Week 6 - Midterm Presentation

​Week 6, with most of the backend finished, I began working on the web interface. During the first week, when Jesse and I discussed this project, we agreed that we wanted to use a Python web framework. We chose Flask, since it was simple to use and quite powerful. Since I haven’t done much web development before, I spent most of Monday and Tuesday getting aquatinted with Flask. I went step by step through a tutorial on Flask, and also brushed up on HTML and CSS. The idea for the web interface was to run the application as a service, meaning that python functions could be called from the url. This was pretty simple to do, and I started working on apreliminary interface (for a proof of concept) for the Geyer-MacCready plot generator.

The big event this week, however, was the midterm presentation. All the interns had to give a 5 minute presentation to their peers, mentors, and other scientists going over current progress on their project. I revised my slides that I showed at the group meeting last week and added a little more scientific context so my audience could more easily understand my project. I was the first one to present, so I was slightly nervous. To begin, I talked about the importance visualizing data with a physical context and the functions of both the Geyer-MacCready plot and the velocity profile plot. Then, I explained the functionality of my tool and how a user would interact with it. To finish, I included the mockup images for the interface to visually demonstrate how the tool would work. Afterwards, I answered some questions about file formats for the interface and the need for beta-testers. Overall, the presentation was a very good experience, and I also enjoyed hearing about the other interns’ projects.