Hnin Lwin

College: Hunter College

Education Level: Junior

Career Interest: Software Engineering

My name is Hnin Lwin, while my name can be a bit tricky to pronounce (it's actually ninh, which is my name spelled backwards!). I am currently a third year studying Computer Science at Hunter College. I actually changed my major 2 semesters ago, from Medical Lab Science to Computer Science, when I realized that I wanted a career that would allow me to continuously learn and grow while also providing me with the flexibility to spend time with my family. Being a Medical Lab Technician did not really give me those options, as I cannot bring home chemicals home to work on them. For that reason, I made the switch to Computer Science and I have been loving it so far. One thing I love most is that the skills I am learning can potentially change people’s lives outside of my own circle and it is very fulfilling to know that many people can benefit from me building an application that I am passionate for. In the past year and a half, I also have been fortunate enough to do a micro-internship at JPMC, win two hackathon awards, become a teaching assistant for a CS course, and participate in a Codepath course to enhance my technical skills. These experiences have taught me that I thrive in a proactive, collaborative environment where there's always something new to learn and where I am challenged. While I still have a long way to go in my learning journey, I am excited to continue to grow and develop my skills. In fact, one of my goals for the upcoming summer is to enroll in another CodePath course and build a project using Java. Lastly, one of the hobbies I picked up these days is to go to the gym. It's a great way for me to feel connected to my body and stay grounded. I also love the feeling of becoming stronger through consistent effort and dedication.

What was your role?

CS (SWE)

What did you work on?

What was the impact of your project?

From my understanding so far, the impact of the Chores is to provide an innovative and effective solution for managing household chores within families, particularly with children. By having a reward system for children to complete chores, it encourages the development of good habits and responsibility in the future. So, this not only benefits the child’s personal growth but also gives parents more control over the family’s flow. Chores is said to be built around negotiation methods which further supports the child’s communication skills and ability to navigate social situations. This project will create a valuable tool for parents to manage chores within their household, while providing a positive and rewarding experience for children.

What did you learn or improve on from this internship or from your teammates?

What skills have you gained?

During my onboarding sessions, I gained experience in using Google Cloud, a cloud computing platform, which was new to me. As part of my training, I worked with Unadat file formats, and learned some basic syntax of PHP. Further, while watching a PHP tutorial, I came to know that there are multiple ways to print in PHP, such as echo, print (which takes one argument), and print_r (used to print arrays). I am eager to explore the use of these commands in different cases. Lastly, I discovered that PHP syntax can be embedded in HTML files, for that reason, it is one of the easier languages to get products out fast.

What was the biggest roadblock you've overcome?

For me, understanding how the codes are working together is one of the biggest roadblock because I have never worked with such a large amount of code in one go. I also find myself running into a problem of google cloud not loading at all. I am not sure why because the reload button does not work and I sometimes just see a blank page. However, when it does load, it is very exciting when I am able to point out some part of the code that are performing a certain function, it is still very new to me so I am figuring out as I continue working on it.

How has company culture guided your work?

What was your experience at Unadat?

What was one big project you worked on during the internship? Can you walk me through the process?

What advice would you give to future interns?

Being present and keeping your cameras on is very important! Also, make sure to ask clarifying questions right away as we are very limited on time to work on the projects, so the more you know the better!