Skip to main content

2019 Summer Internship Reports: Andrea Dumalagan

Each year, our Workforce Development team offers summer internships for students interested in developing their gateway development skills. Eligible participants are placed at one of several SGCI partner sites. We will be sharing some of the experiences of our 2019 student interns in a series of blog posts entitled SGCI Summer Internship Reports.

Featured below is SGCI summer intern Andrea Dumalagan, a senior at Rutgers University.

"I am grateful for the opportunity SGCI gave me to be a part of the student program at PEARC19--never once did I think I would be interested in high performance computing, but I appreciate SGCI’s effort to create an engaging community to give me an unforgettable experience."

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I am a rising senior at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, studying Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Where did your internship take place, and who did you work with? 

My internship took place at the RCSB Protein Data Bank located at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. I had the pleasure of working with Robert Lowe and Christine Zardecki on a project revolving around the science gateway, PDB-101. PDB-101 is an online portal for teachers, students, and the general public to promote exploration in the world of proteins and nucleic acids; it was developed by the RCSB Protein Data Bank, PDB-101 hosts introductory materials and resources for extended learning about the biomolecular data contained in the Protein Data Bank archive. The project focused on developing a web application that would build on top of Google Analytics--a tool used to measure metrics such as how many visitors attend PDB-101 at a given session, most popular webpages, etc.--in order to give us a better insight on how users engage with the science gateway.

What are some things that you learned as a result of this internship?

My classroom and previous internship experience have made my background more focused on back-end development rather than overall web development. During the project I was assigned, and coupled with Rob’s guidance, I was able to gain both exposure and experience with both front-end and back-end development; additionally, I was able to expand the knowledge I previously had prior to my internship.

Do you see yourself engaging with SGCI again in the future? Perhaps when you begin your career?

Yes, I do. I have the fortunate opportunity of continuing my web developer internship at the RCSB Protein Data Bank into the academic year. Additionally, I have the opportunity to be a fully-funded student participant presenting at the upcoming Gateways 2019 conference. I believe that there will always be a need for data sharing, and therefore, a need for science gateways.

Anything else to add about your internship experience?

I am grateful for the opportunity SGCI gave me to be a part of the student program at PEARC19--never once did I think I would be interested in high performance computing, but I appreciate SGCI’s effort to create an engaging community to give me an unforgettable experience.

Interested in a summer internship with SGCI, or know a student who might be interested? Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to stay updated on upcoming opportunities.