Research internship (NWI-IMC047, 15 EC)

NB the administrative procedures to register for the research internship (and also the master thesis) have changed in 2022/2023 with the introduction of "Osiris Cases". We have updated the links for the admin procedures below, but it is good to double-check with the study guide or Brightspace for additional information.

In the research internship (NWI-IMC047) you carry out a research or R&D-type project in which you apply the knowledge and skills acquired in your Master.

A goal of the research internship is to gain experience in your future work field, in academia or in industry. It also gives giving you the opportunity to find out about a prospective work environment, and some experience in carrying out a larger individual project as preparation for the Master thesis.

Depending on your interests and your Master specialisation, you can choose to do the research internship internally in one of the research groups of ICIS or externally at some company or organisation in industry or the public sector. You can also do your research internship in an academic setting outside ICIS, for instance in a research group in another faculty of Radboud University, or at another university altogether. You can also do your research abroad, but be aware that requires some planning ahead.

Irrespective of the type of project, you will always need a `internal' supervisor who is an ICIS staff member (i.e. an assistant, associate, or full professor, or a lecturer). Even if you plan to do your research internship externally, start asking around to find an internal supervisor SEVERAL MONTHS before you plan to start!

There is a faculty-wide administrative procedure for the internships: to register in Osiris when you start and to submit your final report. This procedure is not only used for the research internship (NWI-IMC047) but also for the master thesis (NWI-IMC029). Confusingly, both are called `internships' in the terminology of our faculty.

FAQ
procedures and checklists for the student
procedures and checklists for the supervisor
procedures and checklists for the coordinator of the Master specialisation

FAQ

Can I do my research internship externally, with a company, a research institute or group outside ICIS or abroad?
Yes, this is possible, but you will always need to get an internal supervisor who will take responsibility for ensuring that your project contributes to the learning outcomes of the Master's degree program and is of the right level for a Master student.
How can I find an external organisation to do my research internship?
You can look for companies or organisations on your own, but you can also contact the coordinator of your Master track or other ICIS staff members for suggestions.
Who can supervise a research internship?
Any ICIS staff member (assistant, associate, or full professor) can act as supervisor. For an internal project, the supervisor may delegate the daily supervision to another member of the research group (for example a PhD student or postdoc).
What is the difference with the Master thesis?
Unlike for the Master thesis, the internship need not be a completely independent and stand-alone research project. The aim of the internship is to get some practical experience in carrying out (practical or academic) research, so this can be as part of a team and in collaboration with others. Depending on the specialisation and the specific topic this can take difference forms, e.g. doing a case study, trying out tools & techniques, developing tools or prototypes, or a combination of this.
What is the difference between the research internship report produced as part of the internship and a Master thesis?
For the internship report there are basically two options:
1. The report can be a mini-master thesis, and have a similar set-up to a bachelor or master thesis. It will then describe and motivate the research, the approach taken, the results, the conlusions that we can draw from all this, and reflect on the whole process.
2. Alternatively, it may be be better to spit the report into two parts: A) one part documenting the outcome/results of the work and B) a separate document that reflects on experience, describing what what you did and learnt. (See the template documents below for guidance on what should be in this.)
Especially if you do your research internship at an external organisation the second approach may be better. Part A can then be a report that meets the internal requirements of the host organisation (it could even in Dutch, if that organisation does not use English as the standard working-day language, though that will be the exception rather than the rule). For part B see the template documents below for guidance on what should be in it. You can then still choose to include part A as an appendix to part B. But if part A is some internal document of the host organisation there may be practical reasons not to do this. (Internships report are not published openly on the web, but they may be shared with future students on an ad-hoc basis.)
The second approach may also be better if the research internship involves group work or close collaboration with others, as in that case you cannot really present the outcome as your individual achievement. For example, in an research internship you might collaborate with a PhD student to write some technical report or scientific article together, which could then act as part A. It may also be better in a more practical projects where the main result is say some software prototype that is best described and documented separately from your reflection on the research internship experience.
Can I combine my research internship and master thesis?
If your research internship project turned out to be really interesting and worked out well, then you could consider continuing on it as a Master thesis project, if your supervisor approves. However, note that this is the exception rather than the rule, and don't count on it that this will be the case. And some supervisors will not agree to this.
Doing different things - tackling different topics, doing different kinds of research, and working with different people and organisations - for your research internship and your master thesis will give you a broader experience.
Also, things may not work out as expected: you may be fed up with the topic after your research internship, or with the people involved, or they with you. Moreover, there may not be interesting avenues left to explore that would be substantial enough for a 30 EC Master thesis.

