Category Archives: Information Technology

Digital Content Intern – Remote Dashboard

Advertising, Marketing and PR, Business and Management, Information Technology, Media, Publishing and Journalism, Student Business Partnership (SBP),

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

My main role was to create digital content for Remote Dashboard to post on their social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I researched topics that would be of interest to their clients, investors and business partners, and then wrote an article about it. There would be 2-3 articles published every week. Topics included the oil and gas industry, renewable energy, Internet of Things and battery/power solutions. If during my research I found a relevant article, I would send it over to the Digital Media Intern to share on social media channels.

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

I became more confident in my capabilities as an intern who is a part of the company. My line manager and the CEO both encouraged me to weigh in my opinions and speak for the company as I was a part of it.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I brought more traffic to their website, and spiked more interest in their content that was now created on the regular, while before this it was once every month or so.

Mathematics Module Development Assistant – University of Exeter (CEMPS)

Education, Teaching and Research, Employer Feedback, Information Technology, Manufacturing, Engineering and Processing, Mathematics, Student Campus Partnership (SCP),

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

To design and create a mathematics online-learning resource for engineering conversion course students as part of a small team. This involved planning and producing a zero-credit module on the ELE platform, selecting mathematical content to include, researching additional content, writing lectures and notes using ELE platform and LaTeX, creating quizzes and problem sheets to test understanding and liaising with academic staff to verify our content was correct.

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

I learnt how to plan, organise and time-keep a large-scale project. Our employers had no mathematical expertise, which gave us complete responsibility for the project’s quality and validity.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

My employer now has a mathematics e-learning resource that can be used by engineering conversion course students for multiple years to come. This content can also be sent out in file format to explain what the course will entail. In addition, it will be advertised among professors at the university as a learning/revision tool for first and second year students. It is also held by the university’s IT department as a leading example of a high-quality online learning and teaching resource created using the ELE platform.

Did you encounter any problems during the course of your internship and if so, how did you overcome them?

Firstly, I found myself tasked with producing content which I didn’t understand since the courses for mathematics and engineering students differs slightly. I overcame this problem by asking an engineering professor for a relevant textbook from the library and taught myself the content. I then wrote my set of lecture notes and gave it to my fellow colleagues who also had never encountered this content. They questioned bits that didn’t make sense and I made corrections until we all agreed the content was explained well.

Secondly, we had to decide what content to put in the module and how to structure it. Whilst the team had strong ideas of what mathematics we would need (such as Algebra, Calculus, Vectors, etc) none of us were engineering students. Our strategy was to seek advice from an engineering professor who made additional suggestions we hadn’t considered (such as Numerical Methods and Statistical Testing). The professor also offered us her module as a template structure for our content. This was later adapted and changed since we felt the structure could be improved.

“Evan has acted in a professional manner and remained focused on the project objective. As a result of this, he has produced some very high quality resources using a wide range technologies and the tools within ELE” – Line Manager

Eco-toxicology Development Programme – AstraZeneca

Biosciences, Employer Feedback, Information Technology, Science,

UoE Internships, University of Exeter Internships, SCP, SBP, GBP, A2I

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

My main role was to create and develop a Microsoft Excel database of historical control data to assist in the interpretation of eco-toxicology studies undertaken as part of the environmental risk assessment of new pharmaceutical products. I compiled hundreds of individual datasets from studies investigating the effects of pharmaceuticals and other chemicals on aquatic flora, fauna, fish and algae. The aim was to identify anomalies, assess overall variability and so determine warning and action limits for the variability within an individual experiment.

“Having Chris work on the project enabled the data to be collected to be collated in an effective way over a short period of time. We lacked the time and available resources to life the project off the ground and Chris has given complete commitment and focus to the research, as well as a keen eye for detail; which is exactly what we wanted” – Statistician, AstraZeneca

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IT Helpdesk Counter Assistant – University of Exeter

Employer Feedback, Information Technology, Law,

IT Internship, University of Exeter Internship, UoE Internship, SCP, SBP, GBP, A2I

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

My role involved giving front line IT support for students and staff. This encompassed a range of issues and enhanced my IT problem solving skills and communication skills.

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

I found the internship to be a great opportunity to gain real world experience within the workplace. It gave me the opportunity to engage in paid employment that is useful to my future career. I developed real world skills, used my knowledge to help others and developed professional skills within a supportive environment.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

My line manager relied on me heavily to make the IT help desk service work with the new opening of the forum. I provided extensive cover of the counter and helped with new ideas on how to support students in a more efficient manner, showing attention to detail and improvisational skills along the way.

