Erin Rhoades joined the Unidata Program Center as a student summer intern on May 22, 2023. She is a professional meteorology major pursuing a minor in mathematics; she is in her fourth undergraduate year at Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU).
“I had always been fascinated with the weather since I was a child. My favorite childhood memories are watching Hurricane Central and amateur storm chasing with my father,” says Erin. “After a decade of working in Veterinary medicine, I decided to chase my childhood dream of becoming a Meteorologist and began attending MSU Denver in Fall 2020.”
During her coursework at MSU Denver, she discovered a passion for coding and data visualization, which led her to Unidata. “Unidata caught my eye because I wanted to be able to expand my knowledge of the coding world while helping others learn more about coding and the wonderful tools and resources Unidata has to offer,” she says. Erin also appreciated Unidata's focus on not only providing data services and tools, but on helping people learn how to use them. “This allows scientists to spend more time being scientists and less time being frustrated with the tools meant to help them,” she adds.
This summer, Erin plans to solidify her fundamental knowledge of Python and GitHub, working to develop several Cookbooks for Project Pythia. “These can help teach others the fundamental skills behind the code they contain and apply these skills to future projects.” she says. “I also look forward to exploring the Python side of Python AWIPS.”
Away from the computer screen, Erin likes to spend her time outside enjoying the peace and quiet nature has to offer, or inside cross stitching, playing video games, or baking.
Please join us in welcoming Erin to the Program Center for the summer!
