During the summer of 2025, BSIS student Zainab Salau joined Articulate Labs as a backend developer intern. The company, known for its wearable knee-rehabilitation system called KneeStim, tasked her with creating the data backbone that powers the device’s clinical insights. Salau’s experience bridges two worlds: the high-stakes arena of cybersecurity competitions she encountered with the student group SIGPwny, and the meticulous reality of building a normalized database for a regulated medical product. This blend of attack-surface thinking and methodical design became the guiding principle for every line of code she wrote.
Role, responsibilities, and technical output
Salau’s primary mission was to translate a sprawling clinical data dictionary into a coherent, multi-table schema. She first drafted an entity-relationship diagram that mapped each data element—patient metrics, therapist notes, device logs—to its logical place in the system. Using Python’s SQLAlchemy library, she materialized the diagram into a fully normalized database, ensuring referential integrity and efficient query performance. To make the data accessible yet secure, she built a thin Python GUI wrapper that enforced role-based permissions, allowing surgeons, therapists, researchers, and patients to export only the information relevant to their function.
How the opportunity surfaced and the collaborative environment
The internship arrived via the Discovery Partners Institute’s Summer Tech Internship Program, a channel Salau had been following since High school. When the program’s company list was released, Articulate Labs stood out because its focus blended hardware and health-tech—two arenas she was eager to explore. The position was based in Chicago’s mHub, the city’s largest hardware-innovation space, where dozens of startups coexist. Working side-by-side with engineers developing robotics, consumer gadgets, and other medical devices turned the office into a daily showcase of interdisciplinary creativity, and casual hallway conversations became a low-pressure way to broaden her tech vocabulary.
Skills gained and advice for future interns
Beyond mastering SQL queries and Python-based database management, Salau learned to navigate the delicate balance between data privacy and usability. Designing permission tiers forced her to think like clinicians and regulators simultaneously. On the soft-skill side, she discovered the power of proactive networking: reaching out to former professors, mentors, or even distant acquaintances can unlock introductions or references that turn a generic application into a targeted pitch. Her key recommendation to aspiring interns is simple—nurture relationships early, keep them alive, and never assume a connection has faded simply because it hasn’t been used recently.
