This is Laura Zhang, a sophomore studying Computer Science & Statistics at Illinois, and this was her first semester at ATLAS. She first heard of the internship program through department newsletters and careers. Laura decided to join the ATLAS Internship Program because she wanted to gain hands-on experience and develop some professional skills, such as problem-solving, while working on meaningful projects in a supportive environment.
Laura interns for the Business Process Improvement Intern Team as a workflow analyst. In this role, she’s in charge of creating a data collection form in FormBuilder for the LAS Office of Inclusive Excellence to help gather information for their annual climate study report. She also built a practice restaurant ordering from where she designed the workflow, added customization options for orders, and set up confirmation emails. Overall, she has been tested on various forms and confirmed the workflows and data collection were working properly.
Throughout her internship, Laura became proficient in using the FormBuilder platform to design functional forms for data collection and workflow management. She developed skills in creating workflow diagrams in Microsoft Visio. She also learned how to communicate professionally with her client, faculty members, and other LAS students. Through the work she did, she developed the time management skills necessary to prioritize the weekly tasks while balancing the workload and coursework. Besides that, Laura also practiced her presentation skills through weekly meetings. The big takeaway Laura is taking from this experience is the importance of analyzing existing processes before improving them, and understanding current workflow helps identify inefficiencies and enables more effective, well-planned solutions.
Looking ahead, Laura hopes to work in the computing and data-driven decision-making field to learn more about how technology and data assist in solving issues in reality. When she’s not working, though, she enjoys exploring food spots, playing badminton, and reading mystery or thriller books.