ADR Wales is proud to be a supporter of Swansea University’s Population Data Science Summer Internship Programme, which offers paid intern opportunities to people looking to get into careers in data science and the roles that support it.
This year a record number of ADR Wales thematic areas supported interns. In this blog, Ian Thomas, Academic Lead for the ADR Wales Housing and Homelessness theme, discusses his theme’s involvement in the programme and the opportunities it has offered to both the intern and the theme itself.
As with previous years, the 2025 scheme was highly competitive. A huge congratulations to everyone who was accepted onto a Population Data Science Summer Internship.
For my project, I was looking for someone to support the analysis of secondary data from Upstream Cymru, a school-based homelessness prevention programme in Wales. What makes Upstream Cymru unique is its use of a screening tool to assess young people’s risk of homelessness. Those identified as most at risk are offered tailored support. The tool gathers a wealth of data, providing unprecedented insight into risk of homelessness among young people. Our planned analysis aimed to uncover patterns in these risks.
We received 65 applications from individuals keen to work on the project. Narrowing this down to a final candidate was no easy task, particularly during the interview stage where the calibre of applicants was high.
Ultimately, we were fortunate to work with Samyuktha (Sam), whose contributions have been outstanding. Sam has approached every challenge with creativity and confidence, often transforming my vague ideas into workable solutions. Tasks that would take me weeks, if not months, in R were completed by Sam in just days. This highlights one of the programme’s greatest strengths: enabling teams to tap into the expertise of talented interns and expand their data science capacity.
But the benefits of the internship go both ways. The programme also provides interns with a valuable opportunity to apply their skills in real-world settings. Here’s what Sam had to say about her experience:
“My time as a Population Data Science intern at Swansea University has been an incredibly rewarding experience that has helped me grow both technically and personally. I developed my skills in R, particularly in data wrangling, multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis. I also gained a strong understanding of data governance, ethics and GDPR.
Beyond technical learning, this internship deepened my appreciation for the human stories behind data and showed me how research can meaningfully inform policy and practice to support vulnerable communities.
One of the highlights was presenting at the internship showcase event, an experience that challenged me to communicate complex analysis clearly and confidently. It was an honour to be recognised with the Best Research Project Award, a proud moment that reinforced my confidence and passion for data-driven research.”
We extended Sam’s internship for a further three months to take her analysis further and look at young people’s wellbeing and resilience, and whether these vary by different experiences of homelessness risk. Sam has also been exploring the creation of a downloadable data dashboard template to enable Upstream service providers to interface with their data to explore change in student experiences over time.
A huge thank you to Sam for her work, which you can see for yourself in the ADR Data Insights that have been produced based on her analysis.
Applications for next year’s Population Data Science Summer Internship Programme will be due in the spring of 2026. Please check the website for updates.