For the student

BEFORE YOU START
Think about want to do your research internship and talk with possible supervisors. Depending on other courses you are still taking, you may want to do the internship half-time during an entire semester, or full time during one quarter. If you need help coming up with a topic or supervisor or, you can directly contact any ICIS staff member. If you do not know who to turn to, contact the coordinator of your Master specialisation:
- Martha Larson for Data Science
- Sven-Bodo Scholz for Software Science
- Ileana Buhan for Cyber Security
- Jurriaan Rot for MFoCS.
Your supervisor must be an (assistant or associate) professor or lecturer. For internal projects at ICIS, your daily supervisor can also be a post-doc or a PhD student.
In discussion with your university supervisor and, if you do your internship outside the university, your supervisor(s) there, try to come to a short (2 page max) project plan for your research internship. This plan should describe
- who is acting as supervisor(s);
- a brief description of the context of the research you will be doing, and some background info on this (this will typically include a review of some key publications);
- a description of the research activities you will be carrying out;
- the start and end date of the internship. The research internship is 15 EC (which equals 420 hours, i.e. around 11 weeks) so students typically do it full-time in one quarter, or half-time over a semester.
It may be unrealistic to include a very detailed planning for the research activities and more sensible to just list the different steps in the order that you will do them, or having several options here, for possible courses of action depending on progress.
ENROLL FOR THE COURSE IN OSIRIS.
As described on the faculty webpage for internships and thesis projects, you will then receive an email with a link to a form to fill out, possibly together with your university supervisor (you will need to provide the personnel u-number of your university supervisor). When you submit the form you also upload the project plan. You have one month to complete this form after you register in Osiris.
Also send the project plan to the coordinator of the master specialisation you are doing, i.e.
- Martha Larson for Data Science
- Sven-Bodo Scholz for Software Science
- Ileana Buhan for Cyber Security
- Jurriaan Rot for MFoCS
To get a desk in one of the student rooms, contact Simone Meeuwsen. You can contact her via S.Meeuwsen@cs.ru.nl or in her room M1.00.06.
HALFWAY DURING THE INTERNSHIP
schedule a meeting with your university supervisor to discuss how things are going and what the plans for the remainder of the internship are -- and if these need to be changed. (If you do your internship internally in the university, you will typically meet up with your supervisor more often.) Your university supervisor may require that you write up a mid-term review for this: a short document, in the order of 2 or 3 pages, where you reflect of the research done so far and look ahead on what you'd like to learn or try. Topics to address:
1. The process Which activities you have carried out, incl. how you have documented or recorded your work?
2. Results Which (preliminary) results and contributions were achieved? How did you document these so far?
3. Reflection & Evaluation What went well/not so well? What was harder/easier than expected? What bottlenecks/possibilities/new problems/new ideas came up in the course of doing the research?
4. Plans What is the plan for the rest of the internship? This can include skills you want to work at or try out, topics you still want to learn about, and plans for documenting the outcome.
AT THE END OF THE INTERNSHIP
Write up a final report. This can take two forms:
- The report can be a relatively short document of a couple of pages describing the process of what you've done, the outcome, and some reflection on what you have done and learnt. See below for more info on issues to address there.
- Alternatively - and your supervisor may insist on this! - your report can be more in the style of a self-contained document which documents the whole process and the outcome of the research in detail, in the style you will be required to use for your master thesis later. In the latter case, you can choose to address the issues listed below either in a final 'Evaluation' section of this full report or write that up as a separate short document. (But note that when uploading your report to the thesissubmission.science.ru.nl website, you can only upload one PDF document, so then you'll have to merge these two documents into one PDF before submitting them.)
Either way, issues to address in your final report:
1. Activities State the problem that you are addressing during the internship and why it is important. Include a discussion of the ethical aspects of your project, as relevant. Then, describe the activities you have carried our, incl. how you have documented or recorded your work. Describe which activities you have carried our, incl. how you have documented or recorded your work. Include a discussion of the ethical aspects of your project, as relevant. Then, describe the activities you have carried our, incl. how you have documented or recorded your work
2. Results What were the results and contributions? How did you document these?
  Only give a very brief description of the outcome of the research, possibly with pointers to places where more can be found about this. E.g. if you have produced or contributed to software, data sets, articles, technical reports, or other forms of documentation, then give pointers to these, but you don't have include all this in this final report.
3. Reflection & Evaluation
  Don't just evaluate and reflect on your results, but also on what you've done to get there.
  What went well/not so well/(not) according to plan? What was harder/easier than expected? (Either due to the subject matter, or your skills and experience.) Are there particular activities that you found hard or easy, or that you are not (or not yet) good at? If you were to start over on the internship, what would you do differently?
  Look ahead to your Master thesis, and to your future career: also given your experiences in the research internship, what kind of research would you (not) like to do for your Master thesis? Would you want to do your Master thesis internally at the university or at an external organisation? What are topics, skills, or activities that you want to work at during your Master thesis or your future career? Are there topics or activities that you want to avoid in the future? Or that you would to specialise in your future career?
WRAPPING THINGS UP AT THE END OF YOUR INTERNSHIP
Make sure that your supervisor at the university approves of your report. (If you do your internship at a company or other external organisation, of course also make sure any supervisors there are ok with the content.) Once your university supervisor has approved the your final report,
- Upload the report to http://thesissubmission.science.ru.nl.
- Give a presentation about your project. You can reserve a room for this by sending a mail to zaalreservering@science.ru.nl. In that mail, please indicate (a) the minimal number of persons you expect, (b) the date, (c) the start and end time, (d) the kind of activity, in this case, an internship presentation.
- Your supervisor will automatically receive a) two online evaluation forms, one of which (s)he can forward to the second evaluator, and b) the form (aka testimonium) to fill in to give you the credits for the course and ii) evaluation forms that (s)he can forward to a second evaluator. Once the testimonium is filled in and signed, either you or your supervisor can hand this it in to the Student Service Desk.

