Joel Peterson is a cloud solution architect supporting the NIH Science and Technology Research Infrastructure for Discovery, Experimentation, and Sustainability (STRIDES) Initiative within the Center for Information Technology (CIT). He began his NIH career four years ago in the National Eye Institute before transitioning to CIT. Over the summer, he and his team mentored two Coding it Forward Civic Digital Fellows.
The STRIDES team's fellows, Annie Wang and Bob Zhao, spent the summer working on the STRIDES Initiative’s internet presence. They worked to make a website that had more information with a better user experience.
“Annie and I were trying to develop a website that has more in-depth information,” Zhao said.
The project was very collaborative, and Peterson knew they would need more than one skillset to get it done. Zhao spent more time working on the website engineering while Wang focused on design and user experience.
“They did remarkable work together,” Peterson said. “I think they brought out the best of each other.”
He also remarked on how well Wang and Zhao learned new concepts and implemented them into their projects, as well as how quickly they worked together to get things done.
Peterson was thrilled to have two fellows with his co-mentor, Nick Weber. “I reached out independently to the Office of Data Science Strategy and let them know that if they needed homes for more fellows, my team can take them,” he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused rapid changes to project plans this year, given that the fellowship is traditionally an on-campus experience. Jessica Mazerik, Ph.D., workforce programs director for the ODSS, worked with mentors to transition projects to a virtual environment.
“A huge part of why this cohort was able to be successful was Joel and Nick working with their teams to get solutions in place,” she said. The pair worked hard to ensure the 16 fellows—working from across the country—would have the tools they needed to successfully telework for 10 weeks.
It wasn’t surprising that Peterson was so willing to help transition students to a virtual experience. Peterson works remotely from Portland, Oregon, full-time, so “it was a no brainer” to help the cohort of summer fellows be productive.
When he forces himself to get up from his desk, Peterson spends time growing his own “victory garden” with at least 16 different fruits and vegetables.
The Office of Data Science Strategy at NIH works with institutes and centers and with Coding it Forward to bring fresh perspectives to tackle computational challenges facing the biomedical research workforce each summer. ODSS will feature fellows and mentors from the 2020 cohort throughout the summer. Meet Joel's co-mentor, Nick, and his fellows, Annie and Bob.
