A “candid looking” photo of my final in person day at work. It’s totally not candid lol.As I approach the end of my internship, I find myself reflecting on the incredible journey I’ve experienced here at the University of Iowa. The past few weeks have been amazing, filled with challenges, growth, and a lot of learning.
By all means, this experience has enriched my personal and professional life in numerous ways. Working as a computational epidemiology researcher has allowed me to dive deep into the complexities of public health and epidemiological modeling in computer science.
This week, we’ve reached a significant milestone as I helped define and improve the code for the project I was given. This involved refining the Python scripts for simulating disease spread scenarios, implementing contact networks, and taking on major debugging activities. The process was demanding but now, in retrospect, incredibly rewarding. I now have a growing confidence in my skills and understanding.
At this time, we are now tying up loose ends and preparing to put out our research paper, which I’ll be co-authoring. This is an exciting culmination of weeks of hard work, collaboration, and learning. The support from my supervisor, Professor Sriram Pemmaraju, has been invaluable throughout this process. His guidance helped me navigate challenges and provided the insights needed to advance the project.
In other news, I also took some time to explore the building I worked at, Macbride Hall, which is also the U of I Museum of Natural History. I saw some pretty cool figurines of ancient animals/primates, and so I got one pic below.
Pretty cool, huh? 🙂Too human looking with the beard and all for a gorilla, but definitely not a human. Anyway, back to Business Analytics and Computer Science, lol… As I wrap up this incredible internship, I am filled with gratitude for the support and resources from Cornell College, all the way into the University of Iowa. The initial challenges of transitioning to a new city and a new role quickly gave way to a sense of belonging and purpose. This internship has greatly improved my technical abilities and has been an awesome professional experience altogether. I am excited about the future projects and learning opportunities that lie ahead. Thank you so much to everyone who made this experience possible for me.