Tag Archives: SCP

Employer Case Study: University of Exeter

Employer Feedback, Information Technology, Internship Schemes, Student Campus Partnership (SCP), , , ,

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter

Name of Employer: Amy Binner

Job Title: Senior Lecturer

Internship Scheme used: Student Campus Partnership (SCP) | Employer Engagement & Student Employment | University of Exeter

Feedback:

“The internship culminated in the production of complete and validated code for a pilot project and a well formulated protocol for scaling up the work.

Our intern took the lead on co-ordinating and bringing together six programmers from across three different institutions and organised live coding sprints which played a key role in progressing on the development and validation of integrated code. He succeeded at this intimidating task which required leadership, organisation, clear communication and listening, forward-planning and delegation skills.

It was great to have our intern, the experience was both productive and fun. He was a vital member of the project team and throughout the internship he brought a positive energy and passion for his work. He rose to the challenges of working in an international and cross-disciplinary team and adopted a flexible approach. I particularly appreciated his problem solving skills and his patient and unassuming approach to communicating solutions and transferring knowledge. I wouldn’t hesitate to work with him again in the future.”

Employer Case Study – Global Systems Institute

Administration, Education, Teaching and Research, Employer Feedback, Internship Schemes, Student Campus Partnership (SCP), , , ,

Name of Organisation: University of Exeter – Global Systems Institute

Name of Employer: Andy Richards

Job Title: Global Systems Institute Manager

Internship Scheme used: Student Campus Partnership (SCP) | Employer Engagement & Student Employment | University of Exeter

Feedback:

“Hosting the internship was an incredibly beneficial experience for both our organisation and the student. It was a productive four weeks, we were able to progress a piece of work that needed to come off the back-burner and the intern learnt new skills. An excellent win-win.”

Student Case Study: University of Exeter Internships Dept

Administration, Advertising, Marketing and PR, Degree subject, Education, Teaching and Research, Internship Schemes, Psychology, Student Campus Partnership (SCP), , , ,

Name of Student:  Harry Moreton

Degree Subject:  BSc Psychology

Job Title:  A2I Internships Administrative Assistant

Company Name:  University of Exeter Internships Dept.

Type of Internship:  Student Campus Partnerships (SCPs)  

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

Creating employer/student internship contracts
Maintaining email box
Updating spreadsheets
Creating some marketing posts/posters
Chasing essential paperwork

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

Nominated for student employee of the year and gaining valuable work experience with a fantastic team

Were there any challenges and how did you overcome these?

Working from home for the first time was something to get used too but this came with practice. Besides that, it was tricky once I broke my arm but was helped enormously by Hannah who was really understanding of my circumstances.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Organisation
  • Teamwork and collaboration
  • Communication
  • Time and workload management

Attributes Developed:

  • Motivation
  • Confidence
  • Independence
  • Work Ethic
  • Professionalism

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

A fantastic experience of which I would recommend (and have) to any student. You gain valuable skills alongside your degree that you would not get otherwise. I have since gone into an admin role through the GBP scheme and am using the skills I gained from this internship already. A fantastic department to work for full of great people, the experience ended too soon!

Student Case Study: Climate Emergency and Energy Intern

Education, Teaching and Research, Environmental Work, Geography, Internship Schemes, Physics and Astronomy, Student Campus Partnership (SCP), , , ,

Name of Student:  Janka van der Merwe

Degree Subject:  BSc Physics with Astrophysics

Job Title: SCP 6029 Climate Emergency and Energy Intern

Company Name:  University of Exeter

Type of Internship:  Student Campus Partnerships (SCPs)  

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

Conduct research of rainfall, doing analysis on rainfall observations in the Northern African/Sahel region.

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

Creating a report of the findings of the research.

Were there any challenges and how did you overcome these?

Working remotely was challenging, and making sure I did the right amount of hours each week. I kept up with this by going onto campus and joining a friend who was also doing an internship, where we would work together.

Another big challenge was the high level of knowledge that I had not entirely been experienced with, regarding the climate field. Luckily my supervisor gave me access to a few of his lecture slides on the code that I was working on, and that was really helpful. I would also google the keywords, and that gave me a much better understanding.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Organisation
  • Researching
  • IT

Attributes Developed:

  • Independence
  • Work Ethic
  • Professionalism

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

This internship opened my eyes to a field that seems so exciting and up-and-coming. It has allowed me to refine my career interests, and I feel more confident in what I want to do after my undergraduate degree. I gained valuable skills working in 2 different coding languages; Python and R. I have developed the skills to perform a rainfall analysis thoroughly, which has been engaging and interesting to learn. Discussion with my supervisor also gave me a wider understanding of what the results from the analysis mean, and what could further be investigated. I am proud to have identified that the Northern Sahel region has different dominant frequencies in their rainfall spectrum than the Southern Sahel, which has implications in understanding the two Hadley cells that occupy that space on Earth.