“Without Thomas, the counter service in the Forum would simply not have been successful at all. I’m not entirely sure he’s aware of the value we place on him; however I do know that he’s been a rock for me. As a post grad he was more organised and willing to take on more responsibility, which he didn’t complain about and never rejected” – IT Team Leader

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IT Helpdesk Counter Assistant – University of Exeter

Computer Science, Employer Feedback, Information Technology,

SCP, SBP, GBP, A2I

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

The IT Help Desk is a professional front line service which is the first point of contact for supported computer hardware, software, IT account or other IT related issues; including telephony, audio visual and printing queries. I was based at the helpdesk counter in the Forum where students and staff could directly drop in with their IT queries.

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

As I came from a largely academic background, this internship taught me valuable customer service skills which are transferable to any job.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I adopted new working ideas quickly and was relied upon by my managers to support new members of the team.

“Sid was a flexible and adaptable member of my counter team, an example to his colleagues” – Line Manager

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Public Weather Service Placement Student – Met Office

Computer Science, Information Technology,

Universtiy of Exeter Internships, UoE Internships, SCP, SBP, GBP, A2I

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

During the course of my internship my main tasks included:

  • Updating website content and images
  • Improving search function on website
  • Gathering business requirements for a project called Climate Cloud
  • Gathering business requirements for a project that involved Mass SMS and Cell Broadcasting in an emergency event
  • Updating and improving the DataPoint webpages

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

Completing the business requirements for the use of Mass SMS Vs Cell broadcasting. This document was used to support a meeting that was held in the Cabinet Office, London.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I completed projects that wouldnt have otherwise been done and updated the website to make it more usable for the public improving the Met Office image.

Learning Spaces Admin Assistant – University of Exeter

Employer Feedback, Human Resources, Recruitment and Training, Information Technology, Psychology,

Universtiy of Exeter Internships, UoE Internships, SCP, SBP, GBP, A2I

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

Organising meetings, taking minutes, updating the AV inventory, creating and updating web pages, collating articles for the termly newsletter, assisting with examinations, booking rooms, etc.

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

I was able to learn a large number of different IT programmes.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I was able to reduce some workload pressure for my colleagues e.g. organising AV demos for staff at the university.

Did you encounter any problems during the course of your internship and if so, how did you overcome them?

The main problem I had was that I did not have enough work to complete. I spent time in with other teams assisting with additional tasks.

“Jennie was in fact shared between three pressured front line service areas and was so flexible that I’ve entered her for an Above and Beyond recognition award before she leaves” – Line Manager

Trainee Research Analyst – Sensian Research

Computer Science, Employer Feedback, Information Technology, Mathematics,

University of Exeter Internships, A2I

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

Creating a database of products in a specific market, data mining, market research and working with databases.

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

I have learnt to efficiently manage my time and work under limited supervision while achieving a specific goal. The experience of having a responsibility to someone else but me has prepared me well for future workplace practice, including things such as working towards deadlines and achieving the expected results to the highest possible quality.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I completed a large project of collecting market information and conducting market research which has saved the company huge amounts of time and effort. Also I believe as a student I brought my excellent research skills.

Did you encounter any problems during the course of your internship and if so, how did you overcome them?

I did find it extremely hard to manage my own time since I have been working remotely and having update meetings with my employer every week. However by the end of internship I believe I have learnt to estimate my abilities and productivity a lot better.

“Jekaterina was valuable as she enabled us to carry out research we would not have otherwise had time to do” – Peter Cooney

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Web Copy Editor – Infrastructure and Technical Services, University of Exeter

English, Information Technology,

Universtiy of Exeter Internships, UoE Internships, SCP, SBP, GBP, A2I

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

The main responsibility of my role was updating the College of Humanities’ research pages using the university’s content management system (CMS) – in particular their research centres, projects and networks.

My first main project was transferring the research centre websites into the University content management system for the REF assessment, so that our research output was as visible as possible. To begin with, I had to train in using the CMS, and completing a survey of existing pages. Updating the research pages then involved liaising with academics for material, sourcing images, designing webpages and figuring out how best to present the material.

Once I had some experience with the CMS, I was able to take on more varied work too. I liaised with the Web Marketing Officer and assisted her on several web projects. I also started to learn more about other systems such as the College database, ELE and WordPress and to assist others in my team.

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

I’ve learnt much more about programming and websites than I thought I would be able to take in when I first started. My biggest achievement was probably completing my first WordPress website using my new CSS skills.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

As my skillset widened, I was able to assist other members of my team in a variety of areas, spreading the workload and freeing them up to work on more specialist tasks.

Did you encounter any problems during the course of your internship and if so, how did you overcome them?

I think you will always come across problems when working through a project. Ideas develop and change as things progress. Some are big problems and some are just temporary setbacks that need to be worked out. As things move on, your idea of the project or what was possible to achieve with our systems might change. When this happened, I needed to liaise closely with different teams to make sure that everyone involved agreed on what outcome we wanted to achieve, and everyone was happy with it.

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