Work Logs

Pedro Alvarez Work Logs (log page)

20160328-20160404 (Fri, Mon, Wed, Mon) Goal: Match the F500 and VC Backed Data

• Progress: I encountered plenty of difficulties finding the appropriate data points, formatting the text/sql files, and ultimately performing the match. While I've performed the initial match, I would like to verify that there were no "hiccups" in the importing process. After I'm done with that, I'll pull NAICS codes and match those to the matched VC/F500 companies.

20160325 (Fri): 1:00-Goal: Work on VC/F500 spreadsheets

• Progress: 4:00- I have extracted information on the industry sectors, dates of financing, and specific location of these firms. Next monday, I want to run the match function, and then really begin analyzing trends in the fortune 500 and VC funding

20160323 (Wed): 1:00-Goal: Look for useful VC data

• Progress: 4:30- Using sdc platinum, i extracted information about every single vc-backed firm available. this extensive data took a while to organize, but it's finally in an understandable excel format. On friday, i hope to continue with the analysis

20160321 (Mon): 1:00- Goal: Research Fortune 500 companies' composition over time, try to gauge from the data where exactly they

• Progress: 4:40- I compiled an Excel spreadsheet of F500 companies from 1980-2015, and began working on compiling lists of the largest VC-Backed firms over the same time frame.

20160318 (Fri): 1:33- Goal: Today, I'm continuing on the small business finance/access to capital page on the wiki.

• Progress: 4:30- I've cleaned up most of my wiki page, and am going to research a new topic for a couple of days.

20160316 (Wed): 1:00- Goal: Continue on Monday's work

• Progress: 4:30- I've got a more quantitatively fortified section on the credit decline as a factor in small business finance

20160314 (Mon): 1:00- Goal: Move all notes on Small Business access to capital from Google Doc to wiki format.

• 4:30- Progress: I need to continue doing this task, and additionally, find more general data on how access to capital looks now, and how it may change in the future.

20160311 (Fri): I was in an interview and did not come in today.

20160309 (Wed): 1:00- Goal: Add Graphics to Access to Capital portion, Make headway on the candidates stance section of paper

• 4:30-Progress: I'm almost done with the access to capital candidate portion, and will review what I have done with Ed.

20160307 (Mon): 12:58- Goal: Finish the Access to Capital portion of my article. Start on overview.

• 4:30- Progress: I'm done with my access to capital portion, and will trim verbose or unessential portions. I'm also planning on adding more graphics.

20160226 (Fri): I was sick and did not come in today.

20160224 (Wed): 1:10- Goal: Finish some administrative housekeeping tasks and begin writing the article

• 4:30: Progress: I'm about halfway done with my rough draft of the segment of my article dealing with Access to Capital and how candidates have addressed it.

20160222 (Mon): 1:00- Goal: Continue research on how non-financial governmental institutions influence small business growth

• 4:24- Progress: I'm wrapping up the research for this article, and plan on starting a first draft this Wednesday.

20160219 (Fri): 1:00- Goal: Continue research on which government-controlled regulations/policies have substantive impacts on small business operation

• 1:40: Jason and I are shooting to co-author a report analyzing the policies affecting small business, and how they have (or haven't) been addressed in this election so far
• 4:37: Progress: I've done a bit of research on how access to capital is being address both by the government, and by small business owners. On Monday, I'll look more into how alternative policies (Healthcare, Environmental, Minimum wage, etc.,) policies have affected small businesses.

20160217 (Wed) 1:05- Goal: Get assigned to a new project, as Ed gave his presentation last night.

• 4:30 Progress: I am researching the effect of various government-controlled/mandated policies on the incubation and development of small businesses.

20160215 (Mon) 12:58- Goal: Help tie up loose ends on GDP/Macroeconomic research pertaining to Ed's Presentation tomorrow

• 4:30: Progress: I have done all necessary macroeconomic research for the presentation.

20160212 (Fri) 12:56 - Goal: Finish Sanders research, get another project

• 1:30: Instead of completing the Sanders profile, I am working on collecting data that links growth in innovation/technology sectors to macroeconomic, GDP-based growth.
• 5:30: Progress: I found a couple of useful studies that indicate a positive relationship between job growth in tech. These data should be useful for Ed's presentation.

20160210 (Wed) 12:02 - Goal: Build wiki page, get assigned to a project, and fill out my work log.

• 2:00: I completed my first few assignments, and am now working on detailing different POTUS candidates' stances on religious issues
• 3:30: Progress: I have completed half of Bernie Sanders' religious profile. I plan on finishing the other half this Friday, 2/12.

