Internship Stories

Keiran Newman - LANCASTER CITY COUNCIL 

I'm working with Lancaster City Council in Morecambe, looking at putting together an automated tool for determining the location of channels in Morecambe Bay. The channels in the bay are very dynamic, moving considerably with storm events, but their layout funnels wave energy at different parts of the coast. The council therefore want to know how the channels are arranged following a storm event, so that if a further storm occurs, they can prioritise flood defence. I'm using satellite radar data with image processing in python to try and delineate the boundary between water and land at low tide. 

Elliot Carter - SNOWDONIA

It’s well known that Northwest England’s weather is not generally the sunniest, so with a weekend of glorious sunshine forecast, it was with some trepidation that two dozen first-year PhDs from the EAO DTP set off for the potentially less clement climes of Tan Y Bwlch in Snowdonia.
In the event, however, we were rewarded with a wonderful, rain-free Welsh weekend. 

As we settled into Plas Tan Y Bwlch, the sprawling former stately home and study centre that was to host us, it quickly became apparent that the upstairs-downstairs dynamic of times past
was not totally lost. While some (myself included) lorded it in rooms large enough to play host to a conference league football game, others had to make do with the former pantries and broom-closets they had been assigned. Despite the natural jealousies and tensions this provoked, we managed to avoid open hostilities and amused ourselves with star gazing, board games and discussing whether rolling down the vertiginous lawn would result in death or merely injury. 

Saturday was spent in the Centre’s lecture theater learning about each other’s research and practicing conference presentations. Particularly appreciated were the 2^nd year volunteers’insightful comments on our talks. The remainder of the weekend was happily spent walking along the Ffestiniog steam railway and, most excitingly, going to Bounce Below - a huge slate cavern filled with multiple levels of trampolines. Between trying to race around the whole circuit, bouncing as high as we could and a notable accidental somersault, it was exhausting and exhilarating in equal measure. All in all it was a wonderful rewarding weekend and we’d like to thank the DTP for making it possible and the staff at Plas Tan Y Bwlch for hosting us.