Laurel Miller

One lesson I learned that I couldn’t learn in the classroom or in a textbook is how to give constructive criticism effectively. At my internship I have been working closely with another intern to put together a SharePoint site for the Interactive Department. This requires a lot of trial and error with site design and adding useful web-parts. Learning how to give constructive feedback to the other interns ideas has allowed to progress smoothly so far in the site design and pick and choose which ideas will work best for the department. Also learning how to communicate my ideas effectively was another lesson I learned at my internship especially before we had access to play around with SharePoint. Being able to effectively communicate ideas with my supervisor and other intern allowed the site design to be very thorough and made it easier to start actually constructing the site once we got access to the software.

For me, I was able to apply my classroom learning and take it a step further. When you learn, you learn theory. Many professors incorporate practical lessons, but it is nearly impossible to make it very realistic. Discussing networking is different than meeting a director in the cafeteria and discussing your role with him. Learning programming is different than teaching yourself XML to input worksheets. Analyzing a business case is different than taking apart a client’s problem and coming up with a real-life, implementable solution. These are all things I experienced during my internship and, to me, the value is in taking the knowledge we already have and taking it to the next level – learning to apply it in real time.

Something that I learned and developed through my internship was working effectively collaboratively and asking others for help when needed. In the classroom setting I feel like I need to work on independent activities by myself, and often try to figure everything out on my own to learn it properly. It differs from the workplace, where most of my work was group based, as we often collaborate on various aspects of our projects. I think by establishing a good relationship with my co-workers, it made me more comfortable to ask for help and guidance on work. It is still difficult sometimes, but I think once in a while we need to swallow our pride and know when to ask someone else for help.

Something that I learned throughout my internship is that what is actually applying the skills i learned to the actual workplace. Sure you can learn how to properly read a case and break it down, but actually applying it to a real world case is completely different. I learned that being given a task about a company that hasn’t done a contract with us. I had to break down there entire company structure and see if they are compatible with our own. Also learning to write reports from MIS2501 was a skill to learn in class and apply it in the workplace. I learned to actually apply it and make it my own. I changed the format a bit but the general gist of the report was the same. Applying your skills you learned in class and actually using in the real world is a skill in itself you can’t learn in a classroom.

There are several valuable lessons that I’ve learned from my internship, but I think the most valuable skill I’ve picked up is staying open-minded. In classrooms you are taught to think the way that the book says, or the way that the teacher tells you to. For exams, you have to make sure you are focused on learning the material the way the teacher presents it to you, and if you interpret it differently it will be considered wrong. In the workforce there are numerous interpretations to each problem, and numerous ways to approach these problems. Keeping an open mind allows you to think of abstract solutions to these issues that you may not be able to think of in classrooms. I think being open-minded in the work force also allows you to pick up numerous skills like collaboration, and interactions. Overall, having the ability to be open-minded in my internship has allowed me to gain new insights into various problems, and come up with abstract solutions for these problems as well.

Something that I couldn’t learn from the classroom or from any textbook is experience. I believe that most things you learn in the classroom is important but the most important thing is to actually understanding how things are/work and applying it outside the classroom. Some people learn, take the exam, and forget. Yes you can learn a lot in school but what is it if you can’t apply it to everyday life and at work? That’s why experience is important; because that’s something that sticks with you for a long time, if not, forever.

The most important aspect that is not taught in the classroom is being able to actually apply the knowledge learned in class. Everyone who goes to school is capable of learning and retaining knowledge the way a professor presents it. However when shifting into the real life work environment its so important that you are able to apply all the knowledge in an efficient manner. At my internship i was constantly faced with different tasks that I was not prepared for by school, but being able to apply myself allowed me to handle anything as it came.

One of the lessons/skills I have learned during my internship that has been beneficial, is the ability to work off of and with other team member’s strengths and weaknesses. Clearly this cannot be learned from a book, but is acquired from working on teams and alongside the members. It has been beneficial to know how everyone operates, in order to produce the perfect result and in a timely manner. Of course, going through the college courses and reading books is beneficial, but the hands-on experience is what makes the work all come together. Another skill set that I have grown into during the internship, has been the ability to clearly communicate with others, in a precise manner. It found it import to not waste peoples time and come straight to the point. The less said, the easier it is for people to remember and understand.

I learned that you have to roll with the punches. This past week I started a new project but ran into some limitations on the current development environment. I coordinated with the administrators to get added to the new environment in the next week but set up a local environment for the interim.

Every company is different. Each has their own way of structuring, learning, and teaching their every day operations and culture. You must be able to efficiently integrate yourself into a new company’s culture. At Wawa’s headquarters, their culture is well know to be open and extremely friendly. Everyone knows everyone and their personal life. I know that is not common for bigger corporate companies. I learned to take an active interest in those around me and contribute as much as I can to make the workplace an enjoyable environment.

One of the skills that I’ve learned from working in corporate America and for the military that I haven’t learned from school is how to adapt to change. There is always new policies or new strategies that businesses want to implement. They expect us to be prepared to the change. With school I’m used to the same techniques and same strategies. It was hard for me to adapt change but now I look at change as opportunities to learn new things.

I believe that the classwork at Temple gave me a great foundation on how to be an analyst and critical thinker. I certainly feel that it was essential to have the fundamentals prior to stepping into the workforce. We have worked on case studies in both Data Analytics and Digital Innovation and Design; however, there are some road blocks in real life that you can’t solve in class. For example, I had to create an annual loss report for an insurance company and had to find a database that was used last year. After in-depth search, I just couldn’t locate it. While in class, that data would have been given to you, in real life you have to think outside of the box on how to find that information. Eventually I had to ask tech support to restore the folder where the database was located and completed the report successfully. The key take away from this example is that you should use class fundamentals as a starting point for your analysis, but never rely on it solely.

I learned a lot from my internship that I had not learned in the classroom. One of those skills included how to work with Google Webmaster to create a site structure that Google uses to skim a website. This tool also enabled me to identify if any links were broken or error were being reported from our site. Another tool was Google’s speed report for our desktop and mobile site. This tool showed us where our website was being slowed down, and provided tips on how to optimize these elements to improve the usability and speed of our website. Lastly, learning how to use Google’s keyword planner and Google trends has been the most difficult part. Both of these tools allow me to asses keywords for search engine optimization, but I had to learn on my own which keywords were best, and which were not. I was never taught how to analyze keywords based on competition, suggested bid price, and average searches, but with a little help from Lynda.com, I was able to make do.

I would say the biggest thing I learned from my internship that I couldn’t learn in a classroom is the ability to tackle assignments when deadlines change. In school, every assignment we have comes with a due date, so we can mentally prepare ourselves and map out our action plan to get the assignment done. When it comes to internship assignments you can run into projects without a set due date. Sometimes you get asked to change your priorities and focus on finishing a particular project, and other times you just have to get it done right as soon as possible. I think being flexible when it comes to these situations is a valuable attribute to have when it comes to entering the business world.

