Participant: Ying He
SICSA Institution: University of Glasgow
Interned at: Fengcheng Central Hospital
The internship programme is very important for students who carry out user centred research as it allows the researcher to evaluate their research within a business context. As a start for the application consider who might be the target group of the research and actively build contacts within these organisations. My PhD focuses on user-centred security so it was important to reach target users in industry and obtain feedback to make necessary improvements to the business model.
“It allows the researcher to evaluate their research within a business context.”
Apart from the perspective of scientific research, networking with security professionals in industry allows me to build contacts and gain confidence in turning theoretical work into applied practice. The internship forced me to consider real industrial requirements to balance between the complexity and practicality of the business model. This helps me understand as a researcher that research has to be built on a sound practical basis.
1. Best thing you have worked on whilst on the internship so far: The organisations’ management team is very supportive. This allows me to take advantage of any resource that is needed.
2. One way that the internship has helped your research: It enabled me to have a deeper understanding of the proposed business model and the practical work in this internship creates another chapter of my PhD’s thesis.
3. One thing you have learned about yourself from the internship: In this internship I developed the skill to sell my research work which will be essential for commercialising my research work in the future.
4. Three skills you have gained from the experience: Conducting field studies within a healthcare context; communication skills; co-ordination between PhD research and internships
5. Sum up your internship experience in three words: Fruitful, Interesting, exciting
