Reports
DATA SCIENCE, COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
Isabella Hansen @ Ada Growth Spring 23
Background
As a senior at DePaul studying Mathematics and Data Sciences having internships is important and I am looking for a career now. I thought the opportunity to have an internship in Vienna was a great addition to my resume and a positive way to learn more about what I want to do. I applied to Ada Growth for mainly one reason: to learn more about start-ups. I want to start my own start-up at some point in my life and I wanted to get a real look into start-up life and culture. I was looking for an internship as well that would add value to my math and data science degree.
Internship
My internship was with Ada Growth, which is an AI Tech Start-up company. Ada Growth has created an app for women in the workplace that allows mentorship through digital learning using AI and generative AI. My role at Ada was not set as most roles in start-ups are not, but my main objective was investor relations: I was responsible for finding over 75 investors that would be interested in investing in Ada for the start-up to be able to move into the next stage. I created new or updated pitch decks and also created the first Ada Growth one-pager. Along with being able to work with investors, I was given the opportunity to travel to Helsinki, Finland to the SLUSH conference. The SLUSH conference is the largest start-up and investor conference in Europe. Here, I was responsible for pitching Ada to investors and finding interest. I pitched Ada over 50 times and found about five potential investors.
Takeaways
One of the biggest challenges for me was gaining confidence. During my time, my mentor fully trusted me with these important tasks and gave me full control. I gained more skills than just confidence in my work and abilities. I learned how to craft pitch decks and not only make a pitch deck, but take the data and information needed and turn that into a story to tell investors. Another learning for me was how to craft a one-pager and how to present a one-pager to an investor in 5-10 minutes. These skills will never not be useful, no matter what career I choose for myself. Taking data and numbers and creating a story is a skill I will always need in any career. When I reflect back on my time in Vienna, my internship was definitely a top experience for me. I enjoyed working with Ada Growth and I believe they enjoyed working with me.
Justin Ross @ VICESSE Spring 22
Background
I am studying mechanical engineering and I’ve noticed that these days more and more mechanical systems are incorporating artificial intelligence. Whether that be in robotics, cars, or even watches. Therefore I thought learning about artificial intelligence and its impacts on society would be very beneficial for my career because not only am I learning the technical aspects which will help me as an engineer.
Internship
I worked at VICESSE which stands for Vienna Centre for Societal Security, a research institute which identifies security problems at an international level and proposes potential solutions. During my time at VICESSE I have been researching how Artificial Intelligence is currently used in warfare and how it will be used in warfare in the future and what concerns we should have. My task has been writing a research paper that highlights the concerns of the use of artificial intelligence in warfare and what we should be doing now to ensure that we stay in control of artificial intelligence in the future.
Takeaways
After participating in this internship I’ve learned so much on a professional level, an academic level, and a personal level. Academically, I have gained so many skills when it comes to conducting research. Also, this internship has made me more interested in artificial intelligence and I will definitely take more classes related to AI when I’m back on campus.
Advice for future Vienna Plus students
Make sure to ask a lot of questions so you know what is expected of you.
Jack Stender @ Eaton Spring 22
Background
As an electrical engineering student, my major aligns with the wishes of the company. Furthermore, my experience as a member of Engineering Ambassadors gives me a unique set of skills that lend themselves to the projects I completed.
Internship
Over the last semester, I have had the opportunity to work with Eaton as an Electrical Engineering intern. Eaton is an energy solutions company that specializes in everything from small scale hydraulics and individual power requirements all the way to large scale grids and aerospace applications. I was tasked with two different projects during my time at Eaton. The first one was to dissect and redesign a large scale reference design guide for data centers. The reference ensign guide in question is a document designed to be sent to potential clientele in order for them to make informed design decisions on a data center project. The document we started with contained over fifty pages of hyper technical information that was hard to read and generally unintelligible. The document will be a compact, clean, and readable document that will be an effective tool for Eaton as a whole. My second project was to write a short blog post for the Eaton webpage regarding how to most effectively optimize a data center.
Takeaways
Being a member of a team that worked effectively across three continents, each with a different and unique business culture, was probably the most informative part of this semester.
Advice for future Vienna Plus students
Be as organized as possible and communicate everything.