Hi! I鈥檓 Koji, one of the PODS fellows this summer. Originally from Tokyo and New York, I鈥檝e just finished my joint honours degree in Political Science and Economics.
I鈥檝e always been a bit of a data geek 鈥� the sort of person who would track his favourite music or sports teams on spreadsheets 鈥� and being a visual learner, I鈥檝e always tried to represent data in the most visually-appealing way possible. However, I鈥檝e always relied on Google Sheets, which had its limitations. Additionally, I鈥檝e always been enthusiastic about learning human languages 鈥� French, Japanese, German, and a bit of Italian 鈥� but I鈥檝e always shied away from learning a programming language.
So in many ways, what PODS has taught me 鈥� a solid foundation in a programming language for data analysis and visualization 鈥� was exactly what I needed, and complemented my existing interests really well. (I鈥檝e already started using these new tricks I learned, like visualization packages in R and web scraping, in my personal research projects about elections and public transit 鈥� because, as my friends can attest, I have really odd hobbies.) Not only were the instructor, TA, and course material excellent, it was a privilege to go through this experience with a truly brilliant, inquisitive, delightful, and kind-hearted cohort (whose blog posts you鈥檝e been following throughout the summer!).
In addition to the bootcamp, I was assigned to intern at Plotly, a data-visualization firm in the Mile End. There, I was put with the documentation team 鈥� who write explanations for the packages that Plotly codes 鈥� and expanded the documentation pages for the ggplotly package. This meant creating example visualizations for each function in the set. It was an excellent opportunity to explore a wide variety of datasets (I was given considerable freedom about what I could use for the examples) and to expand the types of data-visualization I feel comfortable with, beyond just points and lines. It was also an excellent way to learn Plotly鈥檚 鈥淒ash鈥� package, a way of creating interactive dashboards, and Plotly鈥檚 many great interns helped me along the way.
In short, I鈥檓 never going to forget PODS, really 鈥� every visualization project and every map I make from now on will be the result of the skills and insights I gained over this summer. I鈥檝e thought for a bit that I鈥檇 like to work in a journalistic publication that combined explanation with visualization (if you鈥檙e reading this, The Economist, please call me), and I鈥檇 like to think that, with PODS, I鈥檓 one step closer to that.