I believe that you learn most things on the job and school just gives the structure to be successful. There may be a few things such as skills learned in the Excel class and Business Communications that can be used in the workplace but most things your either have to relearn because the company does it differently than you were taught or it is purely learned based on experience. Soft skills are a large part of the training process in the workplace and the rest is mostly learned in real time or during some sort of video training that is required.

A few things that I have learned throughout my internship include refining my soft skills and obtaining information from different departments. In school, everything is generally in a centric location and you can ask a professor or search the internet for help. In the workplace, everyone is specialized and good communication skills are needed to find specific information. Another vital lesson that I have learned is to work within the strengths and weaknesses of the team. It relates to team projects within the classroom, but it is applied differently in the workplace when deadlines are changing, people are absent from work, and especially when they don’t understand the data/material being used in the project or assignment. Lastly, being able to adapt to an ever-changing environment is critical to being successful. Some of the lessons I have learned in my internship experience will easily be applied throughout my career.

You absolutely cannot learn how to negotiate in a classroom. Whether you’re negotiating for a higher salary, a proposal, a longer timeline or steeper rate on a contract – there isn’t much in a classroom that will prepare you for that real experience of sitting down at a table with a prospective client or a client you hope to retain. The only thing that helps you to be better at speaking to your knowledge and experience with confidence and poise is practice.

Something that I learned during my internship that I could not have learned in the classroom is how to transition from one director to another mid way through a project. All of the data that I was responsible for throughout the course of my internship was very large and required a great deal of attention. Mid way through my internship the woman that I had been working directly under left on maternity leave and I was forced to learn how to work under a completely new person while still maintaining all of the student data and meeting deadlines. This was hard for me because I didn’t necessarily have the time to feel out the waters and get to know my new supervisor but instead just had to make it work. I think this is a skill that is really important to perfect because I would like to go into consulting where you are dealing with new people randomly all the time throughout the course of your project and it is incredibly important that you don’t let this effect your work.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-03-01/bigger-data-isn-t-always-better-data

This article was interesting to me because it explains that algorithms can be flawed when working with data. It is relevant because the article goes into how more data doesn’t always mean more accurate results. This is due to more data meaning more room for flaws. Although this may not always be true, in the specific case of this article it is true that more data isn’t better.

Single-atom magnets store bits of data

The amount of data we have is increasing at a phenomenal rate. This means we may run of out data storage. This article tells us that scientists are storing data via the orientation of an atom. They have successfully stored two bits of information, which something that has barely any space at all. If we could harness this storage option, our data storage warehouses could increase indefinitely.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2017-mlb-predictions/
FiveThirtyEight posted their 2017 MLB predictions on March 31st using 100,000 simulations of the season. The article is interesting as it has predictions for run differential, % to reach the playoffs, % to win their division, and % to reach the world series, as well as record predictions. Looking through the data, it is worth noting that there are some teams with much higher projected records, despite having much lower run differential.(which is calculated based on the number of runs scored and number of runs opponents scored against the team) With some division having higher projected playoff probability for teams with much lower records, it will be worth bookmarking this prediction and checking in at the end of the season to see whether or not the divisions ended up playing out in a relative fashion to these predictions.

The White House Takes Its Attacks On Jobs Data To A New (And Dangerous) Level

I find this article is interesting because I always thought the unemployment rate of below 5% in the U.S was a really good thing. This article says that Trump and his administration accuse Obama administration of “manipulating” the economic data to lower the unemployment rate; however, they haven’t given any extraordinary evidence about this. But it does a good job in raising concern about whether the unemployment rate data truly reflects the economic condition and the market’s health when it only counts the number of people who are actively looking for jobs. This also reminds me of the bias in data and data integrity, which are very important in giving conclusions and making decisions. Even government statistics does not truly reflect real life situation!

How The GOP Bill Could Change Health Care, In 8 Charts

This article talks about what could happen if the American Health Care Act passes. This is interesting to me because if this bill is passed, it would greatly affect me because my family is part of the 20% group under medicaid and it’s possible that we can lose health coverage. It also states that under the GOP bill, insurers can sell coverage based on age. The older you are the more expensive and the less help you’ll receive and I believe that that’s really unfair. In addition, it would severely limit federal funding for health services at Planned Parenthood clinics and cut funding for public health programs.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2017/apr/01/listeria-batteries-and-botulism-why-food-products-get-recalled

This article discusses certain foods getting recalled for reasons such as “discolored meats” and “pieces of metal”, and why these foods are recalled as well as other. The article mentions other reasons such as containing bacteria traced to salmonella, e-coli, etc. According to the data, this is where more than one third of the recalls come from is bacteria similar to those. According to the chart provided in the article, other recalls come from reasons such as foreign objects within the product, mislabeling, and also manufacturing or packaging issues. It makes this article very clear by adding in the data provided in the chart within the article as it shows what types of foods are recalled most frequently, as well as the reasoning behind why they were recalled.

http://herald-review.com/sports/basketball/march-madness-predicting-the-final-four/collection_37f462e0-0519-5eb5-86e1-4345cbf1019a.html

This article discusses how PointAfter, a sports data site, is using Bing Predicts to try to make its most accurate predictions for the NCAAB Final Four. This shows how data sites actually use other data sites and their sources of data to fuel their own. This is very cool to me because I enjoy basketball very much. Basketball is my favorite sport and I think it is pretty cool that there is so much data behind the actual predictions. This article taught me the importance of data in every aspect of life, especially sports.

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/apr/01/airline-food-waste-landfill-incineration-airports-recycling-iberia-qantas-united-virgin
As a person who travels a lot, I usually wonder what happens to the airplane waste and how much does it weigh. According to the article, airlines passengers generated 5.2m tones of waste in 2016. This is a significant amount of waste and it bothers me because I am one of those people who only eat only the bread and drink the juice and water but keep the rest uneaten. The article states that the waste contains the toilet waste, wine bottles, half-eaten lunch trays, unused toothbrushes, and etc. I felt worse after hearing that because i thought the food I did not touch would be recycled at least, not knowing they threw them away. Also, the article states this costs this industry $500M per year, which is also a significant amount of money that can be reduced. I am hoping they solve this issue and have their products be recycled instead of being thrown away unused.

Americans’ Shift To The Suburbs Sped Up Last Year

This article talks about Americans’ shift to the suburbs sped up last year. This is relevant to me because I live in the suburbs and have been there most of my life. The data census gathered 3,000 U.S. counties into six categories, which were large metropolitan, densely populated suburb, lightly populated suburb, midsize metro, smaller metro areas, and finally rural counties. The fastest growth region in the suburbs was the lower-density suburbs, which were 1.3 percent. In the end, this will help me determine what population density I would like to live in the future. From reading the article, Sunbelt cities seem like a very comfortable lifestyle choice.

