David Wang Reflection 1

2013-09-07.md

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+Reflection #1:
+This class has definitely been challenging for me because I have had little experience with computers and interacting with the Tech world. However, what interests me so much about the class is the vast learning potential and passion that exists within both the students and instructors.
+This past week, I've encountered a few problems. First off, I could not download Ubuntu, which Aaron resolved for me using micro torrent. In addition, I forgot my password for Virtual Box, so in class I instead took notes on the steps required to install iPython notebook. I have attached the file I used in class to this reflection. To solve my missing password problem, Aaron told me to reinstall the virtual machine, which worked. This time, I wrote my password down on a separate document to make sure I don't run into the same problem again.
+In addition, I was confused about certain technical definitions as well, like pull requests and the purpose of virtual machine. For pull requests, Aaron was kind enough to draw me a diagram of how it worked during office hours: basically, pull requests are how secondary users can request to add their personal changes into the master copy after forking it via Github. I educated myself on the uses of virtual box using a simple Google search that referred me to several forums and Wikipedia. I read the emulated environment section in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VirtualBox.
+While trying to submit this document, I found it possible using these steps: First, clone the reflections repo you created in class. Next, drag the document you want into your local reflections repo. Synch the two repositories and the process should be complete.
+In terms of how the class is going so far, I like the pace of it, namely how it adjusts based on where everyone is. I would suggest a weekly discussion section sometime on Friday where students who fall behind can work together and with the instructor to catch up. That way, every lecture, all the students will be on the same page and able to get through more material. This makes sense because I noticed that the majority of our class is on freenode during class time only, so having an official discussion would facilitate communication. Students would save time by having others to bounce their problems off of, and instructors would save time because they can hold less office hours.
+I look forward to what we will learn in the coming weeks, and I plan to ask and answer more questions so that I can share my experiences with those having the same problems. So far, I really enjoy this class and what it pledges to teach us.

README.md

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+Reflection #4:
+It seemed like this week, the main focus was on whether the idea of reproducible data actually interested the undergraduates
+in our class. I say this because from the questions asked in class, it is clear that almost none of the students has any
+personal experience with how reproducible data could benefit the scientific world. 
+Personally, I am on the same boat; I took this class because I was extremely interested in the real world mechanics we would
+learn by operating with iPython and Github, and not so much the process of making sure what we did was reproducible. Keep in
+mind that is what I thought beforehand. As the class went on, I realized that this topic was extremely relevant to professionals
+who were doing their own research, and therefore, worth learning. For example, Eric and Phil's research shows how important
+getting data that both accurately and quickly depends on the reproducibility to past data. Their research examines factors
+that are relevant to all of our lives, and if there is a way to make sure that research comes out faster with less error,
+I think it is worth investing in.
+However, a few things about the class have bothered me. We have spent a lot of time emphasizing the communication aspect,
+but almost no time on the skill set that the class intends to teach us. I know we are close to starting, but this is just
+a point I wanted to reaffirm. An even better method of approaching this class in the future is to do the following flow:
+1. Get all programs downloaded and have guidelines on how to use Github
+2. Start programming small projects where people who need help can COMMUNICATE with peers and the online community for 
+solutions to their problems.
+3. Form groups after everyone gets to know each other from the small projects for a more collaborative atmosphere.
+4. Give these groups larger projects that require specialization.
+5. Repeat step four, but assigning different roles to people.
+6. Tackle the final research project.
+I would be more than happy to discuss anything I relayed in this reflection during office hours, thanks for reading!

Reflection 10

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+Reflection 10:
+The fact that structure is necessary to cultivate motivation became very apparent this week. With the creation of a task list,
+github exploded with issues, people communicate with each other on a daily basis. Why? They know exactly what they should focus
+on, and that sparked the drive all Berkeley students have within themselves to serve a task to completion.
+However, I have also seen some issues arise out of this. Since some students saw that the "leadership group" was leading the
+class, they have resisted the shift in authority by turning it into a power struggle. Certain students have taken up leadership
+roles that have complemented our plans quite well, but there are others who have created their own schedules in order to compete
+with the timeline we made. This only causes confusion and in effect, adds negative value.
+Right now, I see the next step as being sharing knowledge effectively. Even though most students are going great work, everyone
+is avoiding the main problem that no one really understands, how to improve the simple stark model. To me, it makes complete
+sense; with grades on the line, everyone wants to have tangible contributions documented and no one wants to fail. To combat
+this, I am collaborating with Carl to create an informative slideshow about earthquakes, hoping to instill more confidence in
+the class in terms of tackling the additional parameters. We plan to ask specialists on the Berkeley campus to supplement our
+research.
+I am also working on aggregating all of the presentation information onto some readable digital file so everyone can go back to
+it in case they were confused at any point, and those who are experts can add to it. 

