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2018 Summer Internship Reports: Edsel Norwood

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 2018 student interns in a series of blog posts entitled SGCI Summer Internship Reports.

Featured below is SGCI summer intern Edsel Norwood, a senior at Elizabeth City State University.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, including what you are studying.

My major is Computer Science with a concentration in data science. I am a senior at Elizabeth City State University this year with an expected graduation date of May 2019. I've always had a love for computers and what makes them efficient tools.

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

My internship this summer took place at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in Berkeley, California. My mentor was Shreyas Cholia, group lead of the Environmental Systems Science Data Infrastructure for a Virtual Ecosystem (ESS-DIVE) team. ESS-DIVE is a new data archive for Earth and environmental science data that will publicly share data obtained from observational, experimental, and modeling research that is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This archive’s mission is to preserve, expand access to, and improve the usability of critical data generated through DOE-sponsored research of terrestrial and subsurface ecosystems to address some of society’s pressing energy and environmental challenges.

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

During the course of my internship, I became familiar with flask app, html, jquery, and  RESTful APIs. I then used these tools to create a virus scanning utility that will be implemented in the ESS-DIVE data archive. ESS-DIVE is a data archive in which scientists can upload and share large data sets. ESS-DIVE is also the new host to all data sets from the former CDIAC data archive. Getting to learn the development process behind a science gateway was an opportunity that I'm glad I had.

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

Yes, there will always be a demand for new and improved gateways. I feel that working in the research side of the computer science industry you will inevitably use or develop a gateway.

Anything else to add about your internship experience?

My experience with Berkeley Labs and the ESS-DIVE was extremely beneficial to the future of my career in computer science. I am continuing work with the Berkeley Labs remotely during this academic semester and hope to further expand my knowledge of working in the industry.

 

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.