As a society, much of our wealth revolves around data. How? Trading. Billions upon billions of dollars are moved each day as bets are made as to which stocks/bonds/commodities will go up and which will go down. It’s a lot more complicated than that, but that’s the gist of it. This article discusses how treasury notes have fallen as traders and economists were waiting for data to support surveys that had been done. It’s not the most interesting article, but it really made me think about how much day-to-day operations depend on data. We kind of take it for granted at times, but we really shouldn’t because the British Pound just dropped 0.5897% which probably equates to a couple hundred million dollars lost or won, depending on the trades.
URL: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/treasury-yields-fall-after-muted-economic-data-2017-04-03

Source: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/nba-teams-are-resting-players-earlier-and-earlier/

This article from FiveThirtyEight talks about the recent increase in resting players in the NBA. Data shows that from 2005 through this year, players have been rested more and more each year. The increase in rest for NBA players dilutes the product for fans who spend tons of money for single game and season tickets to see their favorite players perform. This affects me because I am a huge fan of pro basketball, and watching teams like the Cavaliers play without a healthy superstar like Lebron because he is resting is disappointing, especially as a person who likes to evaluate teams for the playoffs.

https://www.ft.com/content/5a8ff636-36be-11e3-8ae3-00144feab7de

This article pretty much ties music and science together. I thought it was interesting because when I first learned music theory, it felt like it’s own science. The whole process of writing, editing and producing music has similar intricacies as science. It also stood out to me because I’m a music major taking this (science) class so I thought it was interesting to tie the two together.

https://android.gadgethacks.com/news/your-android-apps-are-secretly-getting-chatty-with-your-data-0176896/
Through DIALDroid, researchers from Virginia Tech were monitoring the exchanges of data between apps on Android. The team found that over 110 thousand apps were mining information from each other without asking for permission first. For the apps that do not have a good reason to ask for extra permissions would get their information through other apps. The app creators were colluding with each other as a way to get information about the users without the knowledge of the user.

New York Now Has More Mets Fans Than Yankees Fans

In this article it discusses a poll taken in New York City that analyzes the number of Yankees vs. Mets fans. Since 1998, the yankees have had more fans in New York City than the mets. But, this year there are more Mets fans, 45% being Mets fans, 43% being Yankees fans, and 2% other teams. Over the last 20 years the Yankees fans have had a 31-55% lead over the Mets. Even last year the Yankees had 61% of fans in NYC and the Mets had a mere 27%. It is quite surprising that this year the Met’s gained a much larger percentage of fans.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/03/autossell/pro-golfers-find-winning-rounds-from-numbers-crunching.html?_r=0
This article talks about how a golfer in the past few years has used a team of golf professionals, data experts, and software engineers to apply intelligence to data for creating a winning strategy in his golf game. It started when the golfer, Brandt Snedeker, was approached before one of his rounds by an accountant that told him he was going to win. He eventually did win, and applied the accountants strategies to help him succeed in the future. He continually grew his earnings from golf each year, and now there are multiple golfers that are starting to use his same approach.

https://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/14580/how-much-traffic-to-make-100k/

This article is about how many visitors you need on a blog to make $100,000 a year- something that sounds amazing to me. He uses an example of 200 visitors a day to your blog. If 10 people sign up for a newsletter that promote merchandise, and one out of ten who joined your newsletter buy your product (adding in those repeat buyers who will become loyal to your site), he comes up with 15,000 a month. That’s 180,000 a year. This is interesting to me because I am an aspiring lifestyle blogger and it’s nice to know there are ways to make money from it, even if his numbers aren’t completely correct.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/soccer-predictions/?ex_cid=rrpromo
Even though this is not an article, however this is a prediction for the EPL(Englih Premier League) 2016-2017 season (updates daily).
This data in the listed shows us the prediction that which teams will be qualified for Champions league which only allows for top four teams to play, and also which team will most likely to win the league based on their current performance. I find it very interesting that they are able to make such predictions at this point of the season, since there are still many matches to be played. Their predictions are not 100% accurate, but it is considered pretty reliable.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/datablog/2017/mar/18/the-fall-and-rise-of-physical-book-sales-worldwide-in-data

The article I chose is about the changes in the worldwide book market. I found it interesting because it shows how correlation does not equal causation. On first glance, one might assume that a fall of physical books sales is caused by a rise of electronic book sales, but after further examination, changes in the physical book market are more due to the popularity of certain books released than the popularity of ebooks.

http://www.agprofessional.com/resource-centers/precision-ag/cubbage-diminishing-value-basic-data-dangerous
The article I read about talks about free data. Free data makes all data available to anyone anywhere. By placing a price on data it makes those with good reliable data standout and those with bad data fall behind. This is relevant because when using data in the professional world is very important and bad data can skew one’s predictions/solutions.

https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/auto/2017-bugatti-chiron/preview/

In this article, the new Bugatti is more than just a car, but a piece of technology from the future. To design a car with a whopping 1500 horsepower and to achieve a speed of over 260mph takes more than just a couple tools. For example, I watch a video of engineers design the Bugatti with tools that have digital meters on them to measure torque, which is more than what you’ll find at your common garage. The aerodynamics and 3D visualizations in the prototype stage are just a couple other ways that this car is one of the fastest production cars money can buy.

New York Now Has More Mets Fans Than Yankees Fans

The article I read about shows how for the first time since 1998, more New Yorkers like the Mets now rather than the Yankees. 45% of New Yorkers like the Mets and 43% like the Yankees. This is pretty interesting because in past years usually the Yankees have at least a 30 point margin over the Mets. This sudden change in favoritism is probably due to just whoever wins more baseball games. The Mets have been in the playoffs and even made it to the World Series in 2015. The Yankees haven’t been to the World Series since they won back in 2009. Polls were taken showing which team is favorited in the Subway Series and it showed that the Yankees are the favorite, even though they’re considered the most hated team in baseball.

