Having chosen my project for the duration of the capstone series, my team and I have gotten to work. Our objective, as presented, has been to expand and modernize current features within the Artificial Intelligence Incident Database (AIID). A task that seemed so simple at first, has been a true challenge from the beginning. In a situation such as this, one would think that this is due to the complexity of the technologies, but the truth is much more mundane. With each one of us having a full time job, scheduling has become the largest test to our abilities. Luckily, this detriment is lightened by the skills of my teammates. Our team meetings are generally very short as we are able to quickly divide tasks and offer solutions in a very directed manner. With that in mind, I consider myself very lucky to have the privilege of working alongside this group. Two of them even have experience in the field, and I find myself learning learning a lot from them. To this degree, I’ve come to the realization of some of my own shortcomings in the design process. I’ve realized that, although I’ve become comfortable in my abilities when it comes to technologies, project management is an area that currently seems to evade my understanding. I suppose this sheds some clarity to the purpose of this course, which is to complete a real-world problem and highlight my own strengths and weaknesses so that I may better balance them. As a result, I’ve become very aware of the learning process and how it affects me. In getting older, my ability to retain information in the same volume as I used to, has noticeably diminished. For this, I’ve developed my own methods and strategies that allow me to keep on top of the required material. This is a great tool that will aid me in my own personal life as well, as I’ve discovered that one must have a process in order to achieve success. At the risk of delving too deeply into the philosophical, I’ve learned that, in order to learn, one must first learn how to learn. Maybe this is a realization that other people in the field have arrived at much before me, but it certainly has been an eye-opening experience for myself. Oftentimes, I focus on the technical material itself with such intensity that I forget to incorporate that general knowledge into other aspects of my life. Regardless, if this course were to be concluded at this immediate moment, I would deem it a success for giving me this knowledge. With this in mind, in going forward, I am thrilled at the prospect of acquiring other perspective-shaping insight that may better assist me in achieving my goals.
