Day: January 9, 2020

Winter Tech Updates from Auto-Owners

The Auto-Owners IT Division is looking forward to this upcoming winter recruiting season! We continue to seek your assistance in hiring the brightest and best technical talent for software development, security, infrastructure, UX, and data warehousing positions. We also have a few remaining summer internships for 2020!

Our updates for this season include:

·         Modernizing Development for Efficiency, Automation, and Security

·         Robotic Process Automation

·         Our First Ever A-O Hackathon

Modernizing the Way We Develop Software

We are putting significant investments into new procedures and tools that allow us to analyze, plan, and execute software development projects faster and more efficiently. For many years we have used a home-grown application to track work and are modernizing that by use of industry standard products that have a far richer feature set. In addition, we are investing in new technology which will allow us to release applications in a more automated fashion. Using concepts drawn from continuous delivery, we are automating even more components of our software development lifecycle – such as how the code is packaged for deployment, and automating scanning our code for security vulnerabilities. It’s an exciting time to be involved in software development at Auto-Owners!

Robotic Process Automation

This fall, Auto-Owners started creating our first software robot using Robotic Process Automation software. These software “bots” are being programmed to execute the steps of a business process that involve mundane and repetitive tasks. This allows our associates to focus on work that requires decision making and critical thinking skills. Bots can be configured to capture and interpret data and interact with applications. 

Here are some examples of tasks the bot has done:

·         Extract information from a website

·         Input information into a website

·         Spreadsheet processing to extract or populate data

·         Interact with client software

We are excited about what this technology will do in the way of automating tasks because it has the potential to save literal years of manual, tedious work!

1^st Ever A-O Hackathon

Our very first associate-only hackathon was an opportunity for participants to work on a creative software project of their choosing. It could be something to help their team at work, a passion project, or anything in between. During twelve hours, teams designed, implemented, and demoed the software projects. At the very end, a team was voted the “Hackathon Champions” and bestowed with the Hackathon Trophy. We had an impressive number of different languages, platforms, and technologies used by the teams. Kotlin, Unity, Kubernetes, Virtual Reality, React/Redux, Python, R, Spark, and SQL Server were used to name a few, but there were many more. With these tools, the participants created things ranging from an IT DevOps-style system dashboard to an interactive virtual reality Lego building game. As software developers, the best way to learn is by doing, and that’s exactly what our hackathon enabled. The event was a big success, and we look forward to facilitating future hackathons similar to this for future employees of Auto-Owners.

Please share these updates and our company information with any of your students who may be seeking a paid internship or full-time tech position. We look forward to working with you this season and wish you a successful semester!

National Science Foundation Data Analysis and Statistics Internships

Apply Today! https://www.zintellect.com/Opportunity/Details/NSF-NCSES-2019-0002

*Open until filled.

The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education is currently accepting applications for full and part-time internships with the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES).

What will I be doing?  You will be involved in a variety of interesting and original activities. You will learn and collaborate on projects that make use of expertise from a variety of fields, including survey methodology, survey statistics, economics and other social science disciplines to design, study, implement and conduct national surveys to measure the science and engineering enterprise.  You will be a part of and learn about research projects, evaluation initiatives, surveys, data collection and specialized analyses.

Why should I apply?  Both independently, and as part of a team effort, you may have the opportunity to conduct analysis of key trends and patterns, and to visualize and present the findings in novel and informative ways. You will also have opportunities to collaborate with some of the world’s leading experts on the science and engineering enterprise and in fields such as statistics, survey methodology, and economics. NCSES is the world’s premier source for data and information on the science and engineering enterprise.

What are the benefits?  You will receive a competitive stipend for living and other expenses as determined by NSF. Stipends are typically based on academic standing, discipline, and experience. You may also be eligible to receive a health insurance allowance and reimbursement for travel expenses.

Am I eligible?You must be currently pursuing, or have received within 4 months of application, a Bachelor’s or Master’s in Communications & Graphic Design, Computer Sciences, Data Science, Demography, Economics, Engineering, Physics, Mathematics & Statistics, Sociology, Survey Methodology or similar field. You must have a minimum GPA of 3.00 on a 4.00 scale.

For a full description of this opportunity and to submit your application, visit https://www.zintellect.com/Opportunity/Details/NSF-NCSES-2019-0002. For questions, send an email to SciEdPrograms@orau.org. Please include the reference code for the opportunity [NSF-NCSES-2019-0002] in your email subject line.