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Digital Technology

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Digital Technology

Digital Technology is the ability to leverage current and emerging digital technologies ethically and efficiently to solve problems, complete tasks, and accomplish goals. The individual demonstrates effective adaptability to new and emerging technologies. Digital technologies are any devices and resources that generate, store, or process data.

Assessing Your Level of Competency

Graduate School is a time to find ways to broaden your knowledge and progress with this competency. Ask yourself the following questions to dive deep into your self-assessment:

  • Can I follow along in class with the technology I'm using?
  • Do others in my classes, labs, research groups, etc. seem to have more knowledge than me?
  • Are others in my classes able to get work done more quickly and efficiently using technology?
  • Do I ask questions like "how can I do this more efficiently with a technology tool," or do I just address projects as I always have?
  • Do I want to invest the time to learn and become proficient with technology?
  • What technologies should I know to help me succeed in my career path?

Building Your Level of Competency

Build on your level of this competency through the following:

  • Take additional coursework in Tableau and/or advanced computer programs.
  • Find ways to utilize and incorporate using technologies in your research, campus activities, and organizations.
  • Take an online course to learn a computer language or other skill. Udemy and Bendable are opportunities to conduct self-directed learning with technology. 
  • Sign up for one of Notre Dame’s OIT IT courses - all students are welcome. If 5 or more students would like a certain course, the department will set up a special time for them that fits their schedule!
  • Subscribe to technical sites/magazines.
  • Join technology based clubs on campus (e.g. Machine Learning at Notre Dame club). 
  • Ask other students, faculty, and staff about technologies they use and determine which ones you need to develop.

Communicate this Competency

There are many opportunities to communicate your experience with digital technology to others; through your resume, cover letters, interviewing, 30-second professional introduction, networking, etc. Use the following statements as examples of how you might be able to articulate this competency:

Examples:

  • Investigated structural and transport properties of molten salts under extreme environments with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for both polarizable and non-polarizable force fields.
  • Developed analysis tools in C/C++ and Python to compute transport properties from MD simulations and improved computing performance of the codes with GPU-parallelization.
  • Investigated the effect of targeted liposomal nanoparticle treatment in murine cancer model by monitoring tumor growth using live-imaging software and analyzing data with imageJ, discovering a 90% reduction in tumor growth over control groups.
  • Exceeded issue-resolution targets and achieved exemplary customer satisfaction scores, consistently scoring between 95% and 100% on all calls (outperforming average of 90%).
  • Redesigned Internet and intranet pages. Used SEO best practices to optimize Website for search engine rankings and improved functionality of company database.
  • Engaged in technical training exercises to gain a better understanding of Django and Python testing as well as practical training to learn the software development cycle and practices used by Rhumbix.
  • Developed the back-end infrastructure needed to implement email verification, including MySQL database schema updates and stored procedures, and two new API endpoints written in C# to create and verify email verification tokens for a given user.
  • Created an online portfolio/website/GitHub to communicate experiences and technical qualifications for applications and networking opportunities. 

Career Ready Competency Tracking Tool

Download the Career Ready Competency Tracking Tool one time from the main Career Competencies webpage, and utilize one document to track the development of all your competencies.