Ziqi Dai, a junior majoring in Mathematics, is gaining hands-on experience in artificial intelligence (AI) through the ATLAS Internship Program, where she applies her skills to real-world projects and develops new technical expertise. In her first semester as an intern, Ziqi works with the ATLAS VR Intern Team as a Programmer, contributing to the QuadGames project by debugging issues like fixing the flickering floor and improving interactions, conducting playtesting and reporting problems for the Point VR project, and developing her own VR project inspired by Superliminal that uses perspective scaling to change object size based on distance. Through this internship, she has gained technical skills in C#, Unity Essentials, VR project development, headset integration, and implementing interactive features, while also strengthening soft skills such as professional communication, presenting ideas clearly, and giving and receiving constructive feedback during team collaboration.
Ziqi’s biggest lesson from ATLAS is the importance of patience and clear communication, as even small programming issues take time and misunderstandings can slow down teamwork, making it essential to ensure everyone is on the same page. Looking ahead, she plans to pursue a career in artificial intelligence with a focus on computer vision, including intelligent driving systems and visual recognition, and she hopes to work on creative, impactful projects that enhance interactions between humans and technology. A fun fact about Ziqi is that coffee makes her even sleepier, so she stays awake by reading mystery novels instead.