June 6, 2025
Day 9 – Literature survey & Team presentation
What I Learned
I started the day by continuing my literature survey, which is due next Monday. In total, I critiqued and summarized 5 research papers. I wrote an overview, strengths, and weaknesses for each paper I read. I used Overleaf for the literature survey, following IEEE standards, which I am used to doing. Our grad mentor Pelumi visited us and provided valuable feedback on our presentation slides. Before the lunch break, we were invited by a professor from the lab next door to participate in a research survey. We went there and tried their driving simulator, for which we received a $15 Amazon gift card. Using the driving simulator was much more fun than driving an actual car. After the lunch break, we returned to the lab and started planning for the video presentation due at 5 PM. Thankfully, we finished the video in two takes, and Mr. Pelumi was impressed with our presentation skills. I then continued polishing my literature survey.
Blockers
No issues faced.
Reflection
Today went well. I finished my Kaggle courses and literature survey. Mr. Pelumi and my team members were very impressed with my literature survey format, which made me feel happy and proud of myself. Besides this, I also had fun testing the driving simulator and chatting with the professor and her team there to learn about their project. I want to point out that I stammer a little, so I was a bit nervous while recording the video. I had to skip a few words, like “literature,” during my presentation turn because I would get stuck trying to pronounce them without any breaks. I think the video went pretty well, but I could have done better.