Throughout project number 2, I came across 2 main problems: Procrastination and finding a starting point.
Procrastination
While this is a personal issue, it is one that many students fall succumb to, including myself. During the semester, I found myself moving away from writing the blog posts. This was because I was not spending enough time advancing my project, so I had nothing to write about. So, as the deadlines were approaching, this led me to hand in the assignments almost too late. I was able to overcome this challenge by taking control of my mind. I knew that if I was visually thinking about writing a blog, I would automatically try to procrastinate, so I began to turn off any overwhelming thoughts as I wrote. I also made earlier deadlines for myself such as finishing it on the Wednesday instead of Thursday and tried to finish writing the blogs as soon as possible.
Starting point
I have never in my life built an app. Of course I’ve built plenty of physical things but never with the use of AI. So, it was a real struggle for me at the start to figure out a place where I can start creating my prototype app. After some serious research and hours of getting nowhere, I realized I could reach out to experts to gain their perspective on my idea. As a result, I reached out to Dave Sands (Principal of Technology Implementation for SD43) and the organization Invasive Species Council of Metro Vancouver (ISCMV) through email and received replies from both. I was able to meet up with Dave Sands through a teams meeting, where he taught me the Design Thinking Process, and a team member from the organization provided some realities of starting an app like this.
This action changed my thinking in that it taught me that asking for help is not an act of giving up but pivoting to get out of the sand. People are the best resource to getting started on projects big or small because seeking out experts not only adds to your network but helps provide insight on perspectives you would have never seen on your own.
In the future, I want to keep trying to create the invasive species app as I am planning to do my capstone on it as well. While I’ve never coded before, I know I will continue to face struggles and successes as I persevere. I will continue challenging myself like this in the future in order to achieve the best version of myself.
Locally, I am hoping this project will provide immense help/impact for invasive species removers to find locations of invasive species. Through this app, I hope everyone is able to contribute positively to the environment by being able to locate invasive species and possibly remove them on their own.
