Reflection

When I first started university, I still had no clue what I wanted to do or study and felt extremely lost during my first few semesters. A friend of mine who was in the Human Systems Engineering (HSE) program discussed their degree and I immediately felt that this field was where I belonged. My passion for research and designing grew, and I felt right at home in various HSE courses. I felt that I had learned so much during my undergrad years, and immediately jumped at the opportunity to receive my Master’s degree in HSE.

I was excited to be given the opportunity to design research experiments that align with my interests. My first accomplishment, a research proposal on delivery robots, was something that I wanted to research ever since I saw those devices on university campuses. Trust in automation is a very big topic currently and the use of autonomous robot deliveries is expected to grow. This proposal allowed me to show off my skills in being able to come up with a research question, state a hypothesis, conduct a literature review, and present appropriate research methods. These skills are something that I will apply to a future career in HSE. My second accomplishment exhibits my knowledge of user experience and highlights my creativity of being able to come up with a new application and the appropriate wireframes. There are many current mental health applications out on the market, but I knew I wanted to design something more that catered to multiple needs. The design itself showcases my understanding of the five elements of user experience and what is necessary to design for in mobile applications today. My final accomplishment involved designing and conducting a human subjects research experiment. This project also included looking into relevant literature and coming up with a hypothesis and research question. I chose to investigate the effects background music has on typing performance. This project included two statistical figures that were created using the program R. It is important for data figures to convey a clear story and appropriate results, something that I believe I was able to achieve.

Outside of my courses and projects, I had the opportunity to become a student research aide at ASU. I am constantly utilizing the research methods skills I have learned, such as conducting literature reviews, analyzing qualitative data, and collaborating with others to discuss our findings. I am so thankful for this opportunity that my major assisted me with. My HSE and user experience skills also contributed to my extracurriculars and leadership opportunities. I was a founding member of Desert WAVE, an all-female autonomous underwater robotics team. I oversaw creating and maintaining the team’s website during our second year of competing and our website ended up placing 2nd overall out of 50+ international teams. It was a huge accomplishment for me and something that I will always remember.

I can say with full confidence that the HSE program at ASU has prepared me for my future endeavors. At the start of university, I was extremely unsure of what I wanted to do and felt helpless when it came to my future. Now as I look back at my university career, I can truly see how much I have grown. I have designed and conducted experiments, created application wireframes, and put together my findings in reports and figures that I produced. I look forward to my future and I am truly thankful for my time in the HSE program.