Original PDF version on figshare
- Introduction
- Philosophy
- Numbers behind the program
- Types of Projects
- Benefits for Interns
- Intern Feedback and Awards
- Benefits for Researchers
- Supervisor Feedback
- Project Example - Genomics
The Research Computing Platform (RCP) is a collaborative, multi-disciplinary lab that supports and advocates for researchers and their computational research needs at WEHI.
RCP has established the Discovery Internship Program, a 100% remote, unpaid internship program. We did this to leverage the experience we have in the RCP of working with student software interns by collaborating with labs.
To ensure interns receive course credit, we prioritise recruiting them through official programs at the University of Melbourne, as this is an unpaid opportunity.
Sometimes, students who are unable to receive course credit express strong interest in volunteering as open-source software contributors. In these cases, we focus on ensuring a mutually beneficial experience.
There are three intakes during the year, Semester 1, Semester 2, and Summer.
We aim to share the information from our current interns to our future interns. This is why we ask our interns to provide a summary report at the end of the intake.
We are constantly trying to improve the experience for our interns and always appreciate feedback.
While our most consistent feedback is to have an in-person work environment, we are only providing 100% online work environments.
Image of Interns at RSE Parkville lunch that happens on the second Thursday of each month in the pdf version.
It is important for interns to understand the high-level concepts of the domain the intern is working in. This increases the independence of the intern to work through complexity.
Image of a person holding a compass in a outdoor forest backround in the pdf version.
Interns need to recognise the limited time they have and what they can achieve. This is why documentation is key to ensure information is passed to future interns.
Image of a laptop with some code on it in the pdf version.
The ability to learn quickly by doing your own research is important. Finding out how fast you learn and where your limits are, in a safe space, can help you to know yourself better.
Image of someone jumping from a high place and the background is an orange sky and a lake from the pdf version.
There are multiple internships running at the same time. We encourage interns to collaborate within projects and across sister projects (similar projects) via co-working meetings.
Three people standing and sitting around a desk with laptops talking about a project from the pdf version.
- 80+ project teams
- 200+ interns
- 4.7/5 rating by interns
- 31 different projects
- 0.5% intern failure rate
- 52.34% female & non-binary
There's a graph of total students by intake which is cumulative the numbers are:
- 1 - Semester 2 2021: 4
- 2 - Summer 2021/2022: 8
- 3 - Semester 1 2022: 12
- 4 - Semester 2 2022: 22
- 5 - Summer 2022/2023: 37
- 6 - Semester 1 2023: 56
- 7 - Semester 2 2023: 75
- 8 - Summer 2023 / 2024: 104
- 9 - Semester 1 2024: 131
- 10 - Semester 2 2024: 169
- 11- Summer 2024/2025: 214
We have worked on a few AI projects, including large language models like ChatGPT for chatbots and AI-assisted 3D model creation. We are also looking at federated / swarm learning options.
Image of a Android that looks like a human being with part of the head exposed to show the circuitry beneath on a futuristic background in the pdf version.
We’ve worked on many web-based research applications that assist both researchers and platforms, helping to scale and streamline processes for better support.
Image of a Android tablets list of applications in the PDF version.
We are developing research data management tools that go beyond compliance, helping researchers manage and streamline their data on a daily basis for greater efficiency.
Two large piles of paper that not sorted correctly in the PDF version.
We’re also looking to the future with our quantum computing project, creating mini-courses for biologists to understand quantum computing using publicly available resources.
Image of a person running on a flat surface out in nature with Mountains clouds and blue sky in the background from the PDF version.
There are many benefits for interns in this program to help them progress in their careers by giving them opportunities to grow and learn in a safe environment and achieve their potential, which builds confidence.
Many interns start the program having some level of technical skills, but very little understanding of how important it is to know the nuances and concepts of the work environment and domain knowledge.
This is why we give them the time to research the concepts and give them feedback on how to refine those concepts.
Interns are provided with honest feedback to show where their skills and abilities place them, what kind of organisation they might be a good fit with, and how they can improve during and after the internship.
Interns also get the opportunity to learn real-world skills such as keeping meeting notes, documentation, learning how to communicate, and giving presentations.
Interns also get the opportunity to deal with realistic data and real world problems, where the answers and the technical solution is not so clear as in their coursework.
Interns are encouraged to self-direct during the internship. Balancing what the intern wants to do and benefiting WEHI is a great example of a fantastic project.
All in all, interns have the opportunity to leave the internship with an improved sense of confidence that they have the ability to handle new environments and domains, even if they haven't worked in that area before. This is the best outcome we can hope for as supervisors.
Image of four people in a Zoom call - Top L-R: Youran Zhou, Marika Benetti-Hille. Bottom L-R: Rowland Mosbergen, Gilbert Putra.
We are delighted when we get feedback from our interns, we are even more delighted when that feedback helps us improve the program or tells us how much they have enjoyed it.
Here are some examples of the anonymous feedback we have received:
The best part of the internship was being in a real consultant position, where it was not straightforward to grasp the concepts and needs of our client/stakeholder. This experience challenged my ability to think critically and take initiative with actions.
The autonomy to find the areas we want to focus on but having the guidance needed to achieve success.
