My name is Olga Kukudzhanova, and I am a rising sophomore pursuing a
Computer Science degree in the Volgenau School of Engineering. For my Summer Impact project, I am working to build a web tool that can help students understand how genetic
information in large DNA data sets can be used to diagnose diseases. This
requires our team to design a basic undergraduate course structure and
incorporate that into a web tool that can act somewhat like a virtual lab. In short, the goal of this project is to develop a disease model based on bioinformatics identified in blood
from patients with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, a rare lung disease.
The concept of writing a webtool got me
interested in this project. I wanted to have a hands-on experience coding a
webtool by connecting different programming languages and statistical programs to
provide the students with a tool that can help them with their studies in
bioinformatics. I was also interested to work with analyzing big data.
During this project, I often delve deep into
the code for the web tool, working to ensure that it accurately reads the user
input files. With the proper read, the code can then continue to identify the
associations of genes in the input file and output calculations done on the
genes based on the user’s preferences. In addition, I also work on the user
interface portion of the webtool. Furthermore, I test and analyze the code to
find ways to make it run more efficiently.
While writing the program, I discovered the
basic construction of genes and how they operate in the presence of a disease.
I learned the importance of understanding the basics of genetics and the
concerns for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis before preparing to write the code.
With the discoveries I had, I am able to understand more about the applications
of Computer Science and how it can be utilized to make progress in research.
