Parmita's Blog

This semester, I did an independent study project and presented at the end-of-semester "Meeting of the Minds" event held at Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. Throughout the semester, I worked with my advisor, Cori Faklaris--a Ph.D. student and Arnav Mahajan--another undergraduate, on our research project in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute. Our overall goal was to find a way to predict user behavior regarding their personal cybersecurity actions. While computer applications may have many strong security measures in place, it is often the end user who is the weakest link. (They may accidentally share passwords or leave data unsecured) Despite the multitude of different cybersecurity tools that exist (Password managers, Two Factor Authentication, general caution and awareness online, etc.) many users do not put these tools into practice. Prior research into the matter elaborates on many different theories and models of how users adapt to new techn...

As I mentioned in my last post here , I interned at a startup this summer where I got to work on Machine Learning Models. I compiled together the basic core ideas and concepts involved in creating a model like this from start-to-finish and made this fun tutorial:  https://github.com/parmita52/machine-learning-spark-ex Check it out!

This summer I was an intern at Numerify ! Numerify is a tech startup providing a system of Intelligence for IT. It was an incredible experience, and I learned so much in such a short period. Numerify’s clients include companies such as Netflix, Coach, and McDonald's. They use Business Intelligence and analytics tools to help their customers business manage their IT Data. Over the course of the summer, I picked up a whole laundry list of acronyms used in the Business Intelligence (or should I say the BI) world: RDMS - Relational Database Management System ITSM - IT Service Management ITPA - IT Product Analytics SDA - Software Development Analytics ETL - Extract Transform Load APM - Appliance Performance Monitoring SLA - Service Level Agreement CSAT - Customer Satisfaction GUID -  Global Unique ID POM - Project Object Model REST - Representational State Transfer CRUD - Create, read, update and delete ER - Entity Relationship OLTP - Online Transaction Processing ...

I had so much fun today at the Facebook Intern Summerfest! Like a regular job fair, I got to talk to a lot of recruiters about potential work in the future. But unlike a regular job fair, I got to play games, hangout, and have casual conversations with people who actually work at Facebook. I really loved talking to the Facebook employees. I was so cool to see their truthful inside perspective. The employees I met today all share the same spark and energy. They were all so excited to share more about their projects, their daily work schedule, and tips for college students like me, just starting off. Overall it was such a fun experience that I wish I could share more! (but of course, gotta remember that NDA!)

SCS Day is an annual celebration at Carnegie Mellon to showcase the diverse talents of students in the School of Computer Science. I submitted some of the comics I've made and I'm proud to say they were selected to be placed in the art gallery! I had a lot of fun sharing my art with my classmates. I'm pretty used to hearing feedback from lots of anonymous people online, but it's a completely different experience in person. I was floored when upperclassmen and TAs who I really look up to came up to me to say they liked my comics. It means a lot coming from them.  I also had tons of fun during the event. Other than the Art Gallery, there was also a big Talent Show and it was so amazing! People showcased their musical talents (there was even a band of SCS students), magic tricks, and even acrobatics!  Overall it was so much fun and I can't wait to participate again next year :)

Just got back from volunteering at the Carnegie Science Center. It was a lot of fun teaching kids about basic physics and sharing my passion for STEM! I'm happy that I've gotten the opportunity to be involved in the community in Pittsburgh as well as in the Bay :)

Back in high school, I created some visuals to help me learn AP Statistics. I am proud to say that the AP Statistics instructor has now included them in his curriculum. I especially like this bottom one because it is a fun memorable way to remember lurking variables. While at first glance it may seem like having more TV's increases a country's life expectancy, with further thought it is clear that the lurking variable of wealth is affecting both of these. I am really happy to know that my visuals are now going on to help other students for years to come. 

A couple summers ago, I made the Girls Who Create summer camp. I started from scratch and created a curriculum, schedule, slides, teaching material, demonstrations, and coded examples. It was one of the most amazing and most rewarding experiences of my entire life. I hoped to do it again and continue the camp, but after moving across the country to college and seeing how quickly my breaks are now filling with internships, research, and extra work, I realized that I wouldn't be able to continue to teach it in person. However, I still want to continue to spread the love of learning and make full use of the resources I created. That is why I have shared the slides, schedules, and planning material on the girlswhocreate  website , in the hopes that others will be able to use these resources to go forth and create their own experience spreading the love of learning and creating. On that page , I have compiled the major resources I created, from the teaching material like sl...