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We recently celebrated the achievements of students who took part in the School of Engineering’s Summer Internship Programme.
Now in its sixth year, the internship programme offers paid, project-based work experience to undergraduate engineering students across a range of our research, teaching and professional services activities, over 8-12 weeks during the summer.
This year we hosted 39 internships in the School, which were offered to undergraduate students between second and penultimate year following a competitive application process.
Organised by the School’s Industry Engagement Manager, Dr Katherine Cameron, the scheme allows students to gain practical insights into what goes on 'behind the scenes' at our School, and for some, a taster of PhD-level study.
Lighting presentations
At the halfway point of the internships, the students presented their projects to a lecture theatre audience of fellow interns and School staff at a specially organised event in the Sanderson Building.
Students were challenged to deliver their presentations in under two minutes, providing an opportunity to practice their public speaking skills, while distilling complex information into brief, engaging elevator-style pitches.
This was the first year since the Covid-19 pandemic that we were able to host the internships and the presentation event on campus, rather than remotely.
Prize winners
Following the presentations, a staff judging panel awarded first, second and ‘highly commended’ places and voucher prizes were presented by Head of School Professor Conchúr Ó Brádaigh.
Well done to all students who took part, and congratulations to the following winners:
- First place: Ewa Papiewska – “Experimental separation of proteins and biomolecules for the Chemical Engineering 3 laboratories and the Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering 5 course”
- Second place: Goda Pauryte – “In silico approach to screen separation materials for hemodialysis applications”
- Highly commended:
- Freya Bretton – “Synthesis and characterisation of non-precious metal catalysts for ammonia selective reduction”
- Isla Lister – “Building and evaluating tools for the analysis of complex 3D X-ray CT data”
- Sophie Whan – “Understanding the focusing behaviour of non-dilute particle suspensions in inertial microfluidics
Professor Ó Brádaigh commented “Our summer internships are a fantastic way to involve our undergraduate students in the world-leading research carried out in the School of Engineering, allowing them to participate as researchers and gain experience on some very exciting projects. I congratulate all of the interns on their progress and in particular the prize winners.”