Carlin Cherry Work Logs (log page)

Albert Nabiullin Work Logs (log page)

Meghana Gaur Work Logs (log page)

2017-12-1: worked with ed to build tables with firm/portco data on distance and fund/portco data on performance

2017-11-16: finished calculating great circle distances between firms, portco's, and branch offices (look at roundlinewithgcd table)

2017-11-14: worked on getting all roundline tables down to the firm level, instead of fund; running into small problems with calculating gcd between firms and portco's (will discuss with Ed)

2017-11-14: worked on joining ipo information to roundline; aggregated ipo information to the fund level (rather than fund)

2017-11-09: reloaded firm coords and also fund coords - re-building roundlinewithgcd (code is written, but fund coords weren't correctly loaded, so this code will be re-run), wrote code for fundtofirms and portcotofirms, but this code will be re-run once the firm codes are correctly loaded; working on joining portcoexitmaster to roundlinejoinerlean

2017-11-08: loaded roundlinewithgcd table (calculating gcd between portcos and funds), created GCD example with notes in datawork folder in MatchingEntrepsToVCs, worked on building portcostofirms

2017-11-07: loaded portcocoords table, joined portcocoords to roundlinejoinerlean, calculate gcd distance between funds and portco's, work on joining funds to firms

2017-11-03: loaded table/sql script for firms office locations into vcdb2 with latitude and longitude coordinates; joined coordinates to all clean base tables for firms, funds, branch offices, joined co and fund coordinates to roundlinejoinerlean in new table: roundlinecoords

2017-11-02: met with Ed; loaded tables/sql script for branch office and fund office locations into vcdb2 with latitude and longitude coordinates

2017-10-27: come up with next steps for matching firms to funds - for geocoding branch offices

2017-10-26: update VC Database Rebuild wiki; identify key for bocore table; verify that fundbasecore table was correctly cleaned after being being rebuilt by Ed

2017-10-24: met with Ed to discuss firmbase and branch office tables; find key for firmbasecore table; remove undisclosed firms from both firmbasecore and bocore

2017-10-12: peer edit and put Shelby's blog post into Wordpress; see what needs to be done on VC project; continue literature review for matching models

2017-10-11: finished loading tables (firmbase and branchoffice)

2017-10-6: load data using SQL code into tables, which is on Retrieving US VC Data From SDC

2017-09-29: completed pulling/normalizing data, still need to load data using SQL code into tables, which is on Retrieving US VC Data From SDC

2017-09-28: met with Ed, worked on pulling firm and branch office data from SDC

2017-09-22: join portcos and funds; and begin literature review of matching games/venture capital (located in "Matching Entreps to VC's project folder" on E drive."

2017-09-21: work with Ed on research project

2017-09-19: continue to work on joining portcoexits and roundlinejoiner tables in vcdb2, in MatchingEntrepsToVC folder under project management

2017-09-15: work on joining portcoexits and roundlinejoiner; create txt file called "Notes on Matching Funds to portcos" in the "Matching Entreps to VC's project folder" on E drive.

2017-09-14: build table roundlinejoinerapprop (appropriate the funds between funds; work on joining portcoexits and roundlinejoiner)

2017-09-27: rebuild portcoexits and work on apportioning amounts in roundlinejoiner

2017-09-07: work with Ed to familiarize with SQL script for VC project/vcdb2 database

2017-09-05: receive project from Ed; reacquaint with wiki, RDP, etc.

Julia Wang Work Logs (log page)

12/4-12/8 finalizing University Patents report

• 12/4 9-12 edits, sent to Ed, confirming catering for party
• 12/5 9-12 final edits, sent to Ed
• 12/6 1-4 making City Agglomeration graphics
• 12/7 1-3 wrapping up everything

11/27-12/1

• 11/27 10-12 edits, sent to Ed
• 11/29 10-12 catering order for lunch party, wiki page organization
• 11/30 2:30-4:30 edits
• 12/1 10-12 met with Ed, edits

11/20-11/22

• 11/20 10-12 edits
• 11/21 10-12 met with Ed, edits
• 11/22 10-12 met with Ed, edits

11/13-11/17 deadline 11/16 final draft

• 11/13 10-12 redoing reg table
• 11/14 10-12 edits
• 11/15 10-12:30 edits
• 11/16 2:30-4 met with Ed, edits
• 11/17 10-12 edits

11/6-11/10 deadline 11/16 final draft

• 11/6 10-12 4th draft
• 11/8 10-12 met with Ed, editing
• 11/9 2:30-5:30 redoing graphs, restructuring introduction
• 11/10 10-12, 3-4:30 redoing charts, rewriting body

10/30-11/3 deadline 11/16 final draft

• 10/30 10-12 revisions
• 10/31 10-12 revisions
• 11/1 10-12 revisions, new data for basic funding
• 11/2 10-12 revisions

