midterm-ops-aaccuardi3.md

Midterm Semester Report: Operations

Alexa Accuardi (Animal Detection)

Define what reoccurring tasks you are doing within your project group?

• Attend the biweekly team meeting
• Post meeting summaries to Slack
• Read weekly reports and summarize in the operations spreadsheet
• Reach out to team lead or computational advisor with questions

How are you assessing your role as the project manager and its effect on the overall project?

I think my success can be measured by how the team is functioning as a whole. In my role, I was able to keep a high level overview of the team's progress. I was able to surface some blockers early on in the semester related to PACE ICE. While these problems are not fully resolved, I think most team members found a configuration that will work well enough to perform their research. As a result, the team seems to be approaching a pivot from fine-tuning models to paper writing. Having a project manager seemed beneficial as I was able to ensure all team members were contributing and working toward a common goal.

What challenges & success have you observed in your group?

Initially it was a challenge getting reports from the 3 researchers. As a result, I created a weekly recurring Slack reminder in the team's channel. Since then I've received most of the reports (even if they are sometimes a little late).

Another challenge I've observed is a lack of communication between meetings. I'm not sure if the researchers have a separate channel or use DMs, but from what I can observe there is not a lot of discussion outside of our biweekly syncs.

One success I have observed is the input from the team's computational advisor. Chenwei seems like an excellent match for this project and has been really valuable, especially with the faculty member being away this term.

How are you collaborating with stakeholders to ensure your role is supporting and motivating the group?

If I am unable to verify progress from the weekly reports (i.e. there are no commits or artifacts to view), I reach out to the team lead, Justin, for confirmation. As needed, I create lists of topics to follow up on at our live sync if we are having communication issues.

What feedback have you received on your role solicited or unsolicited?

I haven't received any feedback so far.

What plans do you have your enhancing your role as the project manager with the remaining time in the semester?

With the remaining time, I want to experiment with a more visible way of tracking tasks for the team. Right now I am sensing a disconnect between knowledge of progress toward goals, individual reports, and the operations tracker.

Please provide feedback on what support you may need in your role.

I cannot think of any at this time.