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Imperial’s first Data for Humanity Internship is underway, with ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ creating impactful, interdisciplinary visualisations for the Data Observatory.

Launched earlier this year by Data Science Imperial (DSI), the Data for Humanity Internship Programme aims to give ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ the opportunity to apply technical, analytical and visual skills to ongoing research projects at Imperial, helping to bring data to life.

The new internship programme offers undergraduate and master’s ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ the chance to contribute directly to the development of a new immersive visualisation platform and the DSI’s evolving visualisation strategy.

“Our interns are helping to shape the future of large-scale visualisation at Imperial,” said Kate Heyworth, Data Observatory Team Lead at the DSI. “They are already producing sophisticated, high-impact work that demonstrates both creativity and technical depth.”

New Interdisciplinary Visualisations for the Data Observatory 

Although the programme is still in progress, the interns have already helped to deliver high-impact visualisations to bring to life research from across Imperial.

• Predicting Wildfires Using Human Sensor Data

Building on research from Imperial’s Data Learning Group and the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society, Interns Elliott Dwyer and Hongyi Luo created a visualisation that maps social-media wildfire reports across the globe. Increasingly, social media can be used in disaster situations where users act as a network of ‘human sensors’, detecting and documenting events as they happen.

When combined with satellite data and physical sensors on the ground, this can help to identify natural disasters in real time. Elliott's dynamic map demonstrates the potential of human-generated data for rapid wildfire detection. Find out more about the research by reading this Imperial News Story.

• Bitcoin Transaction Mapping

Developed by Intern Roy Wang, this visualisation brings real-time blockchain activity into the immersive environment. The system ingests transaction flows from the Bitcoin network and visualises them as a constantly shifting, multi-layered financial ecosystem.

The visualisation allows for collaborative discovery of unexpected high-frequency transaction patterns, including automated laundering operations or possible attacks on the Bitcoin network.

• Network Mapping for Academics at Imperial

This interactive network visualisation developed by Intern Rose Cymbler explores academic links across Imperial. Users can search for academics, filter by research topics, zoom through collaboration clusters, and identify new opportunities for interdisciplinary work. This builds on work and uses their tool ALMa - Accelerating climate innovation using Language Model based Analysis that helps to identify high-potential climate innovation hiding in plain sight. 

• Mapping the Global Mining Landscape

A geospatial tool developed by Intern Hongyi Luo shows mine locations worldwide; the visualisation allows filtering by mineral, company and region. It highlights the environmental and industrial significance of global extraction activities, demonstrating the Observatory’s ability to support research and policy conversations. This visualisation is developed in partnership with the Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials.

Immersive Large-Scale Data Visualisation at Imperial

Data Science Imperial is home to Imperial’s flagship Data Observatory facility. Scalable-resolution display environments such as the this offer an important opportunity for joint data exploration and decision-making.

The facility has limitless possibilities for extracting new information and insights about the universe, including enabling the simulation of field excursion experiences in areas not currently accessible to humans.

As the internships progress, the DSI will continue developing the student visualisations and plans to showcase them in a dedicated event later this year. Several of the prototypes are expected to evolve into long-term strategic projects for the DSI.

The success of the inaugural cohort highlights Imperial’s commitment to training the next generation of socially engaged data scientists and to ensuring that data can be used to advance understanding, innovation and global wellbeing.

Find out more about the Data Observatory and if you are interested in working with us on a project, get in touch with Data Observatory Team Lead Kate Heyworth.