For the supervisor

For internal projects, the supervisor should involve student in ongoing activities in the research group such as group seminars, coffee breaks, etc. Ideally interns function as members of the group, allowing for optimal interaction. If there are several interns in the group, having Scrum sessions may be a good way to foster interaction.
For external project, the university should meet the student a couple of time - at least once roughly halfway during the internship - to keep an eye on progress and direction.
After students have completed their internship report and uploaded this to the faculty thesis submission website, schedule a time for a short (15 minute) presentation Announce the talk over the student mailing list for the specialisation, so that other students can attend to get some idea of possible research internship projects.
The supervisor is responsible for the final assessment, taking input of any external or daily supervisor into account. The supervisor should also find a second staff member to provide a second evaluation.
The evaluation forms are handled by online forms, as explained on the faculty webpage. If you you prefer to fill it in offline as preparation for the online edition we still provide a digitial copy here [PDF, DOC]

In one of the emails you get from the system after the student uploaded the last version of their thesis, is an attachment to fill in (with PASSED/FAIL, NOT with a grade).

For the coordinator of the master specialisation

The coordinator of the master specialisation should

help along the match-making of students and projects;
(remind supervisors to) announce research internship presentations over the student mailing list for the specialisation.
if students are finishing their internships at roughly the same time (as typically happens at the end of the semester), synchronise with the supervisors on a morning or afternoon to have all the presentations.

Research internship (NWI-IMC047, 15 EC)

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