Nhi Hoang

Nhi Hoang is a senior at Knox College, majoring in data science and economics. In the summer, she began an internship with Komatsu in Peoria. Komatsu is a manufacturer of construction, mining, forestry, and industrial heavy equipment. 

What kind of work are you doing for Komatsu?

This summer, I was working to build reports to track the performance of their trucks that they have operating all around the world. I helped them consolidate all the data sources into a centralized area, then built a report on that so the application engineering team have the documentation, know where all the trucks are, and how well they are doing in comparison to trucks of the same model. The project is not done yet; we’re testing the report to see if there are any problems, so I can fix any issues. Also, I worked on other tasks concerned with engineering and how we can make it more accessible to people not on the data science team. At the Peoria office, not everything is centralized in one area; it’s pretty hard to get all the information about all the trucks, so I’m helping to make it easier, but it is still an ongoing process.

What drew you to the opportunity with Komatsu, and what has it been like?

I started working in June, and I still work for them remotely with my internship. It’s been a great learning experience. I wasn't aware how big the company and  product lines are until I got on-site and talked with different people. It has been a valuable learning experience in terms of applying what I learned at Knox. It’s vastly different from talking in school, then doing what professionals are doing in the real world. It’s interesting to see how data analysis and data visualization come into play and see how businesses make decisions.

What has your opportunity been like at Komatsu?

I think one thing I’m very fortunate with in this experience is that they’ve been very supportive, and I have a responsive manager. I have a resource for my questions which I know is very important because this industry is very niche. I worked on-site for two or three months, so I had to talk with different people who were much older than me, which was intimidating at first, but it was nice to get out of my comfort zone and apply the networking skills I learned from Knox.

What are some of the things you are involved with here at Knox?

I used to work for the Bastian Family Center for Career Success. That experience equipped me with the confidence and background knowledge to know when to start looking for opportunities during my early years here and how to utilize all the resources at Knox to leverage my experience. There are staff in the center who students can go to to seek opportunities and get experience. I met a lot of people there who helped me be where I am today.

What courses do you plan on taking during the winter and spring terms?

More my data science major, I’m kind of done with the requirements, but I still have some courses for my economics major. I’m planning to do more courses on the finance side. I don’t know how that may directly apply to the field I want to go into, but I think it’s good to have knowledge in case I want to pivot and go into financial services.