Hello!
I am Varshita Kolipaka, a Computer Science Sophomore pursuing Research in Natural Sciences at IIIT Hyderabad. I am interested in contributing to nextstrain. Specifically, the ncov repository.
However, I’m interested in contributing to the other repositories too!
I discovered nextstrain as I was reading Genome evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and its virological characteristics and I was really intrigued by what’s being done here.
I have browsed through the Getting Started Guide and Genomic epidemiology of novel coronavirus - Global subsampling. It motivated me further to contribute to ncov. However, I am quite new to an organization like yours, so if a mentor could guide me on how I might be of use and help solve the issues, it would mean a lot to me.
I can comfortably use Python and Git, and I have a basic understanding of phylogeny. I am also open to contributing to the front-end of the visualizations and the website too.
GitHub: varshitakolipaka
P.S. I think it would be amazing if nextstrain could mark some issues as good-first-issues. It would really help new contributors to dive into the codebase with ease by solving simpler issues first.