Imran Gholizadeh – prepared December 2018

Imran – photo taken during his trip to Dublin.

I joined the CCN team as an intern in mid-2018 and so far, it has been a great experience. As an undergraduate at Iowa University, I am in my senior year and plan to do post graduate studies in Neuroscience.

As part of my internship I attended several days of in-person training in Dublin in late 2018. this provided a solid foundation and gave me the confidence to engage with the ongoing virtual training once I returned to Iowa.

My work at CCN involves – at the initial stage – learning Wolfram Programming Language: Mathematica. It takes up to two years to gain a good foundation in Mathematica, so I knew that it would take a while before I could make any significant contribution to CCN and its clients. The unexpected surprise for me is how much I learned in several areas of mathematics, that contributes directly to my current studies.

Through my learning process at CCN, I get to do practical and tangible work. One of the aspects I like is that the training and my learning is based on real-life projects. For example, using what I am learning in programming, I have to test educational modules in math and chemistry. What is so special about CCN’s approach to education is how effective it is. I was struggling in both of these subjects and now I am doing great. Not only did I get better grades, I learned the material quickly. In a few months, I have developed a solid foundation in several areas of mathematics and chemistry.

Currently I am working with my colleague Malak Jaber in Palestine developing a Chemistry C-Book. We are collaborating with academics in Ireland to develop a full undergraduate curriculum. And in addition to my recent terrific grades in mathematics, I am testing several modules in trigonometry for a C-Book being deployed in a college course commencing in January 2019.

My experience since joining CCN has been positive and I look forward to continuing my education both at CCN and at University.