Doug Smith completed six data visualizations for his capstone project, though only one was required. Even after discovering that most of the documentation for one of the JavaScript libraries was written in Chinese, he never gave up. Instead he kept plugging variables into the chart options to find the exact visualization he wanted.
“I like to work as hard as I can,” says Smith, who graduates in May with a Bachelor of Science degree in Technology, Arts and Media (TAM) from CU Boulder's College of Engineering and Applied Science. The TAM program is housed in the university's ATLAS Institute.
Smith’s project “Reperio,” which was part of a 10-week installation at the Roser ATLAS Center, uses data visualization to “give users insight into their communities and to spark conversations, laughs, and serious consideration about their surroundings,” Smith says. The project uses a Vue.js framework coupled with data visualization tools like D3.js and ECharts to create an interactive web application. The application collects user inputs to questions, such as “What is your birthdate?” which are then fed to a real-time Firestore Database. The other half of the application reads the data from the database and creates a live visualization, displayed so users can see where their answers fit within the population of those who responded.
Aileen Pierce, TAM associate director who taught Smith’s Web Front-End Development and Mobile App Development classes says, “Doug never settled for merely average work.”
“Instead, he consistently pushed himself to work on more challenging projects that went beyond the scope of the assignments,” Pierce says. “He continues to raise the bar for all students.”
Beginnings
Smith has a history of working hard from a young age. He graduated high school when he was 17 to join the Marine Corps. He’s also a self-taught illustrator and painter who sells his paintings and drawings, and he paints murals and occasionally does freelance graphic design work. He’s also the unofficial graphic designer for CU Boulder’s Student Veterans Organization.
Born in Telluride, Colo., Smith attended school there until 2010, when he enlisted in the Marine Corps. He subsequently served in the Pacific in the 1st Battalion 12th Marine Regiment as well as a 3rd Battalion 3rd Marine Regiment as a Joint Fires Observer, directing artillery, mortars, naval gunfire and close air support onto their targets.
The TAM Experience
In 2014 Smith returned to Colorado and worked as a snowcat operator for the Telluride Ski Resort until August 2015, when he began attending classes at CU Boulder. Initially majoring in computer science, he says he transferred to the engineering school to attend more ATLAS classes, focusing his studies on UI/UX design and web development.
“The coolest thing about ATLAS is that it recognizes that the world is developing at a fast pace,” Smith says. “Instructors are willing to adapt their curriculum on a daily basis to give you the most applicable information, which is priceless.”
In 2018 Smith interned as a UI/UX designer and javascript developer for a Boulder company which makes disaster mitigation and prevention data visualization products for organizations such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security.
After his internship, Smith gravitated towards an alternative use of data visualization and created “Reperio.”
“I made the project to test my knowledge of full-stack web development and also to show people that data visualization can leave us feeling more connected,” says Smith. “By using frameworks and realtime databases, Reperio provides a more human connection to a vague concept like ‘data.’”
Upon graduation, Smith plans to continue working for a Boulder startup as a front-end web developer.
“Web development in particular is a difficult field to get up to speed in because everything changes daily,” Smith says. “One of the most valuable things TAM taught me is how to search for my own answers.”
