SickKids Internship
Published , Last modified workI worked at The Hospital for Sick Children in Dr. Adam Shlien’s lab as a full-stack web developer this past summer (2022) and I thought it would be nice to reflect on my experience.
What I did
For some background, cancer is and has been diagnosed mainly through pathology. Dr. Shlien’s lab is working on developing software that classifies/diagnoses based on RNA-Sequencing using machine learning. To go along with the paper that they submitted, they wanted to create a that allows anyone to upload a gene sequence and use the software tool they developed. My job was essentially to fix bugs and make the website functional and presentable before they submitted the paper.
Some major contributions:
- Restructured the backend by implementing a queuing system for submitted gene samples (used Python threading)
- Implemented a feedback feature using MongoDB Atlas
- Dockerized the webapp to fix and prevent future software compatibility issues
What I learned
I worked with a LOT of new languages and technologies that I had barely or never touched before:
- Node.js and routing with Express.js
- Docker
- Nginx and Caddy web server
- Tensorflow and Keras