Student Case Study: Professional Pathways Administrative Assistant

Administration, Advertising, Marketing and PR, Archaeology and Anthropology, Education, Teaching and Research, Internship Schemes, Student Campus Partnership (SCP), , , ,

Name of Student:  Lucia Janigova

Degree Subject:  BA Anthropology

Job Title: Administrative Assistant

Company Name:  University of Exeter

Type of Internship:  Student Campus Partnerships (SCPs)  

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

Helping with the adminsitrative aspect of running the Professional Pathways programme. This included responding to student emails, recording data from applications and email correspondence, preparing for the training week and helping with running of the training week.

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

I believe my biggest achievement during my internship was the training week itself. We had to manage a lot of different parts of the programme while running it and for me personally it was challenging especially because of the high number of people we met, introduced to each other and in general made sure were enjoying the week while we were simultaneously responding to any issues that arose.

Were there any challenges and how did you overcome these?

Skills Learnt: 

  • Ability to Work Under Pressure
  • Organisation
  • Decision Making

Attributes Developed:

  • Personal Awareness
  • Work Ethic
  • Professionalism

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

My internship with the Professional Pathways was a great experience. I had the chance to meet amazing people and learn more about the behind-the-scenes work that goes into running such programme. I have personally learnt a lot, whether it be improving my written and spoken professional communication, managing my time around many small tasks and prioritising between them or putting my creativity into use to promote the programme. It was an all-round experience and a great opportunity to develop further professionally.

Student Case Study: Research Intern – Decolonising Environmental Science

Degree subject, Information Technology, Internship Schemes, Science, Student Campus Partnership (SCP), , , ,

Name of Student:  Burhanuddin Anis

Degree Subject:  Natural Sciences

Job Title: SCP6014 Research Intern – Decolonising Environmental Science

Company Name:  University of Exeter

Type of Internship:  Student Campus Partnerships (SCPs)  

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

Putting together python script to automate the scraping of scopus exports for key data involved in a systematic literature review pertaining to parachute science, particular the author affiliations and sites of study of various paleo-ecological studies.

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

Produces a fully documented and functioning script that automated a large part of the literature review, going through about 8000 results automatically, saving manual work.

Were there any challenges and how did you overcome these?

Often the code didn’t quite work the way we intended, returning incorrect data. Overcame these by sharing with my supervisor and co-worker, who helped troubleshoot and come up with lateral solutions to the problems.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Focus on Goals and Outcomes
  • IT
  • Researching

Attributes Developed:

  • Logical thinking
  • Independence
  • Work Ethic

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

Overall, my internship experience was excellent. I learnt a lot about working in an active research team, as I was able to see a project idea go from just that, to actively developing a methodology with my co-worker and supervisor, into having a large role in implementing this methodology. I greatly improved my confidence in communicating with a team and also greatly enhanced my knowledge of data analytics in python programming. I thought that it was particular good that I was able to actively suggest ideas to the development of the project, I felt that I was genuinely an equal contributor to the goal and this made the internship that much more fulfilling. Thomas Roland was a great supervisor and I’m grateful for his guidance and his willingness to trust my skill set!

Student Case Study: Science Research Assistant (Endangered Species)

Biosciences, Degree subject, Internship Schemes, Science, Student Campus Partnership (SCP), , , ,

Name of Student:  Amy Goymer

Degree Subject:  Biological sciences

Job Title: Science Research Assistant (Endangered Species) SCP 5967

Company Name:  University of Exeter

Type of Internship:  Student Campus Partnerships (SCPs)  

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

Carry out laboratory work to obtain DNA sequences for meat sold as ‘eel’ to evaluate whether endangered species were being utilised in eel sushi products. Then collate the data to synthesise a paper for publication.

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

Analysing enough samples to significantly contribute to the global collection (more than doubling it!) which will allow a much more rounded view of eel trade globally.

Were there any challenges and how did you overcome these?

Some samples were hard to collect usable data from due to being degraded by frying, cooking etc. But you just have to be persistent and go right from the beginning again and then some will just have a lucky round and give you results.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Ability to Work Under Pressure
  • Organisation
  • Leadership
  • Strategic Planning
  • Decision Making

Attributes Developed:

  • Logical thinking
  • Commercial Awareness
  • Confidence
  • Independence

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

This internship experience not only furthered my laboratory experience and was a good thing to talk about moving forward in my career, but also made me feel like I was contributing to global science as an individual rather than just learning things as a student. I also hope to publish the paper I wrote as part of the internship with help from my supervisor, which is a really cool outcome to reward the hard work put in. Ultimately, it was great to get paid for something that really interesting, fun, and allowed me to contribute to science.

Student Case Study: University of Exeter with Diego Marmsoler

Computer Science, Information Technology, Internship Schemes, Mathematics, Student Campus Partnership (SCP), , , ,

Name of Student:  Teddy Cameron-Burke

Degree Subject:  Computer Science and Mathematics

Job Title: SCP 6021 Research Intern

Company Name:  University of Exeter with Diego Marmsoler

Type of Internship:  Student Campus Partnerships (SCPs)  

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

Formal verification and automation of automata

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

Verified all machines necessary, and personally learned the isabelle programming language

Were there any challenges and how did you overcome these?