The Gold of Big Data Analytics: Process Mining and Enterprise Data Assets

This article talks about a new data analytics technique called process mining. Process mining examines the flow of work in any business process from beginning to end in order to find where money can be saved by the business. This process can predict how a business can become more efficient. Big data is harder and harder to analyze for companies and these new processes provide use of the data.

http://insidebigdata.com/2017/03/24/government-use-big-data-cybersecurity/
This article talks about cybersecurity and solutions to increase it using data software tools. I believe it is relevant because given the increasing number of threats by criminal it is important for nation states and government agencies- which most of the time do not have the personnel, tools, or time to properly handle the data – to learn how to protect themselves of such attacks. The tools the article suggests to use, among others, are: Hadoop and MapReduce, which I thought was very relevant because it is what we are studying now at class.

https://www.thenation.com/article/bernie-sanders-just-introduced-his-free-college-tuition-plan/
I choose this article because it has a deep impact on my future. College for All Act aims to eliminate tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities for students from families that make up to $125,000 per year. they gather all of the data for the income from the IRS and that’s how they’ll know who’s making what. The bill would make community college tuition-free for all income levels.I think if this bill would be passed it would change the U.S for the better. This would mean that I don’t have to work 40 hours and be a full time student so I can pay tuition. It can be much easier for many people.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/for-googles-data-wars-it-all-comes-down-to-location-1491217202
This article discusses how prosecutor’s are demanding Google to disclose data information from various networks for criminal probes. This is a topic similar to that of the dispute with prosecutor’s and Apple. In this case, Google has been compliant with data that they can find domestically within the U.S. However, a NY Federal appeals court declared that warrants could not reach data stored abroad. This data is stored in data center networks that are difficult to locate because most of the data has been broken into smaller fragments for faster efficiencies and cost reductions for the data centers networks. I chose this article because this topic is similar to what we had seen with Apple in the past and because its relative to a controversial debate regarding data & privacy.

http://www.autonews.com/article/20170403/RETAIL01/170329816/sales-slip-1-7-despite-higher-discounts
This are all big automaker’s sale on March, 2017. As we see, GM is the best sale in America now. Last year, Ford took the first ranking. But their sale decrease this year. Toyata still keep their third place. For the whole america market, the total sales decrase this year.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2017-march-madness-predictions/

This article shows you the probability of a team winning through throughout the game in March Madness for men. For example, if you look at the championship match Gonzaga had a higher chance of winning on UNC. After the half things start to get weird, Gonzaga starts to play worse and worse all the way until they blew the game in the final minutes to give UNC the win.

Look at Men then hit the drop down box and look for championship

Tony Romo Was A Good QB In An Era Of Great Ones

This article discusses the now former NFL quarterback Tony Romo and his statistics over the course of his career. Although Romo was well known for his shortcomings and mistakes, most sports analysts agree that he was actually a good quarterback. Now that he has retired, this article takes a look at his whole career and measures his significant statistics against other quarterbacks of today. While his aggregate stats failed to measure up to some of the bigger names, his average stats per game and per play were quite excellent. This is significant to me because I follow football and always enjoy looking up player statistics.

NBA Teams Are Resting Players Earlier And Earlier

Being a huge NBA fan I of course look up data which relates to the NBA league. This one was really interesting because it combined one of the biggest NBA debated question with real data. The point of this data is showing the comparison of players being rested from previous years vs this year alone which then argues the fact that it’s becoming more of a trend. This also brings question if we should limit on players resting or if we should let the coaches decide. The huge data difference proves to be a very debatable topic.

This Is How You Master The Masters

My whole life I’ve grown up with a golf club in my hand and having the Masters this coming week has more excited than ever. The data in this article is specifically meaningful to me as I am able to find out who is more likely to win and play their best golf. Golf has turned into a numbers game where they are now putting a number to every unthinkable part of the game. The most important parts to me are where people gain their strokes back such as: off the tee, putting, around the tee, etc.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/05/technology/online-privacy-faq/

Internet providers can sell people’s browsing information to advertisers. Even though they say that sensitive information will not be given without consent, what is there to stop them from getting since they have gotten halfway there. This is relevant because I do not want people to see have information about what I do privately on my computer whether it is accessing documents or watching YouTube videos. At least let me have some of the profit since I am doing part of the work of browsing.

I recently found this interesting article while I was reading the news about Italy Q4 budget deficit which is 2.3 pct of GDP, stable compared to the same period last year. The article does not seem to be relevant but if take in consideration the diastrophic situation in Europe, including Brexit and the negative impacts that caused to the European Union, the data shows a stable trend without any major consequences due to the exit . A possible solution behind this phenomenon might be that there are some positive forces that are maintaining the Italian budget deficit steady.

http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/italy-q4-budget-deficit-2-3-pct-of-gdp-stable-vs-same-period-last-year-istat/

Mars Madness: 68 Cool Things About Mars Go Head-To-Head

This article is called Mars Madness, a spinoff March Madness. It is a fun way to learn about Mars and all the rovers, martians, orbiters, and even failures. They had seeding: Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4 for each ‘region of competition.’ No. 1 Curiosity rover ended up coming out on top, defeating No. 5 Mars Reconnaissance rover in a head to head battle. Curiosity is the newest rover sent to Mars (2012) and the riskiest mission attempted. People were surprised it worked and did not blow up, fall into the ocean, or not even make it all the way to Mars in the first place.

http://www.databreachtoday.com/kaspersky-links-north-korean-ip-address-to-lazarus-a-9810
This article called Kapersky Links North Korean IP Address to Lazarus details the investigation of the Lazarus group which has been linked back to North Korea through a single IP address. North Korea only has 1,024 IP addresses in the country and they are all run by a single provider, Star Joint Venture. Since North Korea is such an elusive country, being linked to massive cyber attacks would insight investigation by other nations. I found this article very interesting because even a country with so few IP addresses can be caught when hacking if people know what they are looking for.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bringing-data-science-to-the-masses_us_58e6103be4b0ee31ab9534f8

This article talks about smart analysis, data visualizations and bringing data to masses. It also states how big data is one of the most important trends today. Business’s that manage their data gain an enormous competitive advantage over other business’s.

Visual simulations to show Uber game strategies

I found a short little article that was of interest to me because it has to do with Uber, an app that I and my classmates use often. The article discusses how the app works more effectively with the use of psychology and video game mechanics to encourage drivers to be out longer and to go to specific places to get more customers. The visual simulation detailed in this article is fun and interesting. It tells users how long the passengers are waiting versus the percentage of idling drivers. This can help pinpoint where the drivers need to be at what times.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-comcast-mobile-idUSKBN1781Q7

This article is about how Comcast has entered into the wireless communication business. This is interesting because this will totally disrupt the wireless market because Comcast can offer packages for their cable services and wireless services. This will incentive customers to have all their services with one company.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/karinagness/2017/04/04/why-equal-pay-day-is-a-flawed-holiday/#45baf5876270

This article is about Equal Pay Day, and how even today women are still being paid less as compared to men even with a similar job, similar work experience, and similar educational background. Feminists say that women are being paid 82 cents on the dollar compared to the men due to discrimination. This year’s #20PercentCounts campaign is based on the notion that if women are paid 20% less than men, then they should pay 20% less for merchandise and services. It is sad that businesses are celebrating this holiday as a marketing tactic to attract women. As I enter the job market in the next few years, I am concerned about the wage discrimination we will face. This issue is still prevalent and needs to be addressed soon.

