Category Archives: Science

Ambios – Employer Case Study

Access to Internships (A2I), Employer Feedback, Environmental Work, Geography, Geology, Graduate Business Partnership (GBP), Internship Schemes, Science, ,

 

Name of Organisation:  Ambios

Description of Organisation: Ambios Ltd provides nature conservation training in UK and EU via traineeships and volunteering opportunities. Our Mission is to ‘provide inspirational education, practical action, science and technology training and volunteering opportunities in nature conservation in the UK and abroad.’ We help people achieve their goals for nature, science, education and employment.

Name of Employer:  Simon Roper

Job Title: Director

Internship Scheme used:  A2I, SBP

Employer subsidies (A2I) – Employment Services – University of Exeter

Student Business Partnership (SBP) – Employment Services – University of Exeter

Feedback:

We recruited a Carbon Offset Project Development Officer and were very impressed with how prepared they were for the workplace.

Our Intern looked at our carbon footprint in relation to our European mobility programmes. She proved to be an excellent asset to our organisation producing quality outputs which challenged our thinking, and which signposted an urgent need for change.

We recommend the University of Exeter Internship Scheme to other companies. It is very well managed and implemented.  We thoroughly enjoyed taking on an intern and hope to host more in the future.

Quote from Intern:

“I carried out internet searches on the potential options and finally found documents which enabled me to work out the values. As a result, I demonstrated to Ambios how harmful flying is and they are now looking at changing the business model to less harmful methods of travel or looking at generally less movement- perhaps focusing the work of the projects to the UK rather than abroad. Also they are looking at planting trees because I presented the positive benefits of this apart from just offsetting- air quality, water quality, biodiversity, mental health etc.”

 

Seasons Ecology -Employer Case Study

Access to Internships (A2I), Employer Feedback, Environmental Work, Internship Schemes, Science, ,

Name of Organisation:  Seasons Ecology

Description of Organisation: Seasons Ecology is an ecological consultancy providing expert technical support on a range of development and conservation projects. There is a Bath and North East Somerset team as well as, another team of ecologists in Somerset West, Taunton and Devon who all work out of our office in Wiveliscombe, however, we work nationwide, providing services across the country.

Name of Employer: Hannah Maben

Job Title: Director

Internship Scheme used:  A2I

Employer subsidies (A2I) – Employment Services – University of Exeter

Feedback:

We recruited an intern to work as an Assistant Ecologist. She was able to accompany staff on surveys and assist in preparing technical reports which was extremely helpful as its freed time up for senior colleagues. Our University of Exeter student was fantastic, she was prepared for the workplace and worked well within our team.

She is returning to university to continue her studies; however, we hope she will keep in touch and would encourage her to apply for any appropriate roles we have when she graduates.

Exeter University’s Internship Scheme has been a great experience. Being able to provide an enthusiastic student with an opportunity to gain experience during our busy summer season has been rewarding on many levels for all involved. Thank you.

3CUBED Search – Executive Search Consultant

Administration, Business and Management, Human Resources, Recruitment and Training, Information Technology, Science, Student Business Partnership (SBP)

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

  • Headhunting
  • Interviewing and pairing the right people, personalities and skills sets to fantastic job opportunities across the globe
  • Screening candidates and drawing up shortlists of candidates for clients to interview
  • Organising interviews both phone and face to face
  • Helping applicants to prepare for interviews
  • Building relationships and rapport with clients and candidates.
  • Negotiating offers and contracts

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

I have had to teach myself a lot of about backend development, full stack development and the programming languages associated with Senior Engineers. Having not come from a technical/comp sci background I would have never learnt this in a classroom. In addition, I have learnt how to evaluate the skill level and quality of experience of a person through just an initial phone conversation.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

My internship lighted the workload of the rest of my colleagues and I brought in a new pool of very talented Senior Engineers & Backend Developers in the UK and US. I also have a few candidates in their final stages of receiving offers which would increase my company’s profit.

Physical Education/ School Games Assistant – St Luke’s School

Access to Internships (A2I), Biosciences, Education, Education, Teaching and Research, Leisure, Sport and Tourism, Science, Sport and Health Sciences

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

Roles included teaching and leading a variety of primary school P.E lessons and assisting two big sports activity days and St Luke’s Science and Sport College

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

Improved my skills to communicate to children and fellow work colleagues. I improved my ability to perform under pressure when teachers from schools were watching me teach Physical Education.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

The employer had extra needed help to run a sports activity day for 500 primary school children. The employer increased his networking through the University.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Problem solving, leadership, decision making

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Confidence, motivation, work ethic

Research Assistant – University of Exeter

Biosciences, Education, Teaching and Research, Health Care, Science, Science, Sport and Health Sciences, Student Campus Partnership (SCP)

Full Frame Shot of Abstract Pattern

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

I was tasked with exploring a model of single hair follicle dynamics with focus on hair growth and its primary factors. This role had a number of central goals:

– To verify previous results in the MATLAB software package Matcont, seeking accuracy and precise conclusions.

– To write code that enables results to be easily repeatable.

