services.
Digital Skills Training and Development
Kane has been provided with access to the Connecting Up Digital Learning Platform, a training and development online learning platform. He has the opportunity to understand more about data analytics or a range of other technology topics in the not-for-profit sector, through training sessions presented by subject-matter experts in a selection of relevant live webinars and recorded webinars, workshops and webcons.
Professional Development at Infoxchange is a balance of approximately 70% project / 20% peer-to-peer learning / 10% formal learning. For the SAcommunity Team there is approximately 15 hours of project work, 3 hours of peer-to-peer learning, and 1 hour of online webinar with 30 minutes of feedback, to reflect and strengthen team members understanding of what was learnt and what their personal takeaways were from these educational sessions facilitating life-long learning.
Professional Development at Infoxchange is a balance of approximately 70% project / 20% peer-to-peer learning / 10% formal learning. For the SAcommunity Team there is approximately 15 hours of project work, 3 hours of peer-to-peer learning, and 1 hour of online webinar with 30 minutes of feedback, to reflect and strengthen team members understanding of what was learnt and what their personal takeaways were from these educational sessions facilitating life-long learning.
Relevant weekly webinars, workshops and webcons selected, attended and summarised below by Kane to enhance his internship experience include:
This webinar showed the whole process of building a dashboard using Power BI and gave very practical examples of advanced features. I recommend this webinar to beginners who want to know more about Power BI and how to use it as a visualization tool.
Data Readiness
This webinar helped me understand the data use in NFPs and gave me some useful tips on how to improve data management.
Best practice strategies to clean up and maintain your database
This webinar helped me know more about how to deal with data in the data base
Preventing a Data Disaster
The webinar is about security disciplines and policies. It gave a clear introduction about some cyber-attack examples and potential threats in Australia. For sensitive data, mobile device management and app enforced restrictions can achieve compliance and preparedness. The webinar helped me to understand the importance of the protection on companies' data. And I recommend people who interested in cyber security and sensitive data management to learn this webinar.
In this webinar, I learned some practical knowledge in using Power BI. It helped me to build a dashboard quickly and let me know more about creating visuals with examples. I recommend it to those who want to learn how to create dashboard in Power BI and use it as a tool to visualize data.
PowerApps – capture NFP data & digitise workflows without coding
This webinar introduced the low-code platform (the Power APP) and showed how to build an application to collect information and send email. A good tool to learn about and use in order to improve efficiencies in daily work processes for simple and repeated tasks.
Leveraging Microsoft's generative AI tools
The webinar introduced Bing chat and some concepts of AI. As well as showing how to use Bing chat to deal with real world problems. In my point of view, it is a good chance to obtain new ideas about how to use AI tools.
A few relevant takeaways from this session included how everybody can learn something more about information security tips in their daily life. There were examples of further ways to protect devices, and in taking more care when using email and the Internet in the workplace, delivered using real-world case studies.
Image: James Newport, Senior Web Developer in a mentor meeting with Kane Hengchuan Zhao
Mentor Meeting
Volunteers and interns have the opportunity to undertake the SAcommunity mentor program, selecting and introducing themselves to a staff member working in an area of relevance to them. The program develops volunteers' understanding of the broader staff teams in Connecting Up, Adelaide and in Infoxchange offices across Australia in Melbourne, Brisbane and New Zealand, allows them to explore potential career pathways and goals, and builds their network of professional relationships. Mentees must prepare 5 questions for their mentor and summarise the session with at least 5 takeaways from their informational interview.
5 Takeaways from a Mentor Meeting with James Newport, Senior Web Developer
5 Takeaways from a Mentor Meeting with James Newport, Senior Web Developer
1. Skillsets for web developers. As a web developer, Node.js is the first choice. Using Node.js for backend, you automatically get all the pros of full stack JavaScript development and it is fast-processing for web-tasks. Apart from that, many people choose Python language which is easy to learn and use and has extensive support libraries. In addition, PHP and Django are also good to know.
2. The Web Developer Role. Mostly the day-to-day activities of the position relate to coding along with some routine tasks to handle. In particular it can involve adding more features to the website to meet new requirements needed as well as in maintainence tasks to keep it working. For a developer, the main need is to deal with different problems which may happen when people use the website in order to enhance user experience. The key is to try to find the best solution and build robust software application to resolve it.
3. Reason for working in Not-for-Profit (NFP) organisation. Working in a NFP can really help people and contribute to the community. Most colleagues are kind and willing to help. The resources within NFPs are not as much as in large companies, but you can have a relatively creative and flexible working environment.
4. Networking. Building connections is really important. Attending meet-up events is not only about looking for job opportunities, but also about sharing thoughts and connecting with people who have the same background.
5. Self-improvement as a programmer. Keep finding and reading useful materials which are beneficial for programmers. There are many bootcamp and webinars on the website, but the most important thing is finding what you really interested in (especially real world problems). Set a goal to achieve and keep to your path step-by-step.
Image: Movember Morning Tea 28 November 2023 - Stathis Avramis, Alice Jingyi Zeng, Kane Hengchuan Zhao, Samantha Whillas, Eric Jenkins, James Newport and Pankaj Chhalotre
Infoxchange People and Culture Sessions
Infoxchange, as a not-for-profit delivering technology for social justice for over 30 years, work to support the for-purpose sector to better serve people in need. Therefore run sessions, meetings, events and activities around social issues, observational days and community causes that resonate with the organisation and encourage volunteers and interns to join us.
Recently this included Movember, an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise funds and awareness of men's health issues, several members of the Infoxchange Team have been involved in this fundraising activity and members in each office recognised and celebrated the end of this event at morning tea.
Image: Kane Hengchuan Zhao demonstrating his Power BI community dataset reports for the SAcommunity Team: Stathis Avramis, David Webb, Chris Baldwin and Neil Anubhav Dattagupta