10/23-10/27

• 10/23 10-12 editing University Patents
• 10/24 10-12 reran regressions, fixed problem with Cornell!
• 10/25 10-12 sent 2nd draft to Anne
• 10/26 2:30-4:30 revisions
• 10/27 10-12 sent 3rd draft

10/16-10/20

• 10/16 10-12 pulled Houston patent addresses
• 10/17 10-12 pulled Houston patent addresses
• 10/18 10-12 edited University Patents
• 10/19 2:30-4:30 edited University Patents, tabled patent database reorganization until it is cleaned by Oliver/Shelby/Ed
• 10/20 10-12 edited University Patents

10/11-10/13

• 10/11 10-12 pulling Houston patents
• 10/12 10-12 University patents, sent draft to Anne

10/2-10/6

• 10/2 10-12 work on University Patents draft, close to sending
• 10/3 10-12 Distracted by Augusta project, Reorganizing patent database
• 10/4 10-12 Reorganizing whole patent database by city, state, pulling Crunchbase data for Augusta
• 10/5 2:15-2:45 Augusta patents
• 10/6 10-12 Reorganizing patents, figure out misspellings

9/25-9/29 finish draft

• 9/25 10-12 remaking charts
• 9/26 10-12 data pull for Augusta University
• 9/27 10-12 data pull for Augusta University
• 9/29 10-12 reran log regressions

9/18-9/22/2017

• 9/18 10-12 cleaning data
• 9/19 10-12 cleaning data
• 9/20 10-12 created time-series data set
• 9/21 2:30-4 reran regressions
• 9/22 10-12, 2-3 remade charts

9/11-9/15/2017 Deadline: 9/15 - convert data to time-series, new charts

• 9/11 10-12 Converting to time-series
• 9/12 10-12 Check accuracy, converting to time-series, talked to Jeemin about next project
• 9/13 10-12 Fix R&D data, previous SQL code
• 9/14 2:30pm-4pm, 10:30pm-12am Fix R&D data
• 9/15 10-12, 2-3 join data

9/5-9/8/2017 Putting together University Patents report

• 9/5 10-12 Looked at report, created artifacts, cleaned University Patents folder
• 9/6 10-12 Spoke with Ed about project organization
• 9/7 2:30-4:30 Writing report
• 9/8 10-12 Making data into time series: gyear, make tables and charts

Will Cleland Work Logs (log page)

Jackie Li Work Logs (log page)

20160420 (Wed) 2:30 Start editing first draft paper with the comments Ed made during our last discussion

20160415 (Fri) 1:00 Fact sheet fact sheet fact sheet

20160415 (Fri) 3:30 Checked out the other top 10 patent trolls

20160413 (Wed) 2:50 - Keep compiling fact sheet

20160413 (Wed) 5:20 - found more statistics on patent trolls. Not sure if all of them are useful.. this is proving to be a difficult task

20160408 (Fri) 1:00 Work on issue brief

20160408 (Fri) 4:00 Met with Ed to discuss his thoughts on the first draft. Currently compiling fact sheet so we have more systematic numbers and facts instead of case study facts.

20160406 (Wed) 3:00 Finish first draft of issue brief today

20160406 (Wed) 5:30 Done with first draft. Got code from Kranthi, have to find files with priority claims.

20160404 (Mon) 2:30 finish the patent data coding

20160404 (Mon) 3:30 done with patent data versions 4.2-4.5, files from earlier versions are not on the bulk drive. Need Kranthi to give me code to search for keywords among all the files to be done with this project.

20160330 (Wed) 2:30 Work on issue brief, learn computer things from Kranthi

20160330 (Wed) 5:30 Working on the patent data stuff with Kranthi, currently looking at v. 4.3 of the USPTO data. Asking Kranthi on how to search patent-claims in the whole folder

20160324 (Fri) 1:00 - Bring Albert up to speed with what Julia and I did last Wednesday, continue refining and adding to the issue brief draft

20160325 (Fri) 4:00 - Fixed up some holes in the draft we created last Wednesday. Found data on Intellectual Ventures, a legitimate PAE and compared it to eDekka. Hopefully Albert will come to work on Monday so we can reconvene, look at our work and decide where to go from there.

20160323 (Wed) 2:15 - Create outline for issue brief, add information to it

20160323 (Wed) 5:15 - Added section "Are Patent Trolls Really that Big of a Problem? + Why Stricter Demand Letter Requirements Isn't the Solution" to the truth about Patent trolls page

20160321 (Mon) 2:30 - Finish classifying the companies eDekka is suing

20160321 (Mon) 4:30 - Goal accomplished

20160318 (Fri) 1:00 - Keep working on companies Edekka sued in 2015

20160318 (Fri) 4:00 - Made progress on classifying Edekka's defendants as small businesses or not. Had big group meeting with the McNair Center.

