Julie Mallon’s Application

Data Science, Biostatistics, activism

Several years ago I created a website to host information that my students can access. Normally, this would be provided through Canvas but as a Teaching Assistant for a large course, the site design is not optimized for me to reach my students. It's been a fun process of building and refining my website and has reduced my teaching workload.

Specialization: Data Science, Skill: R software
I first learned R during my Master's but the training my university offered was insufficient, so I completed my analyses in Excel. I was faced with several issues at this time (e.g., reproducibility), which delayed my graduation due to tedious manual work that could have been automated.
During my PhD research I work exclusively in R, where I automate tasks such as writing statistical output in sentence form, thereby saving time and reducing errors!

My main passion is ornithology, which I contribute to via my research and public engagement. Daily, I go bird watching and contribute citizen science data based on my sightings, which informs science about changes in species demographics and phenology. I also share facts about local species with my students, who haven't been exposed to bird watching before, making it more accessible to them and help them develop and appreciation for local biodiversity.

My primary goal is to interact with other people on campus outside of my department where I can be more creative and co-work. My secondary goal is to develop my portfolio. By collaborating with others, I hope to develop new skills outside my field that will make me more marketable as a Data Scientist.

My personal website: https://terpconnect.umd.edu/~jmmallon/