As one of the earlier participants, I’ve had countless people reach out to ask me about my experience with the program, and after completing it, they always share how much they’ve benefited from it. To this day, I still find the lessons I learned during the program immensely valuable.
The success of the program resulted in Rowland Mosbergen winning the Kellaway Excellence Education Award for 2024.
We also ensure we ask interns for constructive criticism both in their final presentation and anonymously.
Thanks to student feedback we have:
- added a graduation ceremony,
- created a self-assessed skills matrix of all interns to help share intern skills,
- linked projects to ensure more connection across groups, and
- provided certificates of completion.
Image of Rowland Mosbergen holiding the Kellaway Excellence Education Award he won in 2024.
The internship program helps researchers explore technical solutions, experiment with designs, and tackle interesting challenges like visualising diverse research data.
Picture of a person looking through thin transparent material from the PDF version.
Testing and documentation keep research software reliable and usable. Interns add value by spotting gaps experienced users may miss, improving clarity and functionality.
A word cloud on a piece of paper with the words multicultural, learner, instructions, individualized, achievement, universal, and other words from the PDF version.
Interns help create proof of concepts, demonstrating to grant bodies that you've explored the problem and challenges, increasing the chances of success if funded.
Image of a person wearing blue gloves with a series of medical vials in a tray from the PDF version.
This program runs like a micro-PhD, fostering independence, critical thinking, and proactive problem-solving. We have had 2 interns pursue PhDs after this internship.
Picture of a brown woman looking at her monitor from the pdf version.
We are also delighted to get feedback from our supervisors who range from postdocs to lab heads.
Here are some examples of the feedback we have received:
The RCP Student Internship Program was an invaluable resource for my work. With the dedication of three talented students, my R package, schex, was brought up to full Bioconductor compliance, saving me significant time and effort. Their contributions not only improved the package’s functionality but also ensured its robustness for the broader community
Dr Saskia Freytag, Lab Head
The students undertaking the Genomics Metadata Multiplexing project for the Genomics lab greatly helped us improve the usability of our spreadsheet merging app. We provided the students with our rough albeit working prototype, and they were able to create a fully functional R shiny front-end that streamlined and improved the usability of our tool, saving us time and effort in creating and consolidating sample sheets.
Dr Marek Cmero, Senior Research Officer
It’s been great to have been part of the Clinical Dashboards project. It’s an important initiative that allows students to apply their data science skills to develop tools to address real-world healthcare challenges. I think students can gain valuable insights by working in project teams, and applying design thinking, and learning health system approaches to the challenges of real-world data. These skills are becoming increasingly required in an increasingly data-driven world.
This initiative is really a first for WEHI and can form an important part of the institute’s program to increase engagement in clinical research.
Dr Ashley Ng, Senior Research Officer
Working with the internship students on the AIVE project has been a fantastic opportunity for our lab. The students have engaged amazingly well with the project’s complexity and the development goals for the software and resources. Having a wide range of student backgrounds and skills has allowed us to explore different goals both in terms of feasibility and accessibility of the project to new comers and non-experts in image analysis. This input has also had a crucial impact on the direction of the AIVE project as we plan and adapt our scope into the near future.
Importantly, being able to work with the internship students has also helped me learn and grow as postdoctoral researcher. I have really appreciated the opportunity to improve my own skills in research software development and planning.
Dr Runa Lindblom, Post-Doctoral Researcher
The students who engaged with the BioNix project have demonstrated excellent enthusiasm and ability to learn new concepts. Their experience onboarding onto the project and efforts towards contributing software to the upstream nixpkgs project has resulted in significant improvements to documentation and processes at WEHI.
Dr Justin Bedo, Senior Research Officer
Luke, Yujean, Christopher, and Nandi worked on understanding the basics of sequencing and curation options under challenging circumstances.
Image of a person holding a compass in a outdoor forest backround in the pdf version.
Ian, Junwei, and Jiayuan helped to interview the subject matter experts and create a workflow diagram that showed the entire process.
Image of a person during a diagram on a transparent whiteboard from the PDF version.
Rui, Nguyen, Yutong, and Guoguo did an initial proof of concept that Marek from WEHI to use as a benchmark for his web app that went into production.
An image of a laptop with some code open from the PDF version.
Zilan, Nandi and James looked at testing and reviewing the proof-of-concept more thoroughly and adding more functionality.
Image of a group of three people working on a project with their laptops open at a table from the PDF version.
Sunchuangyu, Jude, and Sijia took Marek’s code and merged it with previous student works to help enhance the web app.
A picture of a person only showing two hands with two jigsaw pieces trying to put them together from the PDF version.
You can look at the RCP Discovery Program on the Research Computing website. This allows you to get a better understanding of the program.
QR Code that takes you to an internal WEHI Discovery Program page.
Rowland is always ready to chat by email or over Teams. 30 minutes is all that is needed to give you a good overview of what is needed.
Icon of an envelope from the PDF version.
There are many levels of engagement, from co-supevisor meeting with interns every week to meeting them once or twice an intake.
Icon of two people shaking hands from the PDF version.
You can apply for the next intake by submitting an Expression of Interest form. This is quite simple and should take 10 to 15 minutes to fill out.
QR Code that takes you to an Expression of Interest Form.