Week 10 Blog

Thoughts on the Folding@Home's COVID-19 Activity:

Upon reading Folding@Home's COVID-19 Activity, I was extremely fascinated and intrigued with the work that they are doing in order to combat COVID-19. Delving into the structure of a protein, they expand on their primary goals of understanding how the viral COVID-19 proteins work and how they can design therapeutics to stop these proteins that suppress our immune systems and reproduce themselves.

Whilst reading about Folding@Home's work in the COVID-19 Activity and their discussion of proteins, I felt that there were many positive aspects that stuck out to me. I enjoyed their analogy to that of the game of football; I feel as though this really helped break down the importance of this activity to those reading the article. They note that the experimental structures are used as starting points and can be compared to a screenshot of football players lined up for the snap. Whereas, what is difficult to see and what they are trying to understand are the proteins' moving parts, which will allow for access to valuable information. The moving parts of the protein are compared to the rest of the football game. This analogy simplifies yet emphasizes the importance of the work that they are doing during this time. Furthermore, I was also drawn to Folding@Home's COVID-19 Activity due to their encouragement for others to contribute, as well as, their willingness to spread their knowledge and data through OpenSource. They noted that downloading Folding@home and helping run simulations is the primary way to contribute, which I think is fantastic! The more individuals on board with the activity, the more progress that can be collectively made. They also left links to their data and analysis, supporting others who may want to look at this information or even add to it.

Although I am slightly nervous about the timeline of this project, as it is stated that "These calculations are enormous and every little bit helps!" along with the actual testing that needs to be done in order to prove that these calculations are correct. This project may take a while before finding any therapeutics that will work. However, the article expresses that they have received an enthusiastic response to their COVID-19 work, as well as discussing their plans to get everything running as quickly as possible. I have hope that this activity will lead to positive outcomes; even if they are not able to find immediate therapeutics, I believe that it will be extremely helpful to have these therapeutics in the future!

Thoughts on the Visit by Gil Yehuda:

What Impressed You the Most and Why?
Upon the virtual visit to our class by Gil Yehuda, I felt extremely grateful that, even in these times, we were able to have someone so knowledgeable speak to us. I was impressed by his openness when speaking upon Imposter Syndrome. He expressed how he had felt Imposter Syndrome before and how he feels as though it is common in the tech industry as well. Hearing these struggles from someone who is extremely intelligent and well-respected in the OpenSource world was very comforting to me and radiated a feeling of empathy that made his presentation more compelling. As someone who has not only felt Imposter Syndrome throughout my life, but has also seen my own family, friends, and peers struggle with it as well, it alleviated some of the insecurities that I am consistently faced with. I believe it is extremely easy to underestimate one’s own intelligence and greatness, especially when faced with pursuing a field where everyone around you seems to have an abundance of knowledge on various topics, but as Gil stated, there are many people who feel this way and it is imperative that we recognize this. I feel that Gil’s visit was extremely informative and helpful, I believe it truly made a difference to us as students and showed that we should not worry about knowing everything there is to know about the tech field; more so, we should understand our value and consistently grow our knowledge as we continue to be a part of this field!

Progress on Gatsby Project:

As of last week, I was going to begin working on Issue #22446. However, unfortunately, I had a contributor who wanted to go forth with a pull request because it was a top priority for the week and they kindly asked if I would choose another issue.
Therefore, I have chosen Issue #22794! The issue involves writing documentation so that the new stats will also be noted in the doc telemetry. The individual who issued the ticket even links another issue in order to establish what the new stats are and what I will need to be referencing when writing the documentation. I have already started research on this issue and I am extremely excited about the progress that I have been making with it. The individual who issued the ticket included steps to resolve the issue, which simplifies the research and work that I will need to do in order to make a pull request and they even provide a link to the specific page that the added information about the new stats should be on. I also had a contributor tell me that they are welcoming my contribution and I can ask any questions that I need to! I plan on hopefully making a pull request within the next week.

Research I Have Done This Week/Contributions:

I have continued reading articles on Open Source this week! My favorite ones included: Hasura raises $9.9M Series A to simplify GraphQL for developers, Mozilla names long-time chairwoman Mitchell Baker as CEO, and Open Source Code Will Survive the Apocalypse in an Arctic Cave!

I have made contributions to Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap this week and have begun working on an issue for Gatsby! I will continue to make contributions throughout this following week.