Tomorrow is going to be the last day of our 10-week internship at Optos. These past weeks have gone by so fast. Today we presented our experience and results from our project on enhancing blue autofluorescence for retinal imaging to the company, including the CEO and CTO. It has been a very nice way to summarize our experience and reflect on everything we have learned.
I think that working as a Research and Development (R&D) Intern at Optos has had a wonderful impact on my career and gave me more clarity on what I would like to do in the future or what it is like to work in R&D. We have been exposed to different aspects of the company like HR, Intellectual Property, Quality Assurance, IT, Finance and we have networked with a lot of people from these departments. We participated in the PI Planning, and it was very interesting to see how different teams communicate and collaborate towards a common project and how that also matches with business needs. We have met apprentices and graduates from different departments and learned about possible career paths. We have met employees of the company from abroad, for example, the clinical team from the USA. We visited the ESC, which is responsible for production so that we could see how the machines were assembled and tested before shipping. Additionally, we had very empowering individual conversations with the founder, CEO, COO, and CTO of Optos. Also, we worked and met daily with the optomechanical team.
Working on a project that had a real impact on the company was very motivating and uplifting. Our project focused on investigating different photon detectors to enhance blue autofluorescence in the context of retinal imaging. I was able to apply and enhance a lot of skills that I acquired at university and learn new ones. Ula and I worked as a team on lasers and optics daily. We have also developed a lot of codes for image processing using Matlab, used CAD for the design of parts, logged our data and observations in a lab book daily, wrote a report in Latex, created an A1 poster with a summary of our work, and presented PowerPoint updates of our work to the optomechanical team.
We have worked with a lot of people in the R&D team, and we have been supported and mentored daily. I have always felt very welcome and comfortable to share all my ideas. I have been treated like a colleague and it was amazing to be able to brainstorm solutions with the rest of the team. This has been an incredibly uplifting and insightful experience that has enhanced my skills, allowed me to network with a lot of people, and given me a clearer idea of what career path I want to take.
I would like to deeply thank Optos and Saltire Scholars for this opportunity and for always being so welcoming and supportive. I deeply enjoy working in the medical field, using physics and engineering to come up with solutions that can improve people’s lives and sight. I think that this is a field where I can see myself working in the future.
