Category Archives: Science

Employability and Work Placements Support Officer – University of Exeter College of Life and Environmental Sciences

Access to Internships (A2I), Administration, Biosciences, Hospitality and Event Management, Human Resources, Recruitment and Training, Science

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

I was planning, organising and arranging employability events which included inviting speakers, arranging logistics, promoting to students and hosting events. Aside from this, I was processing work placement paperwork for employability modules, writing the college student newsletter, meeting with academic colleagues to review and plan college employability provision, and training other team members on the work placement processes.

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

I gained confidence in event management, administration, and the office environment.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

The CLES employability team only consisted of myself and my line manager. I played a key role in organising events and processing work placements. Without my role, the team would have struggled to function.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Negotiation, ability to work under pressure, networking

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Commercial awareness, logical thinking, professionalism

Research Support Intern – University of Exeter, Penryn

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

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

Maintaining incipient termite’s colonies by adding wood to feed them, and water and moist cloth to keep the colonies from drying out. I monitored them as they grew, changing their containers when needed.

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

Until recently, I had never had to independently maintain a study species in the lab before outside of my own degree. I had a lot of responsibility on my shoulders, and I did not take this lightly, taking steps to plan in advance when I was away or as colonies developed to make sure they were stable.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

They now have stable lab kept termite colonies for use in their research, which may not have been possible without me due to their commitments over this summer.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Assessing and managing risk, decision making, degree specific skills

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Perseverance, independence, work ethic

Research Assistant – University of Exeter College of Life and Environmental Sciences

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

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

My main role for the duration of this internship was to organize and carry out data collection in the labs. This included participant recruitment, lab booking, and the setting up and running of the CODA equipment and software we used. Once data was collected I was responsible for its processing and analysis too. During this internship I was also required to carry out a lit review in order for writing of an academic paper on the symmetry of gait.

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

I was able to work independently in the lab with the CODA equipment without the aid of my supervisor. I was also able to teach others who joined the research team how to use the equipment too.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

My ability to independently lead a team in the lab and collect the data needed allowed my supervisor to work on other areas of the research at the same time, allowing work to progress smoothly.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Leadership, organisation, CODA equipment and software skills

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Confidence, motivation, logical thinking

Research Assistant – University of Exeter College of Humanities

Education, Teaching and Research, Environmental Work, Geography, Geology, Mining, Environment and Natural Resources, Science, Student Campus Partnership (SCP)

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

I assisted with the geophysical survey in the Bishop’s Palace gardens. This involved laying out grids, carrying out both Resistivity and Magnetometry surveys. I was then responsible for sorting out the visual results for the written report.

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

I gained confidence in carrying out 2 types of geophysical surveys, both key for professional archaeological work.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I was able to assist Professor Creighton in one of his research projects, helping him save time as he transitions to head of the department.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Strategic planning, teamwork and collaboration, degree specific skills

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Confidence and independence

Animal Care Assistant – RSPCA

Access to Internships (A2I), Animal Care, Biosciences, Charity and Development Work, Science

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

Monitoring the welfare of all animals in the care of the RSPCA Cornwall branch. This included dogs of many different breeds, cats, and wildlife. I was also responsible for maintaining a high standard of cleanliness in various kennels and cages. I helped to carry out health checks, pre-adoption checks and sat in on vet rounds. I was also involved in enrichment for the animals, which involved walking the dogs and playing with the cats and kittens.

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

I was able to learn what it was really like working in the animal sector, which has really helped me to think about my future career. I feel I became more independent over the course of my internship, finding I was able to take initiative if faced with a problem.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

The staff are stretched very tightly at the moment and I feel I was able to make the hours when I was there less stressful for them. Some days I was responsible for cleaning entire blocks by myself which meant that the member of staff who would usually do this was able to sort out any problems or urgent paperwork.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Ability to work under pressure, organisation, time and workload management

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Initiative, independence, work ethic

Intern Energy Consultant – JRP Solutions

Access to Internships (A2I), Business and Management, Energy Engineering, Engineering, Management and Consultancy, Mining and Minerals Engineering, Mining, Environment and Natural Resources, Science

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

The main roles where contacting clients, creating business plans for potential company ventures, creating clear pitches for the company to take to clients, creating educational material and designing sheets within excel to create reports for senior management at the company’s client businesses. The biggest of these were the educational material and the reports for senior managers. The educational material was in the form of a booklet which would teach managers and other employees about energy management and energy usage. The report designed within excel was an executive summary of energy saving solutions identified and the savings associated with them.

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

I became more confident in communication with senior management teams and became highly proficient in excel.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I helped to lighten the workload of significant projects within the company and lead my own projects which would otherwise have been left at the bottom of priorities and possible never completed.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Teamwork and collaboration, problem solving, negotiation

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Perseverance, creative thinking, work ethic

Research Assistant – University of St Andrews

Access to Internships (A2I), Animal Care, Biosciences, Computer Science, Education, Teaching and Research, Information Technology, Science, Science, Sport and Health Sciences, , , ,

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

My role was to assist primarily with the data collection aspect on a project studying working memory in New World monkeys. Every day I tested brown capuchin monkeys on their ability to remember the location of food items in the specialist research facility at Edinburgh Zoo. I also assisted with reliability coding of data already collected for different projects and collected long term, observational data on chimpanzees.

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

I learnt how to work with capuchin monkeys in close proximity and conduct experimental, cognitive research with them. This is an extremely valuable skill for me and is a very rare opportunity to have. It will aid me immensely with a future career and further education in the field of primate research.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

As I was responsible for the data collection on this project, this allowed the principle investigator (PI) to have more time to carry out other tasks he would otherwise not have had the time to complete. My presence was also beneficial when the PI was unable to carry out data collection himself due to time away from the research site. I also spent a lot of time entering data on another project which no one had time to do before I joined.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Assessing and managing risk, IT, research

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Confidence, initiative, perseverance

eDNA Laboratory Internship – Applied Genomics

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

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

During the course of the internship, my main role was to carry out general laboratory duties and perform eDNA testing on a variety of species from various locations. I was allowed to be completely hands on and I took part in all of the testing services that they have available as well as some of their research and development which consisted of some field work and gathering data. I also analysed various scientific journals to aid their research projects for further development.

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

I learnt a huge amount in regards to the business, industry and general day to day tasks that are required within an eDNA business. I also gained a huge amount of laboratory skills working 1-1 with a very skilled technician.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I aided in their research as well as assisted in the laboratory to complete daily sampling tasks.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Problem solving, focus of goals and outcomes, networking

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Confidence, motivation, independence