Welcome to the second instalment of our four-part blog series spotlighting our 2026 summer interns. In this blog, we’re introducing the next four interns, highlighting the innovative projects they’re working on and what they hope to achieve during their internship.
Daria Godorozha
Where and what were you studying before you started your internship?
Before I began my internship, I studied Law at KCL, then studied for an MSc in AI at QMUL, and am now completing an MSc by Research in Statistics at the London School of Economics.
What attracted you to apply to the Population Data Science internship programme?
I am very passionate about leading research and contributing to teams, especially within the healthcare domain. I won 2nd place at the Edinburgh BIO Hackathon and presented a poster at the AIBIO conference, where I worked with a lot of health data, which inspired me to transition into healthcare/public health. I also won a Multimodal AI hackathon and really enjoyed doing statistical analysis/working with data as part of my statistics/AI degrees. I also had experience leading AI research at Oxford and ETH Zurich, and I presented at various other conferences. I am driven by a desire to make an impact, and this project gives me a lot of autonomy to lead it (with the support of my supervisor/line manager and advisor, of course) for an organisation where it has the potential to create real value.
Could you tell us a little about the project you will be/are working on?
I am developing metrics/an evaluation framework for over merges, under merges and corrupted labels within the context of the data within the SeRP UK platform and SAIL Databank. This helps researchers/public health workers and other interest groups to have reliable data for their work.
What do you hope to learn, achieve, or contribute during your time with us?
I aim to either publish or produce production-grade code that will help the linkage team understand and remove errors in the data. I am also interested in the opportunities we have to engage with the Welsh Government.
Do you have a career in mind at the moment, and how do you hope the internship will help you towards that goal?
I hope to pursue a PHD in the health/life sciences sector with a focus on AI/statistics. I believe this is a very valuable opportunity to drive research and development within a team working with a real databank, and it can also support my goals of publishing, etc. My supervisor/line manager is so incredibly supportive I am so grateful to work with him.
Dylan Allen
Where and what were you studying before you started your internship?
Physics MSci at Imperial College London
What attracted you to apply to the Population Data Science internship programme?
Physics requires data analysis of experimental results, and I have always enjoyed that portion. I was also attracted to the chance to help people through my work. It is encouraging to know that the project I am part of will benefit people with dementia.
Could you tell us a little about the project you will be/are working on?
I’ll first help my mentor and line manager complete an ongoing paper which presents a large collection of MRI data from four different clinical sources. I’ll need to create visualisations of the data harmonisation and use ML models to confirm that data harmonisation improves performance for AI applications. (Harmonisation just means removing effects that are specific to one source). After that, I’ll be working on a project focused on sleep, with further details on that coming later.
What do you hope to learn, achieve, or contribute during your time with us?
I hope to learn how to handle myself in a professional environment. This is my first time working in an office job, so I want to gain experience working on a larger team and collaborating. Also, I hope to help the project leads and contribute solid work.
Do you have a career in mind at the moment, and how do you hope the internship will help you towards that goal?
I have a career in data science in mind, for example, particle physics is just data science in a particular context. I am also considering other options; either way, this internship will greatly benefit me. I’ll have experience in the field and transferable skills, which will have the employers salivating over me.
Ella Missenden
Where and what were you studying before you started your internship?
I have just finished my undergraduate degree studying geography at the University of Bristol.
What attracted you to apply to the Population Data Science internship programme?
Since I also completed the internship last year, when I saw the opportunity to continue the research I started, it was a no-brainer to apply again. The opportunity to work with real-world data on a project that may make a difference is an amazing way to gain experience in the data science field.
Could you tell us a little about the project you will be/are working on?
The project involves examining the role 20mph roads play in the impact of traffic-related injuries on children. Using Geographical information systems to link street network data and STATS19 data in Wales.
What do you hope to learn, achieve, or contribute during your time with us?
Over the course of the internship, I hope to expand on the work I completed last year, looking more into the specific effects of 20 mph roads on traffic-related road accidents. I also hope to further develop my skills in data analysis and GIS.
Do you have a career in mind at the moment, and how do you hope the internship will help you towards that goal?
In the future, I hope to do something with environmental modelling. This internship will help me gain experience working with GIS to map real-world data.
Gwenllian Davies
Where and what were you studying before you started your internship?
I graduated from the University of Exeter in July 2025, with an Integrated Master’s in Natural Sciences. Natural Sciences is a unique degree, especially at Exeter, as it allows students to study across all 3 sciences, maths and computing in our first and second years. In my final years, I then specialised in using applied mathematics and physics to address biological problems.
What attracted you to apply to the Population Data Science internship programme?
Having recently graduated, I am considering whether to pursue a career in research or industry. I’ve always enjoyed analytical work but was unsure whether I wanted to work with population-scale data. This internship therefore seemed like the perfect opportunity to explore both options. Additionally, data science skills are becoming increasingly important, this alongside the excitement I felt when reading the internship brochure, highlighted that this would be the perfect opportunity to strengthen my skills in a potential field of interest. What also attracted me was seeing how active (on LinkedIn, etc) the internship scheme seemed to be. The scale of opportunities was compelling, and I was excited at the prospect of being part of a community of interns, where we could learn from each other and experience our roles together.
Could you tell us a little about the project you will be/are working on?
My project ‘Investigating Cancer trends in Wales using routinely collected health data’ aims to use linked primary and secondary care datasets from SAIL data to investigate trends in cancer diagnosis and outcomes (mortality or recurrence) in Wales. Specifically, investigating the epidemiology of oesophageal disease progression, particularly the transition from Barrett’s oesophagus to oesophageal cancer. The analysis will investigate risk factors, disease progression patterns, and associated clinical outcomes.
What do you hope to learn, achieve, or contribute during your time with us?
I hope to gain experience working with large healthcare data and develop an understanding of how public health research can inform policy and improve population health. A goal of mine is to develop professionally by learning workplace etiquette and observing experienced researchers. I look forward to working in a professional research environment and understand how collaborative projects are conducted. By the end of the internship, I hope to have made a meaningful contribution to a project and produced a piece of work I’m proud of, potentially forming the basis for an insight that could inform future research or policy.
Do you have a career in mind at the moment, and how do you hope the internship will help you towards that goal?
I’m still exploring long-term career options. I am interested in population data science and scientific research more broadly while also considering pursuing a PhD. I hope this internship will provide the opportunity to work with a degree of independence and take ownership of my work, giving me a clearer understanding of what a career in research involves. In addition, I aim to develop transferable skills in data analysis, study design, problem-solving, and working with large-scale data, which will help guide my future career decisions.
For the latest updates on our Intern Programme, visit https://popdatasci.swan.ac.uk/about-us/summer-internship-programme/