My Volunteer Experience - Daisy Fangqiang Shan
Welcome Daisy!
Daisy Fangqiang Shan joined our Data Analytics Team as a volunteer, whilst she studies her Masters at University beginning with the team this year on the 20 September 2023.
She attends for ~4 hours a week onsite at the Connecting Up Office joining several of her other classmates in the SAcommunity program: Thiya Shiye Jin and Alice Jinye Zeng.
Total Hours 58 Joined 20 September 2023 Last Check-in 19 February 2024
Personal Biography
Daisy is a second-year Master of Data Science student at the University of Adelaide, set to graduate in August 2024. With a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and Automation from Xiangtan University, she has several years of valuable experience as a business development analyst in the financial sector at Ping An Puhui Financing Guarantee Co. Ltd in China, driving her interest in further exploring the field.
She is volunteering with SAcommunity's Data Analytics Team to gain practical experience and insights into real-world data applications. Her goals include mastering Power BI, understanding local data analytics workflows, and leveraging her academic knowledge of big data for community benefit. She also aims to build connections, participate in industry events, and grow her network.
In the future, Daisy envisions a career in the financial or technology sectors as a data scientist, merging her data analytics background with her data science expertise to harness big data effectively. Her goal is to empower organizations with insights, opportunities, performance enhancements, streamlined operations, and informed decision-making through data-driven strategies.
Community Services in Councils Project
Daisy has selected The City of Holdfast Bay for her Power BI council reports, a database of approximately 263 community services operating in the area for the financial years 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. Her reports will follow previous visualisation report work by Renu Bala and Julia Koh, and when completed will be found >>here. There are a number of steps involved once community service information data presentations are created, a summary of data trends prepared, work is attributed and published to the website, and then will be introduced by Daisy to council stakeholders by phone and email to be used as a tool to understand community needs in their area.
Image: Connecting Up Staff Meeting 12 December 2023 (hybrid onsite/remote)
Work experience - Internal and External Events, Connections and Networks
Volunteers and interns are encouraged to attend monthly SAcommunity and Connecting Up Team meetings, as well as quarterly all-staff Infoxchange Town Hall meetings to understand more about the organisation as a whole. In addition to reading about projects and news through the staff-wide communication channels Yammer and the weekly CEO Update from David Spriggs, and participating in 'Lunch and Learn' educational sessions, and network meetings to connect with staff and other volunteers.
Lunch & Learn Activities
Lunch & Learn 5 December 2023
Understanding the Microsoft 365 Apps - Rebecca Moss IX Sharepoint Specialist
To learn more about the Microsoft 365 Apps – Sharepoint, OneDrive and Teams and how to best utilise some of their features in day-to-day work activities
Image: ADIA website inset 20 September 2023 meetup invitation
Stakeholder Events
Volunteers and Interns are also provided with opportunities to attend relevant key partner events including ADIA's Digital Capability in Australia: Unpacking digital preparedness for access to work, learning and life held on the 20 September 2023. as Infoxchange CEO David Spriggs also the chair of the Australian Digital Inclusion Alliance (ADIA). This virtual panel event involved an in-depth discussion and Q&A session on the challenges and opportunities of digital capability in Australia, and a chance to hear about the joint ADIA/Future Skills Organisation (FSO) approach to addressing this issue. Volunteer Daisy, along with interns Kane Hengchuan Zhao, Natasha Kwan and Grace Hong Hong were present, the event raised the launch of the Australian Digital Inclusion Index (ADII) attended earlier by team members, measuring the extent of digital inclusion in Australia.
Image: DCN Webinar
DCN Events
Volunteers and interns have the opportunity to attend relevant events organized by our key partners. One such event is the DCN, which is delivered by Associate Professor Amir Aryani, Head of the Social Data Analytics Lab at Swinburne University. He is a Computer Scientist and is known for his ability to explain complex data science concepts in a relatable language. During his talk, he presented how we can use RAG (Response-Augmented Generation) and generative AI as a tool that can be customized for a specific enterprise to produce more accurate responses. He also discussed how we can achieve this while ensuring the security, privacy, and confidentiality of enterprise data. This talk is an accessible and informative introduction to working with artificial intelligence that combines external data with specific organizational requirements in a safe manner. Daisy has shared her key takeaways from the talk below.
