Annie Qiu ‘24
Meet Annie, a computer science and studio art double major from Shanghai, who works as a developer and designer for the DALI lab. In DALI’s first student spotlight, Annie shares her experiences from her first year of work for the lab on building websites for the Sexual Violence Prevention Project and Presidential Committee on Financial Aid, and her love of DALI’s social and professional community.
Learning opportunities and community define Annie Qiu’s experience working at DALI.
Annie, a member of the Class of 2024 from Shanghai, began her work at DALI as a designer — a student who focuses on UI/UX design principles using tools like Figma — last fall. In the three terms she spent working as a designer, Annie worked on two projects making websites for Dartmouth organizations. In her first project, Annie helped to create a website on which participants in the Sexual Violence Prevention Project (SVPP) can track their progress through the program. Later in the year, Annie worked on another website for the Presidential Commission on Financial Aid (PCFA), developing an interactive and informative storytelling approach to illustrate the necessity of financial aid at the College to alumni and potential donors.
“I started out being a designer because I honestly just didn’t have that many skills in software development,” she said. “I thought [design] was really interesting because you are using skills in visual art, but using them to create products that can be really impactful.”
One of Annie’s biggest takeaways from working on the SVPP’s website was the impact it would have on the rest of campus.
“All incoming Dartmouth students are going to be using it once it’s deployed,” she said. “I think I like that project most because from training as a SAPA and just hearing from friends about experiences or fears with the culture of sexual violence at a lot of schools, this project is really meaningful.”
As a computer science and studio art double major, Annie finds that DALI is “right at the intersection” of her academic interests. By working on DALI’s projects, Annie said she is gaining valuable experience in illustration and graphic design. Annie became interested in being a developer for DALI — a student who creates and develops code in the same fashion as a software engineer — after learning about full stack web development in one of her computer science classes, which taught her “the most skills that DALI directly uses.” Now working as a developer this summer, Annie enjoys the additional real-world experience she gains at DALI.
“There’s a lot more complications from a real world project that are kind of out of your control,” she said. “But [it’s] a good learning process.”
From the start — beginning even before she started working for DALI with a mini course on design and UI/UX — Annie’s relationship with DALI has been rooted in learning. Because different projects require different skills, any one project provides the impetus and support for professional growth, such as learning a new coding language or practicing communication with organizational partners. Annie said that one of the most valuable skills she has learned at DALI is managing the demands of a long-term project, such as during a redirection dilemma with the PCFA project:
“We ended up having to pivot completely… a lot of the progress we made just ended up not being applicable,” she said. “It was really stressful in the moment because at first, it was like we’d spent all this time doing things that won’t be used and we have less time in the term [to finish the project]. But by working with our [Project Manager]... we prioritized our own limitations and we tried to come up with a way to pivot while still being reasonable. In the end, we pivoted for good reason: we ended up with a product that fit the original purpose better and was more focused and more impactful.
Beyond developing her design portfolio or honing her development skills, a highlight of DALI for Annie has been the opportunity to connect with students she wouldn’t have otherwise met at Dartmouth, particularly upperclassmen. Through project collaboration or direct assignment, older students mentor younger students throughout the time at DALI, helping to manage the learning curve of working at DALI and life at Dartmouth. After spending her first year at Dartmouth mostly online, Annie’s mentor, a member of the Class of 2023, became a helpful resource for navigating life on campus as classes and events returned to normal. The social relationships Annie has built in DALI encourage her to spend more time at the lab, she said. Even when she’s not working on one of DALI’s projects, one can often find Annie working on a collaborative jigsaw puzzle or studying for her classes in the lab.
In fact, Annie said that her most memorable experience with DALI so far was an “impromptu” sendoff for DALI’s graduating members after Technigala — an end-of-term student showcase for DALI and computer science projects.
“Every senior had someone else who wasn’t a senior say a few words about them and then hand them a rose,” she said. “Even though everyone was super tired from Technigala, it ended up being really nice, and some people’s speeches were actually really emotional… It was just really nice to honor the seniors.”
For the rest of her time at Dartmouth, Annie wants to continue developing her role as a mentor to new DALI hires and possibly taking on a greater leadership role within the organization by joining DALI’s CORE — the central student leadership and decision-makers of the lab.
“I feel like the CORE members from last year did a great job and there were really good points of contact,” she said. “I think DALI is really student-led: even though there is staff, CORE plays a big role.”
By Thomas Brown, DALI Lab Writer