20160316 (Wed) 2:05 - Keep digging around Judge Rodney Gilstrap

20160316 (Wed) 5:05 - Added a lot of information to the file 'Patent Trolls Data2' (Couldn't figure out how to edit original file). Found that settlements are MUCH more likely in E.D. Texas, maybe because companies are scared they will lose in court? Also started researching companies edekka sued in 2015, and currently classifying each one as a small business or not.

20160314 (Mon) 2:30 - Keep going

20160314 (Mon) 4:30 - Is there something fishy going on with Judge Rodney Gilstrap? Currently using Lex Machina to try and figure out exactly in how many of his terminated cases was a settlement reached. So far it seems like a large majority of his cases reach an out of court settlement, but why? If not, is he more inclined to favor the plaintiff?

20160311 (Fri) 4:00 - Submitted potential tweet, continued working on truth behind patent trolls. Need to get a better understanding on demand letters and how more stringent demand letter requirements may actually hurt patent holders with legitimate concerns.

20160311 (Fri) 1:00 - Continue digging on the biggest PAEs and determine if they are trolls or not

20160309 (Wed) 5:00 - Found direction! Created and working on The Truth Behind Patent Trolls. Excited about where this project is headed.

20160309 (Wed) 2:25 - Research is converging with Albert's. Plan out how we're going to differentiate PAEs within NPEs.

20160307 (Mon) 2:30 - Continue plowing through Innovation Act

20160307 (Mon) 4:00 - Need to differentiate between NPEs and PAEs, read Katznelson Study. Next step is getting a list of all patent cases filed by NPEs and determine how many of those are actually from PAEs.

20160226 (Fri) 1:10 - Continue working on patent legislation

20160226 (Fri) 4:10 - Added a ton of information to Innovation Act. Am currently reading through the act line by line, and writing a summary so I know what points to tackle and further investigate. Lots of articles point to the existence of patent trolls, might have to go dig through data ourselves to determine whether or not this is a salient issue

20160224 (Wed) 2:30 - Determine what deliverables I can create/work on vs. random research

20160224 (Wed) 5:30 - Currently working on patent legislation, in particular the Innovation Act

20160222 (Mon) 2:25 - Work on prize system, not patents

20160222 (Mon) 4:25 - Wrote section 'problems & considerations surrounding the prize system', added material to MIPF page. Might want to move the graph and intro information to the main page?

20160219 (Fri) 1:00 - Continue to work on patent reform wiki page

20160219 (Fri) 4:00 - Researched and wrote summaries on patent reform legislation, did research into and wrote section about the Medical Innovation Prize Fund Act proposed by Bernie Sanders.

20160217 (Wed) 2:30 - Find a new project to work on

20160217 (Wed) 5:30 - Worked on patent reform page, dug into Bernie Sander's stance on how patents are stifling innovation, and his prize system. Working on Medical Innovation Prize Act of 2005

20160215 (Mon) 2:30 - Work on Ed's Talk

20160215 (Mon) 4:30 - Added slides to Ed's presentation, dug into Politifact article about how small businesses are not dying off

20160212 (Fri) 1:00 -Structure Ed's Baker Institute talk, have a rough outline

20160212 (Fri) 4:00 - Have information for a slide on 'Market for Entrepreneurship, met with group and reevaluated/set new goals and outlines for Ed's talk

20160210 (Wed) 14:30 - Work on Ed's Baker Institute Talk

20160210 (Wed) 17:30 - Added in multiple sections in "Regulations in Relations to Small Businesses"; a section on Increasing operational costs from EPA Regulations, writing points on Expansion of Overtime Eligibility. Had a group meeting with the group working on Ed's talk

David Zhang Work Logs (log page)

20160211 (Thu) 16:00 - Create personal page and work log

20160211 (Thu) 16:15 - Search for startups and add address

20160212 (Fri) 16:00 - Continue adding addresses for startups

20160215 (Mon) 16:00 - Collect information of startups, VCs, incubators, and etc. in Houston

20160217 (Wed) 16:00 - Compile lists of Houston startups, VCs, indubators and etc. in txt files

20160222 (Mon) 16:00 - Collect data of investors, entrepreneurs on Rice Alliance

20160224 (Wed) 16:00 - Collect data of investors, entrepreneurs on Rice Alliance

20160226 (Fri) 16:00 - Collect data of investors, entrepreneurs on Rice Alliance

20160307 (Mon) 16:00 - Finish collecting data of investors, entrepreneurs on Rice Alliance