I attended the Data Catalyst Network webinar today and my takeaway was that I should consider buying some NVIDIA stock. The webinar discussed how Generative AI is transforming various domains and I wondered if it would replace the role of web developers. In my opinion, the answer is no, at least not in the near future. Web development requires creativity and ideas, whereas AI needs to be given specific instructions. However, I believe that in the future, we may need fewer web developers as AI is improving the way we learn and work. While this is exciting, it is also a bit terrifying.
Image: Mentor Meeting 17 October 2023 James Newport, Senior Web Developer and Volunteer Daisy Fangqiang Shan
Mentor Meeting
Connecting Up Volunteers are provided with the opportunity to select staff members from across the wider organisation for an informational mentor meeting. In this meeting they have the opportunity to ask career and professional development questions to understand more about their job role and employment journey, before recording those aspects they felt were helpful for them to share on their portfolio for themselves and other volunteers, and Daisy shared her experience in meeting James Newport, Senior Web Developer below.
After my mentor meeting this week, I had some valuable takeaways and learnings to share. The meeting gave me a greater understanding of the vast range of software engineering tools, spanning technologies like HTML, CSS, PHP, Ruby, and database management tech tools with MySQL and MariaDB. In our discussion, James Newport emphasised the need for collaboration and efficient version control using tools like Git, enabling effective teamwork and code management. We also talked about the crucial role of webservices, particularly REST APIs, in connecting applications and ensuring seamless data exchange. Node.js, with its impact on server-side scripting, was noted as a game-changer, and the reliability of Unix-based systems for software deployment was also acknowledged. Containerization services like Docker and Kubernetes were mentioned for their role in redefining deployment practices. Overall, I learned that software engineers should continuously strive for innovation while adhering to best practices and constantly improving their skills.
The five key points that emerged from our discussion are as follows:
1. Prioritization and efficiency should be at the forefront of our work, considering urgency and importance.
2. When faced with new challenges, perseverance is key. Never give up; instead, see it as an opportunity to learn and grow.
3. Education is a lifelong journey, and our academic institutions provide a strong foundation for continuous learning.
4. While conversational AI like ChatGPT is a powerful tool, it's essential to have a solid knowledge base to ask meaningful questions and address complex problems.
5. In times of uncertainty or rapid change, it's important not to panic. Instead, focus on gaining knowledge, and adapt to the evolving situation with confidence.
Digital Skills Training and Development
Daisy has been provided with access to the Connecting Up Digital Learning platform, a training and development online learning platform. She 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.
Relevant weekly webinars, workshops and webcons selected, attended and summarised below by Daisy to enhance her volunteer experience include:
Creating a Digital Front Door
Looking further into these two services: AWS Lambda is similar to using Google Colab as both can execute code however AWS Lambda is more event-driven and used to automate tasks in the cloud infrastructure. Google Colab is an interactive environment designed for writing and sharing code, used for data science and machine learning.
Imagine you're undertaking data analysis in Google Colab and you have a code block that needs to be run every time a particular dataset changes. Instead of manually running that block every time, you could set up an AWS Lambda function to execute the code automatically when the dataset updates.
Creating a Digital Front Door
This strategic workshop provided an overview of fundamental cloud computing concepts for not-for-profit organisations . Significant areas for me was where they mentioned two AWS services: Lambda which lets you run code without a server, and CloudFront which makes your content reach users faster.
Looking further into these two services: AWS Lambda is similar to using Google Colab as both can execute code however AWS Lambda is more event-driven and used to automate tasks in the cloud infrastructure. Google Colab is an interactive environment designed for writing and sharing code, used for data science and machine learning.
Imagine you're undertaking data analysis in Google Colab and you have a code block that needs to be run every time a particular dataset changes. Instead of manually running that block every time, you could set up an AWS Lambda function to execute the code automatically when the dataset updates.
Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network (CDN) service. A CDN is a system of distributed servers that deliver web content and other web resources to users based on their geographic locations.
What are the next steps for me from this webinar? Pursuing the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification, as I am looking to deepen my understanding of AWS services and the overall cloud architecture. Once I achieve the Cloud Practitioner certification, I can consider diving deeper with more specialized certifications like Solutions Architect, DevOps Engineer, or Advanced Networking, depending on my interests and career goals.
Cybersecurity for IT Managers March 2023
Understanding how to implement critical cybersecurity protections to protect organisation's information.
Cybersecurity for IT Managers March 2023
Understanding how to implement critical cybersecurity protections to protect organisation's information.
