The Population Data Science Summer Internship programme successfully concluded on Wednesday, 23rd of August 2023, with a Showcase Event held in the Data Science Building at Swansea University.
Throughout the summer, a cohort of eleven students benefited from the experience of working with multi-disciplinary teams across the Population Data Science group, working on a wide range of projects, from developing an interactive dashboard for MS to working on biomarkers as diagnostic tests for Alzheimer’s.
The Showcase Event, attended by the interns, their supervisors, academics, government policy advisors, and members of the public, gave each intern the opportunity to deliver a presentation about their respective project they had completed and their experiences over their internship.
Associate Professor Ashley Akbari, the Summer Internship Programme Lead, said, “It has been great to see our interns present the projects they have worked on over the summer. Their inspirational presentations covered various multi-disciplinary areas, including research, development, technical, and communication themes.
Our internship program continues to go from strength to strength. Following a brief pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we successfully resumed the programme this year, welcoming an exceptional group of interns to join our research teams.
The feedback from our independent judging panel, made up of academics, government policy advisors, and members of the public, highlighted the high quality and the impact of the projects completed by our interns.
Looking ahead to next year, we have ambitious plans to expand and enhance the programme further– and we look forward to applications from those interested in developing their expertise and experiences within our globally renowned Population Data Science group.”
Commenting at the Summer Intern Showcase event, Ashra Khanom, a Public Consumer Panel member, said: ‘I enjoyed the event. There was variety in the presentations, and the quality of the presentations was high. I would like to see similar events in the future. The highest quality presenters should be encouraged to present at other seminar events at the University and more widely where possible. I commend the mentors and the students for their hard work.’
Jan Davies, Public Consumer Panel member, added: ‘I was privileged to be a judge for this summer intern showcase event. The student presentations were excellent, and it was a difficult task to choose the winners.’
This year’s internship programme was supported by ADR Wales (Administrative Data Research Wales), Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank (SAIL Databank), Secure eResearch Platform (SeRP), Dementias Platform UK Data Portal (DPUK Data Portal), and the UK Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Register.
If you are interested in next year’s internships then please look out for further information which will be available in early 2024.