Student Internship Experience | Ife Kuye

Last summer, we welcomed Ife Kuye to our Sales and Marketing Team for a three-month internship. Ife is a Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience student at the University of Nottingham, with a special interest in the intersection of neuroscience and artificial intelligence. Ife joined us during her university summer break, supporting the department as she gained new industry insights and experience.

In this article, Ife reflects upon her internship and her time working with us here at Random42…

Shortly after completing my first year at the University of Nottingham, I started my internship within Random42’s Sales and Marketing Team. This was an incredible, eye-opening opportunity into the world of medical communications, scientific animation, extended reality technologies, and the pharma industry.

I actively participated in a wide range of tasks, offering support to various teams, with a specific focus on assisting colleagues to target key pharmaceutical and biotech clients. I supported in marketing Random42’s core services to numerous pharmaceutical companies via targeted email outreach. A key success was scheduling a capabilities call, which allowed me to play a role in the initial stages of project development.

One of my favourite tasks was creating website case studies. I summarised essential information from past animations into easily digestible case studies, allowing the team to effectively demonstrate our capabilities to prospective clients. Faced with unfamiliar scientific concepts, I quickly developed the ability to learn and simplify complex information. This skill, essential for academic writing, will greatly benefit me in university essay assignments.

To enhance the website case studies, I edited animation clips into dynamic banner videos. This involved learning how to use Adobe Premiere Pro and applying these skills within a professional setting. Additionally, I gained hands-on experience with the Apple Vision Pro headsets and contributed to film and photography content for various marketing initiatives.

Throughout my internship, I researched pharmaceutical companies across a range of therapeutic areas – my favourites were within neurology, ophthalmology, and dermatology. As a Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience undergraduate, I was fascinated to see the work Random42 has created for neuroscience companies, in particular the interactive brain atlas. This is an educational website that allows users to click on different areas of the brain, rotate the brain, modify the number of visible layers, and gain information on its anatomy.

We also had a series of round-robin presentations on various subjects. One that particularly stood out to me was a presentation on fraud scientists and bad science. I also enjoyed learning about special effects (FX) and how it can help convey different textures and enhance motion. As someone who has been interested in animation since my childhood, I’ve loved seeing the combination of 2D and 3D animation, special effects, and a range of colour palettes to promote scientific storytelling and bring scientific concepts to life. For example, I learned about NRT (Nicotine replacement therapy) in A-level psychology, so to see it visually displayed in an animation was fascinating.

To conclude my time here at Random42, one of the most memorable experiences was undoubtedly Sports Day. It was amusing to see everyone’s competitive spirit during rounders. I particularly enjoyed participating in the relay race and tug of war, as my team was victorious!

Throughout this opportunity, I was able to improve my relationship-building skills. This included communication and transparency, giving realistic timelines on when I could turn work around, a skill I will find beneficial for my future university group projects.

I deeply valued being able to delve into the world of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and consumer healthcare to gain insight into the world of science. This internship has given me a new perspective on scientific communication, and how effective animations are in making complex concepts engaging and easy to understand.

Getting used to working full-time in this internship helped me develop a solid routine, increase my discipline, build resilience, and learn how to prioritise effectively. I will continue to use these skills going forward into the corporate world after graduation.

I am deeply grateful for this internship experience and the incredibly welcoming people I had the pleasure of meeting.