Current Projects:

CT Protocol Optimizer

For this project I am creating a user interface which allows users to create new CT protocols by adjusting settings called acquisition parameters. These settings need to be adjusted to account for patients of all sizes. My tool includes logic to optimize these protocols as users are creating them, ensuring a smooth workflow. In addition, my tool autofills information from previous CT protocols to further improve efficiency. After users create a protocol, this protocol is then saved in a MySQL database, hosted through AWS. I have built out all of this infrastructure and we are currently working on inputting data into the database.

Medical Physics Paper

I am working on a project to show the impact of medical physics on the image quality of CT scans over time. This project includes lots of statistics, including a large data pool gathered from decades ago. I have written a script to process and clean this data, and to pull useful information which we can use for our statistics. After calculating these statistics, I created graphs to visualize the data. I am currently working on writing the paper for this project, putting the graphs I generated side by side for comparison.

Reflection

Working at this lab has taught me how to solve problems independently. Since I am the only programmer at this lab, when I have a problem, I have to create a solution myself. I have found this environment very exciting since I am able to set up the coding infrastructure for this lab. For example, I was able to set up an AWS account to host our databases where we store CT protocol information.

I have also developed a clear workflow on how to manage a programmer to client relationship. In this lab, the head of the lab acts as a client, and gives me a rough idea of what he wants. My job is to implement this idea, while trying to keep the result as close as possible to his idea. In the beginning, I found it hard to navigate this relationship since there were some situations where I didn’t fully understand what the idea was, thus leading to a product which he wanted altered. I began to learn the importance of clearly asking what each problem was, and asking follow up questions to clarify anything I wasn’t sure of.

I was able to apply this type of thinking towards other areas of my coding skills. For example, when coding in groups for a class project, I learned to ask these same follow up questions to my team members to make sure that we were all on the same page.