Internships

Internships

On the 3rd semester of the Master’s degree in Cognitive Science at Aarhus University, we go through an internship program. We have collected some of the experiences and outcomes here.

Prior experiences

Hedonia (Research group, Aarhus and Oxford)

How did you get your internship?

I worked on a project in the same group as an RA.

What was your ‘job role’?

Researcher

What did you end up doing/creating?

Researching Cluster possibilities in R and python.

What do you wish you knew before the internship process?

That Corona would force me to work from home for a lot of the time. Probably would not have changed anything though.

What was your general experience?

The internship was generally a great experience. I got to manage my self and my time a lot of the time. This worked great when I could be in the office, but when I was at home due to corona, it was a lot more difficult to get stuff done. I learned a lot and had a lot of time to investigate something very specific. Also my coworkers are really nice and helpful.

SAS + IMC

How did you get your internship?

teacher reference (SAS) and phd (IMC)

What was your ‘job role’?

consultant (SAS) + phd student (IMC)

What did you end up doing/creating?

sota danish sentiment analysis (SAS) and would have done application and customer implemtation if not for phd, where I did HPC Pipeline construction

What do you wish you knew before the internship process?

I really feel any lack of knowledge I had was due to uncertainty from covid so feel any answer here would not transfer

What was your general experience?

I have a broken hand so you get 1 ;) - general experience with SAS was very positive. Good environment and great help was present when needed.

Theoretical Neurobiology Group, UCL, London

How did you get your internship?

Micah Allen, who is related to the TNB in UCL, put me in contact with them and suggested I come by. I was very lucky to know him, and that he would set up the contact. It didn’t cost a lot for the TNB given that the internship was online.

What was your ‘job role’?

I was doing an independent research project with guidance from Karl Friston and the rest of the group attending the TNB meetings.

What did you end up doing/creating?

A simulation project looking at active inference on individual and group levels.

What do you wish you knew before the internship process?

That COVID stopped me from going and being abroad instead. And that I couldn’t use my office in Aarhus - it was tough be home so much. I should’ve started coming to university to work more.

What was your general experience?

It has been amazing to be part of the TNB meetings - something super cool every week. It has been difficult - lots of unfamiliar mathematics and technical things to learn! - but incredibly inspiring as well. Also amazing to be able to work with some of these really cool people, and it has definitely given me both some insight into academic work there, and some connections to some people I am very glad to know.

SODAS at Copenhagen University (center for social data science)

How did you get your internship?

Wrote an email and asked if I could be an intern

What was your ‘job role’?

Researcher

What did you end up doing/creating?

I was collaborating on a research project and learned a lot about the process of actually publishing research and doing pre-registration.

What do you wish you knew before the internship process?

What the content of the research I was going to do was.

What was your general experience?

I got to work on a project I didn’t find particularly interesting, which resulted in a somewhat lack of motivation (also amplified by having to work alone at home due the whole corona situation). The people at SODAS was nice and helpful, but also less invested in the project I was on, through out the most of the semester. So I was pretty much left to myself with a project i wasn’t motivated to do. That often felt like a bad experience, but I do think i learned a lot from it in the end.

Mindway AI

How did you get your internship?

Through Josh. Did some related stuff for my bachelor thesis.

What was your ‘job role’?

Very broad but gennerally based on research & data analysis

What did you end up doing/creating?

Rating manual for evaluating gambling data, scientific article, product testing and development, litterature reviews, LinkedIn post etc.

What was your general experience?

An internship was a great way of trying out my skills in a business context. Just grabbing the opportunity and the tasks that I thought was relevant worked really well for me!

Hoffman-La Roche (Switzerland)

How did you get your internship?

Through bachelor thesis supervisor’s contacts

What was your ‘job role’?

Data scientist

What did you end up doing/creating?

A research project on voice changes in depression: how good models can we create; what are the possibilities/challenges before clinical integration is possible

What do you wish you knew before the internship process?

I think most things were fairly clear. Would’ve mainly wished there was less corona..

What was your general experience?

Extremely positive. Was a great way to see what it’s actually like to work in a company doing the type of work I’m considering doing afterwards. There was great opportunity for mentorship/supervision: Hour long 1-on-1 session with supervisors has been invaluable and taught me a lot.