We Rated Every Rotation In MLB. How Does Your Team’s Stack Up?

In this article, statistics about baseball teams are created and used to show what teams could be considered the “best”. more specifically, the article used a “Pitcher Score” in order t rank the teams, and judge how good a team’s rotation is. This is interesting because someone interested in baseball could use this data in order to back up their beliefs, or maybe change their minds.

http://www.businessinsider.com/washington-state-survey-shows-marijuana-legalization-didnt-affect-teen-use-rates-2017-3

This article is intriguing due to the fact that it asserts that the legalization of marijuana has actually decreased its’ consumption rather increasing it. Even though this data was collected via a survey, done by a trustworthy source Business Insider, it is still quite hard to believe that such a conclusion would be valid. Furthermore, this is imperative because the use of any substance affects the developing brain and marijuana is no different. Hence, such data, which comes from ~230,000 students in the southern states of United States, where drug usage is most prominent, is ciritical for young kids.

Thanks,
Jay

Why Won’t The Census Ask About Sexual Orientation?

I read an interesting article I found on FiveThirtyEight that has to do with Census data and how they’re collecting it. We discussed in class how the way data is collected and the way questions are worded is an important part of the data collecting process. The Census Bureau sends out a Census every ten years to collect information on people living in the United States. The Census asks what your sex is but sometimes it’s not as simple as ‘male’ or ‘female’. People argue, especially LGBTQ members and advocates, that it is important to ask about sexual orientation to better understand the people in our communities. Not having a question like this on a survey that is supposed to be representing our population as a whole could skew data analysis. Members of the LGBTQ community deserve to be represented properly. We can’t exclude important questions like this because the data collected won’t be 100% accurate, we are completely ignoring a big and growing part of our nation.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/290594

This article is about the frequent misconceptions small businesses have about big data. I found this article to be interesting in that it spoke to what a lot of small businesses think in a non-judgmental way. The top 5 conceptions included: Human touch outweighs anything automated, Revenue will not be enhanced due to data, Data should immediately solve problems, Data is too broad for niche businesses, and Collecting data will cost too much money. All reasonable but, like what we’re learning now data can help in so many ways of getting closer to the consumer and anticipating what they need. All viable ways to have a successful business.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170222125626.htm
This article talks about how many athletes “sandbag” concussion tests to have a quicker recovery so they can get back to their sports sooner. In the article the researcher found a technique on how to identify when people are faking their concussion test. She explains that this worked 100% of the time when identifying “sandbaggers”

http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/24/investing/canada-lumber-tariff-trump/index.html?iid=SF_LN

In this article, Trump has put a 24% tariff on Canadian lumber. This will be applied to any type of lumber that is brought into the United States from hereon. I thought this was interesting because it is very new and could have a big affect on us as a country.

It is hard to pinpoint only one specific skill, as the amalgamation of skills learned from classes helped me in my internship. One interesting skill has been project management from MIS3535. Every work activity fit into a project management framework, and two weeks of my internship were spent on the project management workstream. Understanding common project management issues, techniques, and priorities helped me start working quickly. I could immediately consider scope and sequencing issues, for example, and flag or correct them. Consulting revolves around people management and motivation, so I needed to leverage teachings from MIS3535 on change/people management. Moreover, every task funneled into project goals, so seeing the bigger picture of project management was critical.

The online excel course has helped me tremendously in my success at the School District. Mostly every document I work on for my advisor is done in excel. With the excel course experience, I was able to efficiently finish my assignments, make accurate calculations in pricing summaries using formulas, and clean charts. I learned all of these skills in the excel course. If I didn’t take this course before doing my internship, I would have struggled to get anything done because I didn’t know that much about excel. Excel in general is an important skill to have and it is something I continue to improve on everyday.

I cannot attribute my internship success to just one classroom skill. I would say however it is a mix between professor Doyle’s flash papers, Gottliebs excel course, and the Business Analysis course. Almost every day I am working within excel, even when pulling reports from LegalServer – I am then downloading them as excel files to analyze and use for projects. The flash paper formula that I learned while in Doyle’s class was extremely beneficial in terms of being given research and then needing to present to my supervisor. I have already had to create to memos on topics unbeknownst to me before hand, his training in that class helped me do those effortlessly. The BA course helped me strengthen those skills related to gathering requirements from clients and applies to my work at VIP immensely.

What have I learned in the classroom that I leveraged in my internship? I would say the Excel class, MIS 3501, and learning how to use Dreamweaver in CIS 0835. Almost every day, I work within Excel to organize data and put them into various different tables and graphs. MIS 3501 has taught and strengthen my coding experience. Sometimes at work, my boss would toss me these little side projects where I have to create different pages for the company’s website. The web application tool that I use at work is Dreamweaver and I am grateful that I learned it early on at Temple. Knowing these particular skills prior to my first day has helped me tremendously and pretty much set me up to do well in my position.

I think that there are quite a few classes where I have been able to take the things that I have learned and leverage them in my internship. My 2502 and 0855 classes helped prepared me for some of the data analytics tasks I have worked on. I have been able to apply what I have learned with Tableau to create custom dashboards of survey data that we have collected. The Business Excel class helped a lot with this as well. I have had to edit excel files before I could properly do my analysis, and having a firm grasp of excel really helped to simplify the process.

Within my internship I have been able to utilize multiple tools that I’ve learned in the classroom. I have found that primarily the skills that I’ve learned in Shaffer’s coding class have been the most beneficial to me. My internship currently deals with a multitude of data sets that I was able to write a code for to simplify how it is viewed so that only the necessary information is displayed. In addition I have recently been working a lot in excel. Leaning how to use Microsoft Project in 3535 is a tool that I have been utilizing frequently to create schedules and such to keep my team on task. Of course there are multiple other skills that are used everyday such as pivot tables and data manipulation within Excel. Thanks to the background knowledge I have in Excel I am able to use it’s hidden features to analyze that large data sets that are presented to me relatively stress free.

I believe the project management skills that I learned in MIS 3535 were very helpful to me in my internship. I have used the skills I learned in that class to maintain proper due dates and meeting times with my team. That class has helped me develop a set of skills that are critical to my time at QVC, and these skills have allowed me to assist my managers and teammates in ways that increase productivity. I also thing the excel class I took was very helpful to me during my internship. I have had to work on VLookups, and have had to deal with many other activities within excel. Taking the excel class really helped me find easier ways to accomplish tasks that may otherwise take much longer. Overall, there have been multiple classes that I have leveraged during my internship, and I know there will be many more instances where I will be able to put this knowledge to use.

Business Communications was very useful. I tend to want to elaborate in my emails to make sure that I’m explaining things without any ambiguity. However, I accept that most people don’t want to read a long email so I spend more time editing my messages to make sure they’re straight to the point.

