In the spring of 2021, an issue confronted me. The time had come to find an internship for that summer, but I had been hard pressed to find openings in any internship at all that could have applied to the goals that I had in mind – namely, fulfilling the requirements presented to me by the Science and Global Change scholars program. One day, while I searched through internship search websites for the nth time, I found something while searching online: An internship opportunity, posted by a company known as TISTA Science and Technology. It advertised working with technology, including machine learning and other methods. With opportunities available to me that would help fulfill my requirements and responsibilities for SGC, I applied to the internship. I quickly met the site supervisor, Shiva Thirumazhusai, through the interview for the position.
When I finally got the position and began work in the summer of 2021, I was quickly given a task and eventual goal along with the rest of my team. We were tasked with assisting in the development of a webapp – as the etymology implies, an application based entirely on the internet – that would connect “distributors” and “seekers,” primarily of either education or food using a database and website that we would make. Specifically, my team and I were tasked with developing two segments of the webapp: the registration page, login page and the database that would hold all of the users information. Of course, I started this internship with almost no knowledge of how to do any of this, but the training provided by the other more experienced members of the team plus the trial-by-fire strategy of teaching ensured that I caught on quickly and learned how to manipulate many of the tools that we were using during the project easily. By the end of the internship, I had learned a lot about how modern computer science and technology worked in the world, with experience in using tools like Docker and Amazon AWS to manage and store vast amounts of data, as well as gaining valuable experience in fields I had otherwise not even considered.
The effects this internship had on me just outside of the pure work experience was interesting as well. Because of the nature of my project, I learned of the connection between science, technology and how those two combined could change the world. Using technology and advanced tools, my team and I helped create a tool that would have been impossible only a few years ago to help people that otherwise would have been unable to find the help that they were looking for, like healthy and sustainable food in the middle of a food desert or education in the use of the internet for people who otherwise would have been unable to find it, becoming stuck in a previous age while the rest of the world moved on without them. Although I had never considered it before, the work I did here opened up a new world of science and technology development that I had never considered before. Now, after I graduate from the University of Maryland, I might consider going into a technology firm that focuses more on helping people, rather than looking for a job that focuses on pure technology. I may even return to TISTA Science and Technology, to help develop the next useful and helpful webapp.