Steep learning curve to learn isabelle, which was overcome via example problems

Skills Learnt: 

  • Teamwork and Collaboration
  • Organisation
  • Leadership

Attributes Developed:

  • Creative thinking
  • Independence
  • Professionalism

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

Overall the internship was fantastic, I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the mathematics of computer science and or getting into cyber security. From the internship I have many new contacts within the university, and have managed to organise a third year project with the significant advantage of already knowing the programming language. My supervisor, Diego Marmsoler, was excellent at being on hand to deal with any problems I had during the internship and was very welcoming to me and my peers. The internship was challenging but that was what made solving each problem that much more rewarding!

Student Case Study: University of Exeter

Degree subject, Education, Teaching and Research, Environmental Work, History, Internship Schemes, Sector, Student Campus Partnership (SCP), , , , ,

Name of Student:  Emma de Saram

Degree Subject:  BA History

Job Title: SCP 5540 Environment & Climate Emergency Education Resources Intern

Company Name:  University of Exeter Climate and Emergency Team

Type of Internship:  Student Campus Partnership (SCP)

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

I interviewed 68 academics, staff and students on the University of Exeter’s engagement with the Sustainable Development Goals and used these interviews to create 19 Vodcasts based on the SDG’s for the University to promote.

What outputs and outcomes did you deliver for your employer?  

We provided 19 Vodcasts for the University, as well as a report summarising our findings of the University’s progress on each of the Sustainable Development Goals to be presented at the Education Executive meeting, and covering quantitate data, with our recommendations of what can be done next to achieve them and integrate the SDG’s into all aspects of University life.

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

My biggest achievement was learning how to create an informative dynamic video for promotional purposes. I managed to interview a broad range of lecturers and staff at the university, and transform this into a video through learning how to use software like iMovie, and working with the guidance of the design team. The result of adapting to this software and way of online working was the creation of the videos.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Ability to Work Under Pressure
  • Organisation
  • Leadership
  • Strategic Planning
  • Decision Making

Attributes Developed:

  • Logical thinking
  • Creative thinking
  • Independence
  • Work Ethic
  • Professionalism

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

“This internship has been without doubt one of the most rewarding experiences I have had. I was able to channel both my climate activism, creativity and organisational skills into creating 19 Vodcasts with the Climate and Emergency Team and my colleague, who is now one of my good friends! I learnt a huge amount from interviewing leading academics, and finding out about student projects. Although the internship was hard work, it all paid off, especially in the last week where we really saw our output come to life in the form of our first produced video.”

Student Case Study: University of Exeter

Degree subject, Environmental Work, Internship Schemes, Science, Sector, Student Campus Partnership (SCP), , , , ,

Name of Student:  Bryony Dennison

Degree Subject: MSCI Natural Sciences WIS

Job Title: SCP 5540 Environment & Climate Emergency Education Resources Intern

Company Name:  University of Exeter

Type of Internship:  Student Campus Partnerships (SCPs)  

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

Helping to create a compulsory climate literacy training course for staff and students at the university. This involved interviewing academics, researching content and discussing how to present this content.

What outputs and outcomes did you deliver for your employer?  

We produced the content for a 10 hour compulsory training course for the staff and students of the University of Exeter; this content is now being turned used to create a visually appealing module by an external company. It is hoped this module will lead to a greater understanding of the climate crisis, and therefore greater action among the university.

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

I was especially pleased with the content I produced for the ‘science of climate change’ section of the course. This was a one hour module covering topics such as the greenhouse effect and the carbon budget. As we will have a wide range of participants, I had to make this content accessible and engaging for those with differing levels of pre-existing knowledge. This was challenging, as many find this topic dull. I included interactive diagrams with definitions of scientific terms to avoid repetition of information those with scientific backgrounds would already be familiar with. I also embedded optional videos and interviews for the same purpose. A variety of small quizzes were also added to make content more varied. Although we have not yet received formal feedback from our outputs, I feel I have achieved the project briefs here.

What did not go so well on your internship? How did you overcome any challenges?

We needed to communicate with multiple academics who had expressed interest in being interviewed for or reviewing the project, many of whom did not respond to our emails at all or in a timely manner. This meant we had to be proactive in following up these academics and contacting alternative interviewees – this turned out to be positive, as we ended up receiving a more diverse range of participants. Similarly, at the end of the internship, we had not received feedback for all sections of the course. We had managed our time carefully to account for this delay and implemented several days to review the content of the other interns.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Ability to Work Under Pressure
  • Organisation
  • Leadership
  • Strategic Planning
  • Decision Making

Attributes Developed:

  • Logical thinking
  • Creative thinking
  • Independence
  • Work Ethic
  • Professionalism

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

“I was involved in producing the content for a climate literacy training course for the staff and students of the University of Exeter. This involved interviewing academics and writing content for a variety of topics including the science and effects of climate change. As a result of this opportunity, I have developed my video editing, project management and science communication skills, as well as becoming more confident. If I were to repeat the project, I would be more proactive in communicating with academics.”