My Volunteer Experience Camille Sze Pui Ko
Welcome Camille!
Camille Sze Pui Ko joined our Data Analytics Team as a volunteer, whilst she studies her Masters at University beginning with the team this year on the 21 March 2023.
She attends for ~4 hours a week onsite at the Connecting Up Office around her classes, completing 26 hours by National Volunteer Week on the 18 May 2023.
Personal Biography
Camille is currently studying her Masters in AI and Machine Learning at the University of Adelaide, where her specialities in data science include analytics engineering, computer vision, nature language processing, and digital analytics. A data and tech enthusiast, she has worked as a data analyst, project manager and marketing executive in news and e-commerce industries in Hong Kong before moving to Australia.
She is volunteering at Connecting Up to gain local, practical experience in data analytics. Applying her skills and talents in a professional office environment through updating organisations and working on the community services data project. In addition, she aims to further improve her communications skills and expand her professional networks.
Camille's future career goals are focussed in the software/technology industry as a data scientist/computational engineer. She is also interested in exploring potential career choices relevant to Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
Work Experience - Community services operating in councils project
Camille is currently working on presenting demands on the ~194 community services listed within the City of Whyalla dataset alongside those reports created by Blake Kennison for 2020 - 2021, and when this is complete the reports for 2021 - 2022 and 2022 - 2023 will be found >>here https://sacommunity.org/whyalla
Personal Biography
Camille is currently studying her Masters in AI and Machine Learning at the University of Adelaide, where her specialities in data science include analytics engineering, computer vision, nature language processing, and digital analytics. A data and tech enthusiast, she has worked as a data analyst, project manager and marketing executive in news and e-commerce industries in Hong Kong before moving to Australia.
She is volunteering at Connecting Up to gain local, practical experience in data analytics. Applying her skills and talents in a professional office environment through updating organisations and working on the community services data project. In addition, she aims to further improve her communications skills and expand her professional networks.
Camille's future career goals are focussed in the software/technology industry as a data scientist/computational engineer. She is also interested in exploring potential career choices relevant to Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
Work Experience - Community services operating in councils project
Camille is currently working on presenting demands on the ~194 community services listed within the City of Whyalla dataset alongside those reports created by Blake Kennison for 2020 - 2021, and when this is complete the reports for 2021 - 2022 and 2022 - 2023 will be found >>here https://sacommunity.org/whyalla
Data reports are only as reliable as the data that creates them and Camille will be working through some of the reports for this council to check for record anomalies and to find out if the data within them is accurate. Once published Camille will contact the council by phone and email to introduce the service and her data reports as a tool on community information in the area.
Mentor Meeting Takeaways with Arushi Satija, Information Security Analyst, Infoxchange
The SAcommunity volunteer and internship program provides an opportunity for the team to select mentor, a staff member working in a related field or field of interest, to introduce themselves, meet and hold a one-off informational mentor meeting to find out more.
During Camille's mentor meeting with Arushi Satija, Information Security Analyst, Infoxchange, on 26th April 2023. Camille gained valuable insights that will be helpful in her pursuit of a career as a data scientist. Here are the key takeaways gained from the mentorship meeting:
- Networking is essential component of building a successful career in data science: As an aspiring data scientist, it is important to cultivate relationships with professionals in the field who can offer guidance, mentorship and even job opportunities.
Camille is now part of Infoxchange through her volunteer role, and Arushi emphasized the importance of proactively reaching out to HR via email, and connecting with employees on LinkedIn. This allows her to gather more information about job descriptions, and to build relationships with potential employers. In addition, to visit the Infoxchange Work with Us page for open positions.
By leveraging networking opportunities, Camille can gain a better understanding of the local Data Science market.
- Researching companies and industries is key: Arushi's advice on transitioning from an analyst to an engineer was illuminating. She pointed out that Camille's ability matches with the increasing demand for data consultants. Consultants can present ideas via dashboard and storytelling, similar to analysts, while also possessing programming and coding skills, like scientists and engineers.
By researching consulting firms and IT companies, Camille can target her job search more effectively and highlight her relevant skills in AI and machine learning.
- Developing in-demand skills: Arushi's recommendation was to focus on obtaining industry-recognized certifications. Camille gained AWS cloud practitioner and Azure M365 certifications to develop transferable skills that are in high demand in the industry, such as cloud experience with machine learning and data analytics service.
- Stay positive: Arushi shared her personal experience on job hunting during the COVID-19 pandemic which was quite inspiring. She emphasized the importance of remaining positive and persistent during the job search process. Camille is taking her advice to heart throughout the job search process, particulary as a graduate with a temporary visa. Being an international student requires resilience, which Camille will leverage to her advantage.
- Seek guidance from a mentor: Camille is deeply appreciative of Arushi's gracious offer to mentor her in the field of technology.
Data Analytics Team Members: Volunteer Stathis Avramis Data Analytics Team Lead with Volunteer Camille Sze Pui Ko and Intern Jordana Izquierdo
Team Building and Peer - Peer Learning
Team building and peer-to-peer learning is an important part of the SAcommunity team and Connecting Up encourages opportunities to discuss organisation and data projects, and, especially with our international students and new migrants, exchanging thoughts on the cultural ideas, trends and aspects of home compared to living, studying and working in Adelaide, creating a diverse and rich environment to learn from.