– To further explore the model parameters and develop insight into how they relate to future refinement of the model, and what it reveals about hair follicle dynamics

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

I greatly developed my familiarity with MATLAB – something I’ve only really used at a surface level before. Spending extensive time debugging code written by myself and others has helped me to improve my ability to write functional scripts. I also gained a greater insight into the day-to-day reality of research. I am now more familiar with the process of learning and building towards a defined, specific output. With this has come a greater appreciation for the unpredictable ebb and flow of progress when trying to breakthrough a barrier in understanding.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I hope that my verification of past results is a useful resource, one that strengthens confidence in the assumptions upon which the model is founded. With this done, in a repeatable piece of code, it supports further divergence from the prototypic case to a more advance and detailed model (or a model with a different focus). New results regarding the parameters of the model provide a more complete picture of how the model may react to change/stimulus. With these in hand, conclusions can be drawn about which parameters are key influences, those in which change elicits dramatic variation in model dynamics.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Teamwork and collaboration, focus on goals and outcomes, degree specific – coding for dynamic modelling

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Perseverance, logical thinking, independence

Fingle Wood Research Intern – University of Exeter CLES

Biosciences, Education, Teaching and Research, Geology, Science, Science, Student Campus Partnership (SCP)

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

I was working with mapping software delineating catchment boundaries, sdding pour points to tributaries and analysing the results of various imagery of Fingle wood to determine the type of vegetation that is and has been growing over the Fingle Woods area.

Also, I was spent a day ground-truthing the areas which were under analysis soon to cross reference. On this day I would check probes in the area and calibrate where necessary to ensure accurate data capture.

At the end of the project having finished Fingle Woods to a stage completion was able to work on another project involving urban flooding and cities holding water and avoiding runoff. This project was focussed on the area of Taunton.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

Having been able to get a reasonable understanding of the GIS technology and also an idea of what is involved with the progression through the environmental sector. What it takes to be an environmental consultant today. Working with complex data projects in the direction of water improvement.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I was able to complete the project to a reasonable standard that could be handed over for further manipulation by another GIS operative or researcher. I was able to problem solve and come up with possible solutions to current problems on GIS software. Also, brainstorming on anomalous probe results that show inconsistencies between live and compiled data.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Communication, ability to work underpressure, decision making

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Confidence, motivation, creative thinking

Research Assistant – Coldhabour Mill Trust Ltd

Access to Internships (A2I), Biosciences, Education, Teaching and Research, Environmental Work, Geography, Science, Science

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

My responsibilities were to research the mill pond on the site to support a 1.8M renovation project and grant bids. The main details they wanted to know about the pond was, when it was built, how it was built and how it was used. To conduct this research I worked both at Coldharbour and visited local archives.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

I was able to conduct research outside of a university classroom, and had the opportunity to go to archives and see the source material myself.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I was able to find out when the pond was roughly built, and also provide a list of areas of future research so the next researcher would have a starting point. Despite the fact I found little evidence, what I did find was actually rather fundamental to the grant bids.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Problem solving, ability to work under pressure, focus on goals and outcomes

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Motivation, cultural awareness, independence

Work experience – Animal Plant Health Agency

Access to Internships (A2I), Biosciences, Science, Science

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

I shadowed various employees within their microbiology laboratory at Starcross, Exeter to gain a better idea of what their job roles required and the daily running of the business. I had the opportunity to watch multiple post mortems on various animals performed by vets and also got to observe the identification of various bacteria’s using different equipment. Health and safety was important for this role so each day I would ensure I was wearing correct PPE and following the specific protocols for each laboratory room, as each room had different requirements depending on the samples they were handling.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

It gave me a chance to network with employers with employers if the industry and gain a better understanding of what the job role would entail.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Organisation, assessing and managing risk, time and workload management

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Commercial awareness, confidence

 

Research Support Intern – University of Exeter CLES

Business and Management, Education, Teaching and Research, Geography, Geology, Psychology, Science, Student Campus Partnership (SCP)

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

My main role was recruiting and meeting with participants to take some data from them, and showing them how to use an app, as well getting feedback from them in a follow-up meeting a month later. I also collated this data, and helped to contribute to a research paper by analysing some qualitative responses and adding the introduction section. Moreover, I promoted the research at various events including the Staff Wellbeing Day.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

I think my biggest achievement was being able run a small research collection study quite independently – I was daunted before starting it about the task at hand so have proved to myself it is possible.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I think it lightened the load of other members of the department who are more senior, as they had numerous projects, teaching etc. going on.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Ability to work under pressure, organisation, IT

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Initiative, motivation, logical thinking

Cognitive Abilities of Grey Squirrels Intern – University of Exeter

Animal Care, Biosciences, Education, Teaching and Research, Geography, Science, Science, Student Campus Partnership (SCP)

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

Coding videos and preparing the different nuts for the experiment and placing the cameras and replenishing the nuts in the apparatus.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

I learned a lot in terms of analysis of data collected from animals and in particular using a Behaviour Observation software which has made me more confident in my ability to analyse different types of data in different circumstances.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I managed to help with creating a buffer of chopped nuts so that more time could be spent for marking the squirrels and analysing the information, I completed a third of the video analysis of the project which alleviated the workload of the other team members by leaving them to do only two thirds of the analysis.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Teamwork and collaboration, ability to work under pressure, IT

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Confidence, initiative, motivation