Data Analytics was one of the most useful classes I had taken while I in school in terms of what helped me in work. It gave me experience in terms of utilizing Excel most efficiently when dealing with large data sets. The class also gave me an understanding on databases and how things link together in the collaboration database system we use to manage and store data records. Most of my higher ups were pleasantly surprised at how I knew most of the technical jargon which comes from database systems (ex: field, records) and how I understood that you would have to join certain tables together to link the information of a record in Table A with that of Table B.

With the education I have received at Temple University, I have learned many skills that have helped me in the business world. I have learned how to have an open mind and accept change within the work place. I have a wide scope of knowledge pertaining to different types of systems. The MIS program covers so many things. The program in general has enabled me to be creative and think quickly on my feet. The most beneficial skills for me are learning programming languages, and project management skills.

There are many things I have learned in my MIS courses that I have leveraged in my internship. One of them being how to use an analyze google analytics. Currently, I am working on developing a more user friendly website that is optimized for both users and search engines. Additionally, the data analytics class taught me how to analyze the data we collect from google analytics in order to properly implement it. The class also taught me how to identify clusters and define segments. Currently, I am taking Digital Design and Innovation, which has provided me with a great prototyping tool that I am able to leverage to produce prototypes of our pages and test out the flow from a customer perspective without implementing any changes just yet.

Temples MIS program has helped me adapt to my current work situation in multiple ways. Currently in MIS 3506, we focus on qualities and skills that a good Business Analyst should have to be successful. Understanding the basic communication skills and formats for eliciting Business Requirements helps me better communicate with the current BA that I am doing a project for. Understanding these concepts also help me to derive specific questions to ask the BA when there is a misunderstanding. In my Business Intelligence role, I mainly deal with “Big Data” which directly correlates with MIS 2502, Data Analytics. Although the software I currently use (Business Explorer Query Designer and Analyzer) was not taught in the class, it still gave me the basic understanding of data warehouses and different analytical techniques to be successful in my work.

During my internship I wouls say the skills I learned in Business Communications and Excel class were skills I was able to use. Communication in the workplace is paramount and being able to get your point across in a well crafted email can make your life way easier especially in a large company when people are receiving many emails everyday. Excel class comes in handy because many projects still use excel to create matrices and tables. The skills learned in that class help me get things done more efficiently than others.

I completely re-designed our marketing initiative using the HTML/CSS skills I learned in Professor Shafer’s class. Previously we were just sending the standard mailers and we had little to no digital marketing. Now I’m completely redesigning the company website utilizing those skills and the project management skills I learned in 3535 with an external team.

My Virtual Wallet app for PNC tells me my balance.
Specific and Measurable- it tells me how much money I have currently and that is a precise measure/amount.
Achievable- I can deposit more money for a specific goal.
Relevant- it determines whether or not I can withdraw money and whether or not I should deposit money if there isn’t enough funds.
Time-variant – I can look at my balance over days, weeks, etc.

An example of a KPI that is especially relevant to students is calculating Grade Point Average (GPA). It is a medium used to measure the performance of a student in school/college. It is specific and measurable as it is measured on a 4.0 scale, and the average number is calculated by dividing the total grade points earned by the total number of class credits. It is achievable as students can perform according to their specific goal. It is relevant as GPA is directly linked to a student’s chances of getting a scholarship and a job – higher the GPA, higher the probability of getting a high scholarship and a good job. It is a time-variant as the student can keep track of his/her GPA over the course of the academic year.

I like to check my credit score through the Discover app that I have. It is not something that I use on a daily basis but I mostly go on there to see how I am doing. There are many factors that go into how the credit score is formed and they can be considered as the KPIs. According to the SMART criteria, Specific, Measurable, Relevant and Time-bound would relate to the KPI that form the credit score. Specific because the score lets you know where you stand on the scale, Measurable because they provide you the score every month, Relevant because credit scores are important to know since based on the score, you can tell if you are doing well or not and Time bound since the score changes every month.

GPA is the first KPI that came to mind. GPA is a measured used to determine the overall performance of a student by taking the grade points allocated for the grades achieved in a course load and dividing it by the total credit hours. It is achievable as a student can gauge what their target GPA is and the grade needed to achieve the goal. GPA is relevant because a higher GPA results in more job opportunities, college and graduate school scholarships. Time-variant because you can calculate your GPA at any point during the day, week, month and semester.

My body weight is a KPI for myself. It is specific as it pertains to me and only me. It is measurable by stepping on a scale and telling me the number of pounds I am. It is achievable by me able to stay within a certain range by exercising. It is relevant as it directly affects my health and body. It is time-variant as I can see the change in my weight over time and adjust accordingly.

A KPI or set of KPIs that’s relevant to me and other Temple students is their DARS score(s).
S – It is a set of numbers that tell how many credits they need to complete their university requirements as well as major requirements.
M – Total credits are measured out of 120, but students can earn more if they double major, minor, change major, etc. University credits are measured out of 34. I don’t believe that number may be exceeded. Major credits vary according to major, but are detailed in the report as well.
A – As a student completes courses, the DARS report fills up. On the page there is a pie chart and several bar graphs that can be used to measure benchmarks.
R – As a Temple student, the DARS determines whether or not a student has the necessary credits to graduate.
T – Just like a student’s GPA, the DARS scores are affected over the course of time depending on the courses taken and are necessary to take.

The KPI that I use daily is the percentage of battery on my phone. The battery percentage tells me how often I use the phone or which applications require lots of battery such as video call. It is specific and measurable because battery percentage is precise. It is achievable because I can charge my phone for some certain cases in which I need to use lots of battery and could not charge later. It’s relevant because the battery percentage shows whether I’m spending too much time on my phone and I need to put it away to focus more on studying and real social life. And it’s time-variant because I can check the battery percentage anytime during the day to adjust my phone activity.

One KPI I use daily is the Stocks app on my phone to know stock price changes and what to invest in.
Specific and Measurable- The prices are always kept up to date and accurate.
Achievable- I can set a goal of what I want to earn.
Relevant- The money I invest is always changing.
Time- I can look at past history to know the previous performance.

A KPI metric that I use for performance daily would be my personal weight scale. This is specific and measurable to me as I can see the fluctuation of my weight on a daily basis. It is is achievable in that I can maintain a weight that I seem fit and make sure I stay relatively in shape. This is relevant to me as I am able to understand if I am eating healthy or not. Time is determined by making sure on a yearly basis I maintain the same figure and weight. This is the most common KPI I use as a performance metric.

