Hello everybody! My name is Brooke Duncan and I am a summer 2023 Pintern from Telluride, Colorado. To put it simply, this past week has been a whirlwind of new and exciting information. As it turns out, I am fortunate enough to be staying in Telluride for my internship, as I work under one of Agile Onboarding’s founders, Basit Mustafa. Basit is a long-time Telluride local who has dedicated his life to software development and ultra-marathon running, in no particular order. As you might imagine, Monday and Tuesday focused mainly on introductions to the many complicated systems used by Basit and his team; I spent many hours waiting on my computer to download new software, hitting some kind of issue, and promptly returning to square one. Now, several days later, I can say with no confidence at all that I have it all figured out. In fact, the more I learn about the different models, the more complicated everything seems to get. Alright, I am finished lamenting about the shortcomings of technology, so let’s move on to all of the cool things I did.
A sneak-peak into the software behind parts of AI.
There is nothing like a Colorado sunset.
The main project I am working on over the next five weeks is integrating AI into Agile Onboarding’s user interface and back-end models. This past week I have been exploring all the different development environments necessary to accomplish this, starting with the most simple drag-and-drop programs, and working my way up to more advanced models that combine many smaller components. As I worked my way through the “practice problems” and sample code, I was reminded of the importance of starting small and working my way up to bigger challenges, as well as the value of communication. A lot of my work was independent, and consequently, I spent A LOT of time watching Youtube tutorials to walk me through even the “simplest” of tasks. This research aspect of my first week was invaluable as it forced me to really learn the information, as opposed to completing the task at hand, and immediately forgetting everything I had just done. Looking towards next week, I anticipate shifting my frame of work slightly, focusing more on the end goal as opposed to getting my feet under me. With that said, every day presents new challenges and opportunities to learn, so who really knows where I will be in a week’s time!
Brooke, good work rolling with the punches, that’s where the cool stuff tends to happen! AI is so complicated so I can’t wait to hear about what you learn next week!