Meet the intern:
Thanks to the encouragement of one of his teachers, Abdi Mohamed discovered his love for computer science while still in high school. “Through her I was able to take an AP computer science class,” he recalled. “It was something I was super intrigued about. It feels like a different world when you’re coding and programming.”
Mohamed set out to explore that world when he decided to major in computer science at the University of Minnesota. Through his classes, Mohamed started to hone his skills, but he was also discovering new areas, like data science, that he also wanted to learn.
“Computer science is a broad, endless spectrum of different things, and data science is its sister,” Mohamed explained. “From data science you get data visualization and more niche things. I’m still learning the ropes of data science and through this internship I’m hopeful that I’ll get a clear idea of how to utilize these tools, as well as how to be more of a professional when it comes to this field.”
This fall, Mohamed found a data visualization analyst position with NCXT through the SciTech Internship Program. Working part time, he was able to develop his skills within a professional environment while still going to school.
Meet the company:
“The first thing that caught my attention about NCXT was when I looked at the website and saw that they had a mix of business and data visualization, which I love,” Mohamed said. “The other thing was that it was a startup, dedicated to helping St. Paul restaurants. And one of the restaurants they help is one I frequent, owned by a good friend of my dad. So it seemed like they were doing work that I not only enjoy but also see a great benefit in.”
To help Mohamed get the most out of this opportunity, NCXT’s President Jonathan Banks made sure his experience involved a variety of tasks and responsibilities. Mohamed conducted website audits, added client testimonials, and fixed text bugs. He got the chance to work on a client’s site as well where he used JavaScript, HTML and CSS to address several projects, including one where he helped improve the client’s search bar functions.
At the time of our interview, Mohamed said he was looking forward to the next stage of his internship when he’d have an opportunity to go deeper into data visualization.
“I have to wait and see how much I enjoy data visualization, but the general direction I see myself going in is focusing on software engineering, because I feel like programming is where I get really in my zone.”
Get involved
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