After being taught the foundation for machine learning, we began to work through the python code Adam provided for us. I enjoyed reading through the program and trying to understand what each line is doing. By doing so, some of the basic concepts Adam taught us were starting to make a lot more sense. My favorite part has been filling in missing lines of code with Ayman and Curtis to then be able to run and train our first model. I’m still a bit lost on what exactly everything is doing, so I’ve been reading through a book Adam provided us with to learn more about supervised learning. Also, to gain an idea on the machine learning project we’re working on, you can read through Curtis’s post titled “Machine Learning”.
For luncheon lectures this week, we had Kimberly Zarecor and Myra Cohen present. I was tasked to ask two questions, and well, I kind of failed, but I did manage to see Kimberly in her office and ask one of them. It’s what I usually do as I find one on one to be a lot easier. Whenever I have some research questions for my graduate student mentors, I try to find them after a meeting to get feedback which I then report back to my teammates. One time the conversation turned into Spanish so that was interesting (and liberating for some reason). Though, I do recognize the value of having everyone directly listen to the responses, so for Myra’s lecture, I actually managed to ask a question. I don’t know how I did it. I slightly moved my hand and got noticed immediately to my surprise. For my question, I was wondering more about the bio-inspired programming that was mentioned such as genetic algorithms since I’ve never heard of that before. Myra gave a good explanation on what it is, so that was nice to hear (and with that I am good for the rest of the year…unless I’m asked to try again…)
Again, my favorite thing I did this week was working on our research project. To help us prepare for when the Stormlake students arrive on Wednesday, we created a google slides presentation and a set of questions. Once Saby and Edith were here, we all introduced ourselves and gave an update on our game design progress. I tried my best to present the narrative and associated themes we’ve developed so far. Afterwards, we went to eat dinner at a Thai restaurant. I got a mango smoothie and some noodles (it was all so good). Anasilvia had joined us too, and overall, it was nice to just be with everyone and get to know each other more. On Thursday, we had another big three hour session at the top of the Student Innovation Center. There, I got to know more about Saby’s and Edith’s stories and how they got into college. The big thing that I took away is the fact that they come from a community where the minority is the majority. It reminded me of my elementary school before I ended up moving to a better supported school. Then, we worked heavily on determining the main themes for our game considering their stories and brainstorming some scenes that represent these. We’ve also been trying to come up with a name for our game, and one idea popped in my head that so far everyone seems to like. On Friday, we continued brainstorming more scenes together before it was time to say goodbye to Saby and Edith. I’m glad they were able to come and meet us, and I hope they had a good time here as a way to help them further prepare themselves for their fall semester at Iowa State University. By the way, we had also all gone to lunch at a cafe with Kimberly, Tom, and Eliot, and honestly, I felt like I was in a family dinner with all the adults. I guess there are things that I do not understand or know enough about to appreciate from the past, but the food was good though.