Launch of the Australian Digital Inclusion Index and an update on the Mapping the Digital Gap Report 18 July 2023
Connection and Networking Events
Volunteers and interns are invited to attend organisation-wide meetings, partner and stakeholder events as they arise to assist them in learning more about the organisation and those we work with.
Infoxchange staff were invited in-person to the 2023 Australian Digital Inclusion Index Launch attended by staff members Pankaj Chhalotre, Head of Connecting Up and Catherine McIntyre, Community information and Volunteer Coordinator with the invitation extended to Data Analytics Team Volunteers Camille Sze Pui Ko, Govinda Gurung and Intern Jordana Izquierdo.
Hosted by Telstra, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S), RMIT University and Swinburne University of Technology. The launch was to introduce the ADII, find out how Australia is tracking, gain insights for better digital inclusion programs, and view the Index’s new First Nations digital inclusion data.
Volunteers and interns are invited to attend organisation-wide meetings, partner and stakeholder events as they arise to assist them in learning more about the organisation and those we work with.
Infoxchange staff were invited in-person to the 2023 Australian Digital Inclusion Index Launch attended by staff members Pankaj Chhalotre, Head of Connecting Up and Catherine McIntyre, Community information and Volunteer Coordinator with the invitation extended to Data Analytics Team Volunteers Camille Sze Pui Ko, Govinda Gurung and Intern Jordana Izquierdo.
Hosted by Telstra, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S), RMIT University and Swinburne University of Technology. The launch was to introduce the ADII, find out how Australia is tracking, gain insights for better digital inclusion programs, and view the Index’s new First Nations digital inclusion data.
Presenters included:
- Vicki Brady, CEO, Telstra
- Justine Rowe, Chief Sustainability Officer, Telstra
- Lauren Ganley, Head of First Nations Strategy and Engagement, Telstra
- Distinguished Professor Julian Thomas, Director, ADM+S, RMIT University
- Professor Anthony McCosker, Chief Investigator, ADM+S, Swinburne University of Technology
- Dr Daniel Featherstone, Senior Research Fellow, Mapping the Digital Gap project, ADM+S
- Dr Lyndon Ormond-Parker, Principal Research Fellow - Digital Inclusion and Engagement in Indigenous Communities, ADM+S
- Ross Womersley, Chief Executive Officer, South Australian Council of Social Service
Digital Inclusion Index https://www.digitalinclusionindex.org.au/
Mapping the Digital Gap https://www.admscentre.org.au/mapping-the-digital-gap/
Image: Pankaj Chhalotre, Head of Connecting Up, Intern Jordana Izquierdo, Volunteers Govinda Gurung and Camille Sze Pui Ko at the ADII launch Tuesday the 18 July 2023, at the Hilton Adelaide
Image: Volunteers Camille Sze Pui Ko, Stathis Avramis and Frank Xiufeng Shi representing SAcommunity at the GovHack Connections Event 9 August 2023 at Torrens University campus
GovHack is an annual Open Data competition held across Australia and New Zealand. This International Hackathon competition is for people of all abilities who seek to make life better through open data. Across one weekend, competitors come together to form teams and solve challenges by creating innovative new projects.
Connecting Up is dedicated to open data and SAcommunity Team members have been invited and encouraged to join us at GovHack for many years, representing the SAcommunity service, promoting the event and providing the SAcommunity dataset and data mentorship for the competition, with a couple of our volunteers and interns also choosing to register and participate themselves in the free competition event.
SAcommunity invited our current volunteers and interns to attend the 2023 Connections event to understand more about how our open data can be used with Data Team Lead Stathis Avramis, we introduced Govinda Gurung, Navodani Thennakoon, Frank Xiufeng Shi, Neil Anubhav Dattagupta, Pujan Maharjan and Camille Sze Pui Ko to GovHack and this year Camille became a GovHack participant, building a team to solve data challenges on the competition weekend 18 - 20 August 2023.
GovHack Competition Team: with Camille Sze Pui Ko
Camille Sze-Pui Ko in Connecting Up's Agile room online with mentor Arushi Satija, Information Security Specialist, Infoxchange Melbourne
Machine Learning Industry Project
Currently Camille is working on an artificial intelligence and machine learning industry project at the University of Adelaide. She is using the SAcommunity open data community information database of approximately 14,500 records to generate MARC standard description notes for the summary field in the directory through deep learning based text summarization, integrating natural language processing techniques with a practical application in the field of community resources. Descriptive notes are short summaries of the organisation's information in sentence form a general description that usually contains the aim, the program and services.
Check out the blog about the project >>here<<
Training and Development
SAcommunity Volunteers and Interns have access to a range of training and development opportunities, from Lunch & Learn sessions to the Connecting Up Digital Learning Platform for online training and development with a selection of relevant live and recorded webinars, workshops and webcons for life-long learning from a series of subject matter experts.
Training and Development sessions Camille has recently accessed include:
Lunch & Learn 5 December 2023Understanding 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