Reflection 11

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+Reflection 11:
+I decided to finish this reflection after having our leadership group meeting on Sunday. 
+Summarizing the past week: I really do not think much got done last week, and it seems more apparent that everyone is on
+different spectrums of understanding. I can see that Teresa’s group is making strides on testing the MDA model against the ETAS
+model, but even then momentum is slowing there. As for other groups, nothing is being churned out and lack of direction has once
+again hindered productivity. The major roadblock is that we cannot possibly understand these models without simplification from
+Professor Luen or Professor Stark. Using Chris’s presentation, our group will try to create a detailed deliverable this weekend
+to fix this issue so that more ideas can flow, and the ability to test errors will become a relevant tool.
+I believe the Stand-Ups aren’t very helpful anymore as goals have become much less defined. Instead, a system where volunteers
+can present any significant findings could be much more helpful and time friendly. If GSIs could set daily class goals, that
+would be really helpful too, even if it is to talk within groups and come up with a game plan or finish evaluations, because at
+least the entire group is collaborating instead of making things up on google docs, etc. How to use class time in the best
+possible way is still cloudy to me, but hopefully I will have an answer for you soon.
+Sunday’s Meeting: Today’s meeting was great, we made a timeline that gave us a good amount of direction as to where we are
+going next. We feel like the next step is to get everyone to understand the ETAS and MDA models. To facilitate this, we will
+make a deliverable using notes on Luen’s paper and Chris’ presentation. Afterwards, the class can hopefully make some
+improvements to the MDA model in big ways.

Reflection 12

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+Reflection 12
+For this reflection, I find myself, for the first time in this class, not knowing what to write at all. Aaron mentioned that we
+were going to pivot from the main project, but I am unsure of what that meant. What is our objective now? 
+I know that our group specifically should be making our own assignments and understanding where the class is going, but with the
+Luen call not providing a definitive place to continue searching for answers, I think the part of the class more involved in the
+model could not move forward as quickly as we had all hoped.
+I understand that the class is about redefining how we approach data science, stressing reproducibility and defensibility. I
+look forward to seeing smaller assignments that tie these concepts together as the class comes to an end. I also look forward to
+a more dynamic 157 class the next semester.

Reflection 13

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+Reflection 13:
+This week I did a lot of retrospective evaluations on the course. I think the course has been a great bridge between traditional
+education and the real world. It also reveals the biggest problems that companies face. For example, certain individuals in the
+class doing a majority of the work. I have heard my parents complain about this when I was in high school, I have heard my
+friends who recently graduated talk about this in regards to their new jobs, and now I have experienced this first hand in an
+environment that mirrors the tasks in a work environment. From this, I also learned that there is a lot of value to be gained
+from having structure and leaders who will delegate tasks to others. With the introduction of tangible references and buckets of
+tasks, productivity multiplied. Students are motivated by direction, which is the key to being able to visualize a final product.
+In future semesters of teaching this course, I really hope to see more tutorials, handouts, examples of successful products, and
+most of all, a syllabus that gives students clear learning objectives that will motivate them to catch up if they are behind or
+organize their thoughts on the current material. 
+Moreover, a great portion of the class, for everyone, was spent not knowing what to actually do. Some people became inert, others
+tried to get the class back on a productive track, and some tried to do personal projects that they believed would fit in with
+the overarching goal. There have been a few complaints expressing how little the class taught. However, I disagree. It challenged
+us to collect ourselves in the face of all the chaos and randomness, to make something out of impossible disorder. I think through
+this class, although the “main objective” was not met, it taught students how to adapt to a new environment completely different
+from what was expected. In life, there is no grading rubric or syllabus. You are expected to do whatever is necessary in the
+present, not what is pre-determined. 
+So the idea of reproducibility and defensibility was not necessarily lost through all of the turmoil and confusion we experienced
+in class. In fact, these concepts have been reinforced throughout the semester without us even knowing it. Every time we submit
+a project or make progress on something, we are making sure our group members and class understands it. Many of us made
+presentations that described the most granular concepts in detail so that our classmates could read them in their own time and
+understand them in case the in-class presentations went too fast. Every time we write a reflection we are expected to defend our
+opinions regarding the class. Every time we do something not specifically defined as relevant, we must explain why it was
+necessary. 
+In the beginning we all thought reproducibility was about being able to run the same code on any system and produce the same
+results. While this is important, I now interpret reproducible work as being organic; in the scientific community researchers
+are constantly building on each other’s work and changing bits and pieces to align with their respective goals. Research is the
+most effective when others can build off of it and that can only be achieved if the foundation of the research is there, not
+just the end results. For example, when we had access to Professor Luen’s code and models, we found it difficult to adjust it
+because our understanding of the subject matter was elementary compared to his. The greatest set back in science is assuming
+that people know more than they do. We can see this in dense textbooks and in research papers. Although taking a step back and
+revisiting information you personally believe is trivial can be a time sink, this class has shown the exponential returns
+doing so will have on other people. Every presentation given in this class proved to be a motivating factor for everyone who
+did not necessarily know what was going on. It gave them the confidence to move forward, which is the greatest metric for
+progress. I remember the first week Kristina said that only graduate students can understand how suffocating it can be to
+deal with un-reproducible work because they are the only ones who experience it first-hand. The truth is all undergraduates
+deal with it first-hand, whether it is through poorly written textbooks or professors who assume their students know more
+than they do, but it does not occur frequently enough to cause undergraduates to think twice about it. It has been a semester
+now, and I can’t imagine any of the 45 students in Stat 157 who could disagree with how important the idea of reproducibility
+is anymore. In the oddest of ways, this class has achieved its goal. 

