APCS Summer Interview Project Mrs. Fox

Who I Interviewed Dan Hellman PhD Candidate IST Penn State University

How I know Dan Dan’s father, John, is the Dean of Graduate Students at the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State University. I have known Dr. Hellman since I was an undergraduate at Penn State.

Causes Dan cares about: Civil Rights and Social Action Disaster and Humanitarian Relief Education Environment Health Human Rights Politics Science and Technology

Why did dan choose it? Why a phd? This can be explained best by exploring Dan’s career journey. Part 1: Graduated from State College High School and enrolled immediately in Penn State’s Architectural Engineering program. Did not enjoy it and did not do well. Quit college, joined the Marines and then told his parents!

Career journey part 2 & 3 #2 While in the Marines, Dan was trained in Geo-mapping. He spent a couple of tours in Afghanistan. Corporal (E4), Flightline Mechanic/Plane Captain United States Marine Corps #3 After fulfilling his tour of duty Dan was ready to tackle college-now with an interest-Geography. He graduated from Penn State with a BS in Geography (GIS)

Career journey part 4 & 5 #4 Dan got his first post-college job with NAVSEA, our underwater Naval Warfare Center. Here he learned what additional training he needed to do more mapping. #5 Dan attended George Mason University and earned a Geospatial Intelligence Graduate Certificate, Geoinformatics

Career journey part 6 #6 new job, Lead GIS Analyst - GEOFidelis Contract Support, Headquarters Marine Corps Beginning to realize trends in seemingly unrelated data… #7 new job, Geospatial Analyst - IWMDT EGIS data management, services, & documentation Seeing more and more connections, wondering if this has been researched… Beginning to ask what benefits to society by finding connections…

Career journey part 7 PHD Candidate Pennsylvania State University - College of IST • 2014 PhD Cohort Student • Teaching Assistant – IST452 • Contributing author and primary research assistant on NSF Award 1519023 (Socio-technical systems and Big Data Analytics in the Ebola Response).

Thesis that has earned Dan two summer internships at MIT: Collaborative Analytics and Brokering in Digital Humanitarian Response ACM: Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2016) Abstract: During large scale humanitarian crises, relief practitioners identify data used for decision making and coordination, as critical to their operations. Implicit in this need is the required capabilities for analyzing data. Given the rapidly evolving systems of collaborative data management and analysis in digital humanitarian efforts, information scientists and practitioners alike are keen to understand the role of data analytics in response operations. Through a case study of a digital humanitarian collaborative effort, we examine the processes for big and small data analytics, specifically focusing on data development, sharing, and collaborative analytics. Informed by theories of articulation work and collaborative analytics, we analyze data from in- depth interviews with digital humanitarians. Our findings identify key practices and processes for collaborative analytics in resource constrained environments, particularly the role of brokering, and in turn generate design recommendation for collaborative analytic platforms.

Career journey part 7.5 Summer Research Intern MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Career journey: what’s next? It will take around 18 months to complete his research at MIT and to complete his PhD dissertation at Penn State. From there? Continued research Using his data skills to pursue his interests

Causes Dan cares about/is interested in: Civil Rights and Social Action Disaster and Humanitarian Relief Education Environment Health Human Rights Politics Science and Technology

Dan’s mom and me hiking the AT… You will present a picture of you and your interviewee at the worksite.

Sample Thank You letter (email exchange will be good too)! Thank You Letter After an Informational Interview January 24, 20XX Sandra Smith 336 West Broadway Cleveland, Ohio 67890 Mr. James Wood Manager Wood’s Lumber Ltd. 300 Main Boulevard Jonestown, Ohio 12345 Dear Mr. Wood: It was a pleasure speaking with you on Wednesday, January 23rd. Thank you for taking the time from your busy schedule to answer my questions. Your answers were helpful and very informative, in furthering my understanding of what is involved in this type of work. I appreciate the interest you have shown in helping me with my career search. Sincerely yours, [Signature Handwritten]      ←    Signature Handwritten Sandra Smith     ←   Signature Typed Sample Thank You letter (email exchange will be good too)!

A personal reflection “What I learned from this assignment” About Computer Science About career journeys What I’d like to learn….