A ChatCenter Ai Experience; what we learned from internship at AppSocially
This article was written by two amazing students, Nethy and Art, who joined AppSocially’s Tokyo team as interns during February 2019.
It all began in late 2018, when representatives from Japanese companies and universities were invited to speak in a one-week-long symposium at Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology in Thailand on “AI for Business and Industrial Applications”. Professor Virach Sornlertlamvanich, a lecturer at the School of ICT at SIIT, had set up this symposium as an opportunity to invite young new talents to explore Japanese companies specifically working in AI.
During this one-week, several topics were discussed but one caught their attention in particular; the most casual lecturer of them all, who goes by the name Dr. Yusuke Takahashi, the founder and CEO of AppSocially, walked in wearing a shirt that read “Anti Artificial Intelligence” to his lecture on “AI for Supporting Making Decisions in Business.” After a mind-blowing presentation, a decision was made. Knowing that an occasion as good as this doesn’t come often, we, the students didn’t let it go to waste. Naturally, the process that followed were introductions and interviews with the company before four lucky students; Art, Jane, So, and Nethy, were chosen.
The excitement that followed immediately after the interview was uncontainable. For Nethy and So, this would be their first taste of Japan. Little did they know, they would get to meet Godzilla in person. Whereas Jane and Art found excitement in taking their first steps towards the rapidly changing world of technology.
Prior to going to Japan, we were assigned the task that would be their challenge in the next few weeks; to make a platform that allows the average layman to create a chatbot on LINE and Facebook without the need to code. This process started off with experimenting on the decision tree-making program developed by Ko Ishihara, who would become one of our mentors during their time with AppSocially. We needed to learn three different programming languages that we were not at all familiar with.
Questions came roaring into each students’ minds; “What is JavaScript?”, “How do I create a website?”, and “What’s a chatbot?”. Thus began the journey.
The most important lessons we learnt
“The most important lesson I learnt throughout this internship is realizing the perseverance it takes to become a programmer,” said Nethy who also described the impact of this lesson as inspirational for upcoming challenges such as exams and future projects; crucial for any student!
In the modern day and age, the daily lives of everyone is increasingly becoming more dependent on technologies, specifically on artificial intelligence, where programming is one of the many ways to keep up with the trend. The internship with AppSocially gave us valuable hands-on experiences for developing AI and significantly widening their perspective toward its applications.
“The realization that the recipe for successful teamwork is effective communication [and it was my] most valuable lesson,” said Art, seeing value in this skill which will “eventually prove to be an asset not only in my college studies, but also in my future career since working in a team is inevitable.”
As we experienced during their first team effort in the programming world, we individually came upon head-scratching issues. We have been seen scratching our heads and we have been seen scratching each other’s heads, over what must have felt like mind-boggling obstacles. We soon learnt first hand that these problems that caused significant delay in progress can actually be avoided easily simply through communication with mentors. “[Don’t be shy to] ask for help!” agreed So as he too learnt a valuable lesson in the importance of communication. The problem that once stumped us for hours were solved in no time at all with help. Through the paraphrased words of Yusuke, asking for help is an important communication skill because if you are stuck with a problem for hours, you are essentially doing no good for both yourself and the company.
“What I [learned is] that a good environment is not only about an actual place, but also about how our attitude comprehends it,” said Jane explaining that “being in a comforting environment with friendly co-workers [such as at AppSocially’s uniquely named office, The Clubhouse] boosts work efficiency by reducing stress, focusing on work, and increasing motivation.“ Her newly found love for work environments like this one encourages her to keep on practicing the art of seeking a productive work atmosphere.
Perseverance, communication, and a productive work setting; arguably the best skills to learn and concept to understand in preparation for their future as potential programmers and engineers.
The most challenging tasks we faced
“Undoubtedly, learning to program!” the intern team practically sang in unison.
Learning to apply new programming languages has never treated anyone nicely. For us, you can literally see it on our facial expressions or on their instagram pages. But, as we have discovered, once a sense of familiarity has been established and things suddenly flow, everything else is a matter of perseverance, communication, and productivity.
This internship has been a great opportunity for all of us to enhance their capabilities by inviting new challenges throughout the whole course. Needing to meet requirements in time for deadlines, we had to overcome technical difficulties and practice personal time management. AppSocially’s unique and creative work environment allowed for each of us to fully utilize our competencies in these areas.
Curious about how The Clubhouse is set up? That’s an interesting topic through the eyes of our visitors.
The events we found most interesting
The first impression of the AppSocially Clubhouse, in one word by popular vote, was described simply with a “wow” and was curiously labeled as one of the most interesting experiences of our visit.
Before coming to Japan, the popular stereotype about work culture that circulates around intense work hours and stressful work environments were widespread in Thailand. However, we had been nothing short of astonished about the work culture at AppSocially. Apparently, it had not been like anything we had expected. Understandable, since the clubhouse internal design is not like any traditional office; there are plenty of resting spaces, stress-relieving areas, and sufficient exposure to calm music aimed to improve productivity.
“Words describing the clubhouse? Friendly, cozy, and productive!” best describes the workspace we had settled in during the past two weeks. Despite the clubhouse being a workspace with a working member possibly at anytime of the day, time was made for very exciting activities with officemates and friends including yoga, late night runs, meals, parties, karaoke, breakfast gatherings, and even movie time.
It seems as though the work environment had been the most interesting and somewhat unexpected aspect of the trip.
Overall, throughout the whole internship we were surrounded by a growth-inducing environment that encourages us to enhance their proficiencies and excel not only as better individuals but also as a hope for their generation in order to solve real-world problems through technology. From now on, we can look forward to applying our newly found skill sets in their current fields of study including image processing, automation, and biomedical engineering for their future career.
