Matthew Lim - Week 4 Journal

[mlim70]

Task 1: This week, I was tasked with investigating decision-making processes for people's choices of where to live and who to live close to. Compile a list of relevant research papers to look through.
Task 2: Go through them and identify common factors considered/used to model how individuals move within a city. Identify key papers of interest.
Task 3: Delve deeper into any particular points of interest. This week, I looked a lot into UrbanSim and its case studies, as it reminded me a lot of our own project.

Weekly Accomplishments

What tasks did you complete this week? (Include links)
This week, I skimmed through a variety of research papers and looked deeper into papers I thought were particularly relevent/helpful. I learned about UrbanSim as well. I took notes on my takeaways and helpful resources we might be able to use to guide our own project.

Tasks are still ongoing? Current status?
Ongoing tasks include coming up with a concrete lists of parameters to include in our model - decide where to draw the line, with justification/reasoning.

Challenges and Learning

What was the biggest challenge you faced this week? How did you address it?
The biggest takeaway is that there is no solid line to draw - it's largely subjective, as is evident in the variability of parameters used in past studies. Will have to discuss further with team.

What's one new thing you learned or skill you improved?
One skill I improved was going through literature more efficiently and drawing connections between them and our own project.

Did you attend any team meetings? Key takeaways?
No team meetings this week other than our weekly meeting with Dr. Kastner and Carlos.

Reflection and Planning

Your progress this week?
Not as concrete/tangible as I had hoped but I was able to develop a better understanding of how to go about deciding on variables to incorporate into our model. Since our model focuses on transit, it's probably more appropriate not to include so many variables as in UrbanSim.

Main focus for next week?
Meet with Dr. Kastner and Carlos and discuss next steps. Seek guidance with my tasks.

Any resources you're looking for?
N/A