diff --git a/ai_ta_backend/vector_database.py b/ai_ta_backend/vector_database.py
index 752a6f8c..ada3898c 100644
--- a/ai_ta_backend/vector_database.py
+++ b/ai_ta_backend/vector_database.py
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 from tempfile import NamedTemporaryFile
 from typing import Any, Callable, Dict, List, Optional, Tuple, Union
 
-
+import ray
 import boto3
 import fitz
 import openai
@@ -1164,6 +1164,7 @@ def getTopContextsWithMQR(self, search_query: str, course_name: str, token_limit
       # count tokens at start and end, then also count each context.
       token_counter, _ = count_tokens_and_cost(pre_prompt + '\n\nNow please respond to my query: ' + search_query) # type: ignore
 
+      ray.init()
       filtered_docs = list(run(contexts=final_docs, user_query=search_query, max_time_before_return=45, max_concurrency=100))
       print(f"Number of docs after context filtering: {len(filtered_docs)}")