Internship
Cummins Turbo Technologies – Kate Powers

Type of internship:

I was hired as a “Summer Placement – Engineering” student by CTT for 11 weeks. I worked on three different projects across two teams:

  1. I helped in creating a 1D model for a turbocharger turbine (using my experience in 1D modelling for turbocharger compressor from my PhD research). I checked their equations/assumptions, found correlations for parameters, and suggested a change to the coding to improve speed (which has been partially implemented).
  2. I helped with data analysis for a pulse VG turbine reaction study, and created a plotting tool to speed up the time taken to produce analytical plots.
  3. I was asked to replicate an excel optimisation and plotting tool for turbine performance in MATLAB. There were still some errors in the code when I left, but it was able to optimise over all three variables instead of just one.

Kate’s reflections on the placement: 

I gained insight into what it would be like to have a career in industry. It was great to experience the culture in the offices, and the learn about processes they use to progress research and development projects.

During my time at Cummins, we created a collaboration and they continue to help me with my research. I gained data to validate the current version of my compressor model. With the expertise of those in the company, I was able to identify some missing physics (diffuser stall) and started implementing this during my time there. This was completed once I returned to Bath, and a continued collaboration has further helped me in my research. Since the placement, I have been in email contact, and have been to visit them for a fortnight. They are currently supplying equipment to enable me to do some experimental testing for my PhD work. I hope to visit them again before the PhD is over.

I was also offered a sponsorship, where Cummins pay me some money during the final years of my PhD on the condition that I take a job with them once I finish. I have really enjoyed my interaction with CTT. They have been enthusiastic and supportive, and have helped me way beyond my expectations. I would definitely recommend future activities of this nature.

Feedback from Kate’s supervisor:

The secondment at Cummins was an extremely positive experience for Kate as it validated her research both giving her confidence that it was a practical model for applications, and providing data to calibrate her model. It opened up new questions and directions of research and provided her with additional support for the remainder of her thesis.

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Institute for Mathematical Innovation – Allen Paul

I would absolutely recommend such an experience...to get an understanding of how valuable mathematical research can be in such a diverse set of problem domains

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HSBC – Anna Senkevich

Doing an internship during my PhD was a great way to learn about opportunities to apply my technical skills to high impact real-life problems in the finance industry and to secure a permanent role in the team I knew I enjoyed working with

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University of Oxford – Chris Dean

...this placement has built a long-lasting collaboration for me which I believe will be extremely useful if I pursue academia in the future

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The Alan Turing Institute – Gianluca Detommaso

It has been a fun and constructive year...being away from a close supervision for one year helped strengthening my discipline and independence

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Mediatek – Paolo Grazieschi

My research will benefit from this because I experienced a different and differently organised environment, with other ways (but similar) of working together to achieve the desired goals

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University of Bath, Department of Psychology – Nadeen Khaleel

The opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary team where I was communicating my work to people from different departments was invaluable for my work beyond my PhD

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Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – Laura Oporto Lisboa

I was able to meet amazing people from different backgrounds that helped me so much understanding the work and made me feel welcomed

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UK Health Security Agency – Jason Wood

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It was a great networking opportunity and a chance to experience what it would be like to work for Roche as a company.

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Cytel – Robbie Peck

My communication and collaboration skills benefitted from this experience, and I learnt about the working environment within a private company in the software industry

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