Reflection 3

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+Reflection #3:
+It seemed like this week, the main focus was on whether the idea of reproducible data actually interested the undergraduates in our class. I say this because from the questions asked in class, it is clear that almost none of the students has any personal experience with how reproducible data could benefit the scientific world. 
+Personally, I am on the same boat; I took this class because I was extremely interested in the real world mechanics we would learn by operating with iPython and Github, and not so much the process of making sure what we did was reproducible. Keep in mind that is what I thought beforehand. As the class went on, I realized that this topic was extremely relevant to professionals who were doing their own research, and therefore, worth learning. For example, Eric and Phil's research shows how important getting data that both accurately and quickly depends on the reproducibility to past data. Their research examines factors that are relevant to all of our lives, and if there is a way to make sure that research comes out faster with less error, I think it is worth investing in.
+However, a few things about the class have bothered me. We have spent a lot of time emphasizing the communication aspect, but almost no time on the skill set that the class intends to teach us. I know we are close to starting, but this is just a point I wanted to reaffirm. An even better method of approaching this class in the future is to do the following flow:
+1. Get all programs downloaded and have guidelines on how to use Github
+2. Start programming small projects where people who need help can COMMUNICATE with peers and the online community for solutions to their problems.
+3. Form groups after everyone gets to know each other from the small projects for a more collaborative atmosphere.
+4. Give these groups larger projects that require specialization.
+5. Repeat step four, but assigning different roles to people.
+6. Tackle the final research project.
+I would be more than happy to discuss anything I relayed in this reflection during office hours, thanks for reading!
+

Reflection 5

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+Reflection 5:
+I like where the class is going, I can tell that we are about to make some real progress. I am assuming the point of the
+specialized group projects is to unveil difficulties associated with randomized teams and to encourage collaboration across
+both horizontal and vertical groups in order to solve these issues. I am pretty excited to see this one through, how my
+classmates and I will overcome various inefficiencies and how horizontal groups will make use of a specialized network. So far,
+there are a lot of things going on so it is a bit worrisome.
+I think that in a classroom setting, a better method of doing this is having EVERYONE be a data curator, then having EVERYONE
+be an analyzer, and so on. This way, no one has to wait on others, and when they have problems they can seek out help from their
+friends in the class who are more willing to teach than a newly acquainted classmate. Also, it would be really helpful to have
+guidelines on how to extract data and analyze it. It doesn't have to be obvious answers, but statements that would get us asking
+the right questions and thinking in the correct direction. Most programming classes give a backbone program where certain
+functions have been started and variables defined.
+Roadblocks: I don't know where the best tutorials are for these new tools, and it is getting overwhelming going over all the
+resources given to us recently. I have no idea what kind of capabilities iPython contains; a demo of how to get started would
+have been awesome. Ultimately, I feel like there are 10 times going on at once, and I feel like no clear vision of what the end
+product is. It is becoming pretty high stress, hopefully tomorrow's office hours can relieve some of that stress.

Reflection 7

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+Reflection #7:
+What stood out to me this week were the roadblocks I ran into while doing the second homework. First of all, I have a midterm
+this coming Monday that is worth a hefty portion of my grade. I needed to start early on the statistics project if I wanted to
+have time Sunday for studying; this meant that I did not have a chance to gain direction during office hours. Understanding some
+of the concepts, such as caching the data and using JSON, was extremely difficult with no one to ask. However, this made me turn
+to the issue tracker which helped a great amount. I learned from others how to set up python libraries to prepare me for data
+curation. Also, I used my notebook from a previous cs class to help me generalize the plotting portion of the assignment. In
+addition, our most proficient coder, Tristan, left the group on Friday and left us between a rock and a hard place. This project
+is pretty heavy on knowing what to do in terms of coding, so it is definitely a big deal for our group. I took on many more
+responsibilities since I knew a bit about coding in python and Bonghyun is taking a technical lead. I am really glad that I have
+a chance to code more, since that was one of the reasons I took this class in teh first place. Finally, knowing all of the
+roadblocks I ran into before actually coming to office hours allowed me to ask more concise questions and get to the answers I
+needed quicker than when I came in for OH for the first project. Hopefully as I move forward, these lessons accumulate into
+efficient working habits.
+I also heard that Professor Stark is changing the prospect of our final project. I like the idea of tweaking a simplistic model
+to get results that compare with complex models. I was unable to attend class on Thursday, but from what I heard it seems like
+a cool project.