A KPI that I try to use on the daily basis to track my sleep is the the sleeping app on my iPhone. This is specific and measurable because it tells me how I sleep and also measures my sleep meaning if I move a lot or not. It is achievable because it would help me improve my sleeping in the future compared to how i currently sleep. It is also relevant because it helps me check if I have the right habits before I sleep or just sleep badly. Lastly, it is time-phased, I am able to check how I slept today compared to other days, weeks, etc.

A KPI that I use daily is checking my online banking on my phone.
It is specific and measurable because I can see my exact balance and any pending charges.
It is achievable because if there is a number I want to strive for than I can set that goal in mind while checking the account.
It is relevant because my money is important to my everyday life and things I do.
It is Time because it shows me my history dating back months and years.

A KPI that I use daily is the amount of steps that I take each day, and a certain goal for a number of steps I should be taking to be considered “fully active”. It is specific and measurable as I can always see the exact number of steps I have taken not only today, but every day as it is estimated. It is achievable as it gives you a goal for the amount of steps you should be taking everyday. It is relevant because I believe it can motivate someone to be more active in what they do in a single day. It shows time in how many steps per day, hour, and average steps per week and month.

A KPI that I use daily is my phones battery percentage. It is specific and measurable by the percentage number of battery life I have left. It is achievable because I can charge/use my phone to gain or decrease battery percentage. It is relevant because when it is charged, it has an impact on my phone bill/how much I use my phone. Its time-varient is how long my phones battery lasts/where it is at throughout the day/week.

A KPI that I use daily is my calendar. It is specific and measurable, as i can see my events for any upcoming day. It is Achievable, because i set to complete all marked events on the calendar. It is relevant, because it has my work scheduled and class assignments/Exams that i need to be reminded of. Time- i can keep track of all past events and future events, over days, weeks & months.

A KPI that I use daily is the performance indicator on my Bloomberg terminal for the Owl Fund’s investment portfolio.
Specific: Tells us how specific stocks and sectors have performed over a period of time
Measurable: Performance is measured by including a benchmark for comparison, which is usually an index like the S&P 500
Attainable: Holdings are replaced and added to the portfolio through various pitches by which the performance fluctuates
Relevant: Allows us to see if our portfolio is beating the benchmark or not, which creates added value in an active management fund
Time: Tracks the historical performance of the fund’s portfolio and can be customized for two specific dates

Amount of calories burned while running on Treadmill

S: Tells me the exact number of calories I burned
M: It’s measured by my putting in personal weight and age. Also, it’s measured by how fast I am going and how many miles I ran
A: The number is displayed on the screen while and after I’m running. I can use it to track my process in weight loss.
R: Allows me to determine how quickly I can loose weight or burn calories.
T: The number of calories is dependent on how long I am on the treadmill. I can burn a certain amount of calories in this amount of time.

A KPI that is regularly utilize is Robinhood, which is a stock application on my cell phone.

Specific – Tells me the daily, weekly, and yearly performance of a specific security.

Measurable – The stock is part of both a market and an index, such as S&P 500 and NASDAQ, and it can be compared with either of the options.

Attainable- Based on certain metrics, such as PE ratio and other methods, I can assess which stock to hold in my portfolio, and when to sell the position.

Relevant – Since stocks are infamous for their rapidly changing price due to an increase in high frequency trading, this app helps me stay on top of the market!

Time Variant – As mentioned before, this KPI tracks the prices of stocks daily, weekly, and yearly, which allows me to track the performance for each security.

One different type of KPI I thought of is the overall rating of my Madden ultimate team.

S – The rating is specific to the players in my lineup.
M – The game uses a formula to measure team overall.
A – I can acquire different players and put them into my team to achieve the overall I want.
R – Team overall is relevant to the level of difficulty when I play against an opponent.
T – The overall is time-variant, as better players get released over time.

A KPI that I use daily is the calorie counter.
Specific: it shows the calories of each food, and calculates the needed calories based on my weight and height.
Measurable: I can measure the calories by entering the food and its serving size.
Achievable: I could adjust what I would consume in a day so that my calories would not exceed the necessary amount.
Relevant: An adequate amount of calorie intake is essential to maintain my current weight.
Time-phased: I can measure this daily, or as often as needed.

A KPI that I regularly utilize is my fitness app.
S- the app is specific for me as I enter my personal information in
M- it shows the amount of steps I take along with calories burned
A- I can set a goal for how many steps and calories I want to burn
R- It helps maintain my activity
T- Tracks how long I am active for and I can set when to measure activity

A KPI that I use regularly is my Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock app on my phone.
S- The app is specific to me because it measures my sleep and has settings for my alarm set to my preferences
M- It shows the exact time that is best for my body to wake up
A- I can set the alarm or time range for what best works for me
R- Helps keep my sleeping schedule in tact
T-Is relevant to me on a daily basis for when I am supposed to wake up

A KPI I use regularly is my Fitbit Application.

Specific – The app is personalized to my activities.
Measurable – Measures how many steps I take in a day and throughout the week.
Achievable – I am able to set weekly/daily goals for steps.
Relevant – Step count has an impact on my health.
Time-variant – I can check my steps for the day, and the entire week as well as my average steps.

A KPI that I use on a regular basis would be a weighing scale. It is specific and measurable because it is precise when telling me how many pounds I weigh. It is achievable because I can set my goal weight and try to reach that the weight whether I am trying to gain/lose pounds. It is relevant because weight has an impact on my health. And it is Time-variant because I can look at my weight over the course of days, weeks, months, etc.

A KPI I use on a regular basis is my PNC Virtual Wallet.
Specific/measurable: It tells me my current balance and keeps track of my pending transactions.
Achievable: It lets me know when I hit a certain balance and I can deposit more to reach a goal of rent, shopping, etc.
Relevant: If I do not have enough money for rent, I can be evicted.
Time-variant: It allows to me go back to previous account activity from weeks ago to see past bills I have paid or if I got charged multiple times for something.

An example of KPI that I use on a regular basis is how much battery life I have left on my phone.
Specific and Measurable- it tells me the exact number at what my battery is at
Achievable- I am able to get it fully charged
Relevant- i can use my phone for a certain amount of time depending on how much battery I have.
Time-variant- if its fully charged it will last a lot longer than it being on 40 or 50 percent

An example of a KPI that I use on a regular basis is my Fitbit App. It fits the SMART criteria because is:
Specific: The app is personalized with my height, weight, calories intake and my daily activities.
Measurable: It measures the number of steps I walked or climbed per day. Also measures for example, amount of calories burnt and sleep quality.
Achievable: Because I can set goals for weight, steps, calories burnt and hours of sleep per day.
Relevant: Fitbit App is relevant because since I have all my activities controlled (even considering a margin of error) I can feel the impact on my health and helps me maintain my daily activities.
Time-variant: The app allows me to check on a daily, weekly or monthly basis my progress. Thus, I can measure my level of activities considering the period of time that better suits me.

