Natalie

The main challenge I think our team encountered was the problem of scheduling times to meet throughout our busy days and across different time zones. Often, we had conflicts so we had to frequently communicate about our availability. We overcame this by having meeting in the evenings and on Fridays when we all had more time. In addition, communication was tough at times because some members would be traveling and making calls from remote locations. Overall, I think this was a beneficial experience for our team and we persevered through the challenges we faced. We successfully collaborated to complete our monthly tasks and ultimately the final project.

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Amanda

            This was one of the most difficult projects I have worked on because of the emphasis on distance collaboration, but it was one in which I learned the most. It helped that I was working on my senior capstone project at the time, which had many parallels to the project. I was able to apply things I had learned in class and topics I had researched on my own to the project. One skill I was able to work on during this project was accountability and time management. Our team had group meetings every couple of weeks and we were each responsible for ensuring that we would complete our assigned portion before the next meeting. I really had to work on myself to complete each part so that I would not be failing my group members. One of the most difficult parts of this project was the long-distance collaboration. All of the group members except for myself were located in a time zone with a two hour difference, so I found myself having to make accommodations to meet their needs. Even though meetings would be during the regular work day for them, they would have been even earlier for me. I constantly found myself rearranging my schedule to accommodate everyone else’s schedule on the east coast.

            Overall, this was one of the most rewarding experiences and programs I have participated in. I was able to apply real skills to a project, as if we were in industry. We had the opportunity to work and network with others across the country that we would not have met or interacted with without this program. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in a program to meet people with new and different perspectives across the country and have the opportunity to apply my education to a real project!

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David

There were several challenges that presented themselves over the course of this project, the first being the issue of scheduling meetings. Our plan was to use online resources for communication (Email, Google Hangouts, Google Drive), but we needed to set up a time that worked for everyone on the team. This was especially difficult due to much of our team being spread across different time zones. Additionally, since everyone on the team was either a student or professor, much of our schedules were already occupied. We decided to meet every other week at a specified day and time. This allowed us ample time to conduct research and the ability to  frequently communicate our findings to the team, with little to no interference with our current schedules. For the first few months, our mentors would lead discussion on the project. This worked well but whenever they were not available for the meeting, it was more difficult to get the talking started. I think that once we settled down on a project idea and fleshed out more of the details, we all gained a little more confidence and by the end of it everyone could take on that leadership role in the discussion.