Communications, Networks and Branding - Six Months at ICCS

What a whirlwind of an experience! My initial summer internship in science communication allowed me to have a go at everything comms related, from writing up a research story to posting live updates on Twitter.

As soon as I arrived I was thrown into organising the Institute’s annual summer school. For the first time, I was on the other side of that administrative email that tells you where to go to leave your bags or attend a talk. I created signs and posters, going through the process of professionally printing a test and then cleaning up anything that didn't look good. Editing the participant handbook put my ability to focus on the details while under time pressure to the test. Each person had written a personal bio and I had to go through and change everyone's so that it was in third person, typo-free and in-line with their picture. It was funny to see myself on the list, as shown below.

During the summer school itself I was able to engage with the talks, listen in on panel discussions, and participate in networking events. Taking part in technical workshops and photographing the sessions whilst also managing the zoom channel for online participants proved to be unreasonably challenging so I focussed on distilling the main ideas of each talk. I then made sure to post regular updates on Twitter and keep a note of interesting happenings for an article that I would later write up. The summer school enabled me to get to know the extended ICCS team as well as affiliated researchers, such as the VESRI community with whom our research software engineers collaborate.

After this initial period of business, I settled into doing some longer form writing as well as setting up Instagram and LinkedIn pages for ICCS. I worked on cleaning up the website by adding in visuals, including an interactive presentation about what the team does and how they are connected to other virtual institutes and climate research groups. Unfortunately, the University is using a somewhat outdated website builder which made it harder to optimise the user experience. Despite this I feel that I've improved its look and feel. The website also now includes an updated 'Our Team' page which includes short summaries of a person's typical day at work as well as some hobbies outside of ICCS.

Being able to have a lot of autonomy over what I was working on was particularly exciting. Having recently made my first non-fiction documentary, I was keen on building on my editing skills. This led me to start on a promotional video for the ICCS homepage. I produced a draft version during my internship which I later re-worked and published as two separate videos. They highlight the importance of the Institute in the climate crisis as well as the role of the research fellows and research software engineers.

I also got to interview Laura Cimoli and Jack Atkinson for an ICCS podcast. The two editors of MathsPlus Magazine acted as my mentors, allowing me to discuss my ideas and learn from their experience making science content for public consumption. The episode introduces how climate modelling works from the perspective of a climate scientist and software engineer, highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and the niche that ICCS fills by providing a pool of computing specialists to help solve the biggest challenges of climate modelling.

When interviewing Laura Cimoli about her time as Co-Chief Science aboard a NOAA vessel, I learned about the measuring of the chemical composition of sea water in the North Atlantic. Laura oversaw the use of a special instrument that is lowered all the way to the sea floor like an anchor off the back of the ship, sending back continuous data to be analysed real-time. It has cylindrical bottles that shut at specific depths so that the gas and nutrient content of the water can be tested on board. To help explain this process. You can read about this on our blog.

My last week of the official internship coincided with a deadline for the annual report to be ready for an important advisory board meeting. I think this was a blessing in disguise as I was able to contribute graphics and practise writing using a more formal tone. I also re-designed the monthly newsletters and learned how to maintain an array of social media channels. Overall, I gained an insight into how ICCS is run and experienced first hand all the work goes on behind the scenes.

After the end of my internship I took a few weeks to finish up my master's thesis after which I continued on with ICCS, building on the momentum that I started over the summer. During these remaining months I've been focussing on developing a brand guide to ease the creation of future communications and ensure consistency is how ICCS presents itself, whether during a presentation to the advisory board, at a conference training workshop, or even on Instagram. I am proud of how our following and social media engagement have grown over time.

Working with the team has been absolutely brilliant, and I couldn't have asked for a better experience. I felt like a valued member of the team from day one and would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone at ICCS for being so kind and supportive throughout my time at ICCS.

Written by Aleksandra Higson