(More than) The First Six Months in Umitron

This article is written for the Umitron Advent Calendar 2023 event. UMITRON, a nice place that is nestled in the vibrant hubs of Singapore and Japan, is passionate about using IoT, satellite remote sensing, and AI to give farm efficiency a big boost, manage environmental risks, and ramp up revenues in aquaculture. We aim to tackle global food and environmental challenges head-on and cheer on sustainable protein production.

The Umitron Values

In this article I want to share my personal thoughts after joining Umitron earlier this summer based on the Umitron Values as illustrated above.

Explore Uncharted Waters

A map is necessary for exploration.

I think this is the most grateful thing I currently have with Umitron, to explore strange new worlds, to seek out a new challenge and new knowledge.
Since the very beginning, I had a lot of things to study beyond my previous experiences: what is aquaculture, what kind of technology and services are currently available and being developed, how to deal with a data that is not a human nor static objects but have behavior that is pretty much unpredictable for me: THE FISH.
Not only that, but I've also got the chance to do something I wanted to do rather than working on analysis: software development.
Practically ever since I started my doctorate study and continued to work in research environment, I had no particular experience in developing a real software that requires specific strict rules: it shall be easily readable, it shall be documented and peer-reviewed, it shall follow certain conventions in syntaxes, and so on. Several years ago, after completing my postdoctoral research work, I intend to start to work in this field. However, it is apparently difficult to be realized when you have no practical experience.
Now I finally got this chance, so I am doing my best to catch up.
Which goes to the next value….

Follow The North Star

Aim that one bright evidence!

Sempai-tachi (I could not find a more appropriate English word here) in the software team are incredible. The codes are so neat, follow a somewhat well-organized structure, and work well for its purpose. In my opinion, this kind of understanding might not be acquired by studying by yourself (or even taking a university course) without actually getting into the real world.
So, in Umitron I found this as the guidance to follow on how to develop actual software and work as a team to reach the perfect result.
But of course, no such thing as a perfect result, which takes me to the next value…

Don't Forget Ship Upgrades

Upgrade the ship!

Not only that the advance in IT has been drastically changed over the decades (it even could change over months!), but the clients' necessities have also been the reason why software development needs to be continuously improved.
And that includes upgrading our own skills. For myself, it is not only related to analytic tasks such as getting used to with new kind of data (again, THE FISH), but also upgrading my knowledge in software development, especially to get more familiar with more strict conventions in peer-review development; as well as to understand the software that is currently in service.
To accelerate and improve the upgrade, hence the next value is important…

Share The Captain's Log

Write down all your experiments activities.

People (or at least, yours truly) tend to forget. That is why I felt it is very important to keep all my working logs on the notion pages. Not only it is helpful for myself when many times I cannot recall how I came up with a solution; it is also very useful when I need to support other members when they have the same problem.
Practically, I took notes of every problem I got along with the process to find its solutions; sometimes the notes were quite long and dirty but from there I found it useful to see the way it was taken to get the solution.
Speaking of supporting others, here comes the next value….

Raise Your Flags and Support Others' Flags

With a little help from colleagues.

Again, sempai-tachi are incredible! I feel very grateful that they are always ready to help me even with silly engineering questions that apparently, I knew how to resolve but my mind was just somewhere else.
Basically, my problem lies with two areas: my lack of experience in peer-reviewed software development and trying to understand how the already developed applications work.
Of course, not only for daily tasks, but I am also grateful to the biz teams that intelligently explain what clients or users want in the language that we, engineers, can understand.
Last but not least, management teams that help me with bureaucracy with the government, and even helped me before I officially joined Umitron. Huge thanks and please take care of me from now on too. 🙇🏻
And finally, the last value…

Go Ride the Waves

Look! Another ship is on the wave!

So, basically, here is what I found as the unique work style in Umitron: it is somewhat very easy to communicate with each other despite all of the team members working from different places. It is not difficult to ask or discuss with others when I have issues, not only related to daily tasks, but also with administrative stuff and also sometimes just merely have a chit chat.
I think because all of us practice the values and ride the waves with our own most enjoyable style. I believe that is the thing that makes riding the waves become enjoyable for me too.

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