An example of a KPI that could be used on a day to day basis could be heart rate. This KPI follows the SMART criteria:

Specific: Your heart rate at any given moment has a specific number/measure which correlates to a specific state of health. Depending on what your heart rate is, you could be healthy or not healthy.
Measurable: Your heart rate is a number that has value.
Achievable: If your heart rate is at an at risk number, there could be goals to achieve a better and healthier rate.
Relevant to success: Continuing to check your heart rate regularly and changing your lifestyle/diet can affect the actual change in the heart rate — potentially/ideally improving your health, a sign of success.
Time-variant: If you keep a physical log yourself, you would be able to go back and check previous rates, or even some sort of app, you’d be able to do the same thing.

The KPI that I use are stocks I bought.
S- How many shares stock I want to buy.
M- How much money I have and what’s the price of the stock.
A- Based on the market. choose different kind of stocks.
R- Dose the profit achieve my goal.
T- I have weekly goal, monthly goal and year’s goal.

One example of a KPI I use is my credit card (Discover) account and my credit card score. My Discover card gives me a free credit score every month.

Specific and Measurable- Tells me specifically how much money I need to pay off and the other financial activities that are still processing.
Achievable- If I want a better credit score, I would use my credit card more often and pay my credit card bill immediately.
Relevant- My credit score is relevant when taking out loans for school or for a car.
Time Variant- I can look at the changes of my credit score every month online through Discover’s website.

Even if I do not use it on a daily basis, the bitcoin online wallet I created an year ago could be considered as a KPI. The wallet contains a specific amount of bitcoins, I am personally able to manage the bitcoins and exchange money into bitcoins, they are relevant to me because they allow me to take advantage of the rapid growth bitcoins have had in the recent years and their value is rapidly increasing the and finally, the account shows the transactions made in a specific period of time.

A KPI that came to my head instantly when I thought about a performance KPI is a speedometer.
1.) Specific: It’s specific because it is showing you how fast you are going at a certain time and also when to shift your car if you have a manual.
2.)Measurable: It is measurable because the speedometer is tracking the tires and seeing how many times they rotate on the road, they measure your miles per hour and display it on the odometer so you can follow the speed limits.
3.)Achievable: You can notice the speed changes in different parts of the city.
4.)Relevant: Speed has a huge impact on how we drive it determines if we get there faster by going faster other than going later on and driving slower.
5.)Time Variant: Like I said before, the faster you go the faster you will arrive and the slower you drive the slower you will arrive to your destination.

Apple watch tells me how many steps and calculate the calories burns each day. According to the SMART criteria, I can check how many steps I walked and how many calories burn each day. If I sit too long and need more exercise to achieve the daily goal, it will alert me. Keep exercising is good to maintain health. I can check All history data Apple watch collects.

A KPI that I interact with on a daily basis is my move goal which is calculated on my watch. I have set my goal at 700 calories per day, requiring me to workout to make that goal. It covers the SMART criteria because:
1) Specific: It measures exactly how many calories you have burned through activity in a day.
2) Measurable: It is easily trackable and measures your activity based on movement throughout the day
3) Achievable: You can tell when you have been more active and therefore more healthy in a day versus the amount of movement when you have been sitting all day.
4) Relevant: The more I move the healthier I am. As a student, it is easy to be lazy and sit inside to study and go to class all day. Making a conscious effort to exercise and move makes me a healthier and happier person.
5) Time Variant: You only have so many hours in a day to make your move goal and seeing how much time you have left motivates you.

A KPI that I use on a daily basis is my GPA. As I am applying to internships and jobs my GPA is a key indicator in my dedication to school. This is specific and measurable as the GPA is a specific number based on a 4.0 scale. It is achievable as I can do more, or less, to alter my GPA. Worse grades make it go down and better grades in my classes make my GPA go up. It’s relevant because my GPA could or could not get me a job. Lastly, it’s time-variant, I can look at a certain year, semester, my fox upper management course or lower, ect.

As a business student, a KPI that I use on a regular basis is stock prices. Stock prices definitely have SMART criteria. They are specific; they tell you how much money you need to buy one share of stock in a certain company. They are measurable: they are measured in dollars or other monetary units in other countries. They are achievable: companies can set and reach stock price goals in order to gain more shareholder and more money. They are relevant: stock prices going up are a good sign that the company is doing well while if the stock price is going down then it is an indicator that the company isn’t doing too well. They are time-phased: you can measure stock price hour-to-hour, day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, and year-to-year to see the state of the company.

A KPI that I use on a regular basis is iPhone health app especially “sleep” features.
Since I use it everyday, and it also meets the SMART criteria.
Specific and Measurable: I can set an exact time, and it is also measurable that there is sleep analysis that tells me average sleep hours, and how many times did I wake up while sleeping.
Achievable: I can set a time that how long am I want to sleep and also able to set a range of it.
Relevant: It is relevant since it helps my daily conditions.
Time-variant: It also indicate the time that how long did I sleep or will I sleep.

A KPI I use on a regular basis is attendance of club meetings for Temple University’s American Marketing Association. It is specific because it is the amount of people in attendance of a certain meeting, measurable because it’s possible to count the people in attendance at a meeting, achievable because we can affect attendance by email reminders and advertising events, relevant because meeting attendance contributes to our annual report and chapter ranking, and time-variant because we can look at attendance for one meeting or attendance for the whole year.

A KPI that I use every day is an app that tracks how many calories I eat each day. It’s specific because I am allowed to eat a specific amount of calories per day. It’s measurable because calories are a unit of measurement. It’s achievable because it is possible to eat the amount of calories per day that I assign for myself. It’s relevant because caloric intake is directly related to my health, which is important. It is also time bound because I’m measuring the calories on a daily basis, so every day I have a goal I’m trying to meet.

One KPI that i use on a daily basis is my pedometer app. It is measurable because it tracks my steps every day and I try to reach at least 10,000 steps. If i can achieve this goal of 10,000 steps it will motivate me for the next day. It is relevant because it affects my health and my cardiovascular system to keep me in shape.

A KPI that I tend to use frequently would be my online banking app. In order to see and keep up with my finances it’s vital that this type of KPI uses the SMART criteria.
S: It’s specific in the way that it only pertains to my account number, therefore; my balance only.
M: It’s measurable in the way that it tells me exactly how much I’ve spent and what I have left.
A: it’s achievable in the way that I have a set-up limit in how far my balance can drop.
R: It’s relevant because it automatically updates my account and balance one a transaction or deposit is made.
T: It’s time-phased in the way that I can look at my spending history and how much I’ve spent since I’ve opened the account.

A KPI i use in my everyday life is my Charles schwab brokerage account. It tells me how im preforming in my stock portfolio relative to the market. It follows the smart criteria because it is specific measurable, attainable, Relevant to real world, and time phased.