The Polytechnic helped to make me uniquely qualified for my new job through the hands-on learning environment. I knew what I liked and what I did not like from the projects I did in the classroom. And, when I talked with my employer about my projects, it helped them to understand my capabilities.
Natalie McGuckin
Data Visualization and Web Programming & Design ‘22
profile photo

Natalie McGuckin

Data Visualization and Web Programming & Design ‘22
Associate Software Engineer for Caterpillar

What are your job duties?
Developing data visualization dashboards, data validation and querying big data.

How did the Polytechnic help make you uniquely qualified for your new job?
The Polytechnic helped make me uniquely qualified for my new job through their hands-on learning environment. When I would talk to my employers about projects I was working on in the classroom, it helped them understand better what I was learning and my capabilities. Additionally, I learned what I liked and what I did not like from the projects I did in the classroom. I love Polytechnic because of their hands-on learning environment!

Please tell us about a favorite class, project, experience or professor.
One of my favorite projects was for the Scientific Visualization class. For the final project, Iasked my professor if I could use a program called Houdini to do my project. I was always interested in learning Houdini for its Data Visualization capabilities, so I thought that this would be the perfect time to learn it. Although we were not learning Houdini in class, my professor gave me the creative freedom to do my final project in this program. I am entirely grateful that he allowed me to do my project in a different software. I completed my project on Visualizing Cosmos and Galaxies statistically similar to what we would see in the Milky Way. This project really challenged me in being resourceful and let me be creative.

One of my favorite classes was Interactive Data Visualization. Our professor, Dr. Chen, gave us the creative freedom to do whatever we wanted as long as we followed the rubric. I was thrilled to create an interactive visualization that demonstrated the rising temperatures across the globe.