This week, I am shadowing Kyle Fulton at Lumeris, which is a medical billing service. Over the past three days, I have been working with Kyle and his co-workers as well as attending various meetings.
On Tuesday, I worked with one of his co-workers who was using python. He was trying to figure out a NoneType error, which means that the code is referring a part of an array or dictionary that doesn’t exist. An array is a list of objects, whereas a dictionary is a list of variables. The other two days I mostly just worked with Kyle and his team.
Today was the beginning of my final week at Cherry Hills. Today was Surgery day which I observed once again. I did, however, get to assist Doctor Leonard a little bit with a dental surgery. I also met a patient who is deaf and Doctor Leonard told me that she understands “good girl” in sign language which I thought was super interesting. This experience has been pretty cool so far and I am learning a lot.
Today most of my time was spent revising a user protocol I wrote earlier last week. The Protocol explains how to use and maintain virtual reality headset bought by the center. It explains how to operate the Oculus from the viewpoint of someone who has never operated the machine. I also attended a seminar focused on genome mapping and how its implemented. Much of the latest presentation went over my head but its been a privilege to observe and learn from professional presentations.
For the second half of my week, I continued what I had been doing previously. I spent more time on the task I was assigned as I had a better understanding of OpenCV and image processing by then.
I had figured out how to separate the grains of rice by getting the computer to draw lines between them, but had run out of time at the end of the week so I was unable to continue my project.
I spent last week working with TREE House, which is a nonprofit organization that provides hippo-therapy to kids and adults. There is a huge range of different people who can benefit from the therapy so I have had a lot of exposure to that. I have worked one on one with people with varying disabilities, mental health, paralysis, veterans, and people who just want to take riding lessons. It is really eye-opening to a completely alternative source of physical and emotional therapy for people. I don’t get to do a lot of hands-on work, but I get to learn a lot by watching lessons and sessions.
I am also working closely with the Volunteer Coordinator to help her make the volunteer schedules as well as communicate and coordinate directly with the volunteers. It is cool to see the behind the scenes of a nonprofit organization as big as TREE House.
Today was the last day of week one at Cherry Hills. Today was a shorter day but we still had appointments. I got to meet two adorable puppies today. One of them was a Golden doodle and Australian Shepard mix, which I didn’t know existed but he was super cute.
On Monday and Tuesday, I went to work at Benson Hill, which is a biotech company. I have been learning about a python module called OpenCV, which is meant for image processing.
I have been given a task for the week to count the number of seeds of rice in an image by creating a program that can read the picture. This is so any picture can be read and instantly analyzed rather than counted by hand every time.
What is particularly difficult is separating overlapping seeds in an image as the computer has trouble reading slight changes in pixel values.
The past two days have been appointment days. I have been helping the vet techs as well as Doctor Leonard with appointments by comforting the patients and giving them treats and lots of hugs. After the appointments I clean up the exam room. I have observed how they collect samples and how they do heart worm tests. I did get to meet a super cute golden doodle puppy who came in for a puppy check up.
Today I was able to attend a seminar given by a professor visiting from Duke University. The presentation was about his own research into root growth and plant mutation. I have also organized various storage areas in the lab and have attended weekly presentations given by guest speakers. Not only have I been able to learn about science but public speaking as well.
Today was my first day volunteering with Doctor Leonard at Cherry Hill Vet Hospital. Today was surgery day, so I mostly observed. They had three patients who needed surgery, one of the vet techs said that they usually have around four. I also restocked syringes. Doctor Leonard went over some x-rays with me and pointed out different thing that looked a little odd that I would never have noticed by myself. She keeps me on my toes by asking me questions about simple things she has taught me throughout the day.
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